Context - I booked my son a $300 party package at this arcade. We originally were only inviting neighborhood kids because the party only covers up to 8 children. (Food, drinks, game cards, laser tag) but all the parents of the kids that told me they were coming, suddenly can’t (besides 1) He has 5 friends in his class, that he wants to invite badly, (I do not have their parents contact information to ask outside of school) but I’m so worried that it will hurt his classmates feelings or make them feel left out. However, I can not afford to take all 22 kids to the arcade 🤣 I obviously don’t think his entire class would show up if I sent everyone an invite, but I’d be worried more than 8 kids would, as it’s a very popular place where I live. I just don’t really know what I should do. I’m just worried only one kid will be able to come ):

Hi, I am 25F, married 27M with a stepson M4. We have him 50/50 so I am a massive part of his life. I constantly feel like I am doing everything wrong. There is nothing in my household that should "traumatize" him at all. We live in a very loving, clean household. He has everything and more than he needs. We are super paitent with him and constantly make sure we break the cycles our parents did that traumatized us. But, as I have gotten older and heard people's stories of "being traumatized". Some of the stories I hear people will say "when I was in highschool, my mom grounded me for 6 months and wouldn't let me have my phone, it was traumatizing and I hate her so I don't talk to her." here's an example a real life example: my husbands sister is "traumatized" by her father bc "she made her work when she was 17 to buy her own car" after her dad bought her one at 16 and she wrecked it. She does not speak to her father AT ALL because of that. She claims it was child abuse because she was still in school. And it 100% traumatized her. I feel like so many people now a days are just cutting off their parents for just no reason. I understand being traumatized (I have 2 dead parents, I get it). But I am scared that I am going to try everything I can to give him and amazing life, but I live in fear that he's going to turn 18 and hate me bc I "traumatized" him by grounding him? It just makes me really nervous and I am trying to find the happy medium by being graceful and paitent with him, but also making him into a decent human and not a brat. I am just terrified. Everyone gets on the internet and finds a video on tik tok and it's almost like a fashion trend to be "traumatized."

I don't know if this post makes any sense. If you have questions please comment and I will try to elaborate. :)

So, my 5yo daughter attends a kids' swim class at the YMCA. The class is a mix of boys and girls, aged 4 to 7, and there are two teachers who take care of them.

The older teacher, who's in her late twenties, is really touchy-feely with the girls in the class. She's always picking the girls up and holding them close, putting her hands on their butts as they climb up the ladder out of the water, touching their chests and butts to adjust their swimsuits, and accompanying them, even the older girls, to the restroom when they need to go.

The other teacher, who's in her late teens, never does this. She only touches the kids when it's necessary, and she only takes the little kids to the bathroom. My daughter has said several times that she prefers the younger teacher, but she won't go into more detail.

So, what do you think? Is this inappropriate? Should I talk to the teacher? Or am I overreacting?

I don't know how to put this down, but my relationship with my parents has deteriorated a lot since I became a mother.

Before becoming a mother myself, I thought my parents were excellent. But now, seeing how my mother treats my child, I realize many things that make me remember my own childhood with sadness.

My mother was a stay-at-home mom, and my father worked very few hours each day, from 9-14, so we were a close family. I have a brother eight years younger than me. I always thought we were the perfect family—no alcohol, no divorces, no spanking. My mother cooked every meal.

The only fault I saw was that my mother forced me to eat. I vowed never to make my children eat against their will because of my experiences. I remember spending two hours alone at the kitchen table while everyone else did other things.

As my first child grew up and my second was born, I began to see many things I disliked. When my daughter (now 5 years old) spends any amount of time with my mother, she comes back talking to me "aggressively," mimicking my mother. Maybe "aggressive" isn't the right word, but my mother talks to her harshly, constantly telling her she’s disobedient or criticizing her behavior.

When she draws, my mother dictates what and how she should draw. When the kids eat, she turns on the TV and feeds them herself, even though my daughter is 5 and my youngest is almost 3. She does this to make them eat faster and cleaner. While I can accept that because they stay with her maybe 20 days a year, she tells my older daughter to lie to me (e.g., "don’t tell your mother I put on the TV," "don’t tell your mother I gave you chocolate"). She convinces my daughter that lying to me is okay.

She has told my daughter that she loves her more than her brother, which creates conflict between them. I can't understand why she makes such harmful comments. My mother explained that she told her because she was crying—?! The worst part is, it's true—she does love my daughter more and treats them differently. When my second child was born, my parents didn’t even visit during my maternity leave because my older daughter was going to daycare. They didn't come to see me or the baby, only my older daughter.

She puts them in front of the TV all day and lies to me about it, even though the kids always tell me the truth. She never lets them be creative, and she isn’t a companion; she’s just taking them places. She dislikes gentle shoes for babies, breastfeeding, and kids being barefoot at home. She gives them unhealthy food because they’re thin and sugary juices.

She did all of this to me too but I think worse. I couldn’t choose anything as a child and she always had a critical comment. When I got an A in math, she'd ask why it wasn’t an A+. She told me she wasn’t my friend, so not to share my personal stuff with her (I was 9 or 10, and it destroyed me). She clearly preferred my brother, and I still believe she does. Everything I do with my daughter now brings back memories of my mother's harsh comments. All of them were unintentional and meaningless to her, as she loves me, but I am a really sensitive person.

She never calls me; she only makes video WhatsApps to see the kids, who are children and don’t want to speak through the phone, which makes my mother angry.

My mother and I never had good communication. She doesn’t listen and often says the opposite. Because of this, I’ve been very silent with her my whole life. I can’t talk to her about anything. When I call, I just listen to her talk about cleaning and cooking. She has no empathy for us as parents and doesn’t understand that we both work full-time jobs and take care of two little ones.

There have been other "problems" in our family that have eroded our relationship further. When our daughter was suspected of having a genetic disease at 18 months old, they came to help for a month. I offered to take unpaid leave, but they insisted on helping. They stayed at our home for a month, then we went to their home for another month while we worked. After that, they were exhausted and didn’t want to help anymore. I understood, but it pained me.

Two years later, I herniated C5-6-7 and lost the use of my right arm and hand. I couldn’t take care of myself or my two young children. They went silent and didn’t call me or my husband for three weeks, avoiding any requests for help. That just killed me.

They were 58 years old at the time, with my father retired since 52.

I don’t see my parents the same way anymore, and I don’t know how to fix it.

Has anyone else's algorithm started showing them Wiggles thirst trap videos? These are not the Wiggles of my youth lmao

Hi!

I begin with a triggerwarning regarding suicide, mental health and bullying.

Well I am technically a widower even if we never married (marriage isn't that big of a deal here in Sweden) with two daughters now aged 12 and 14. The situation regarding their mother's death is that something happened, we don't know what and she got into a psychosis three years back and trashed our appartment before taking her own life, all while the kids were at home. The older one have had a real tough time with it as she got badly bullied at school as she was known as "the daughter of the psycho" while also dealing with the trauma as she did protect her little sister during the ordeal as i was at work when it happened

The problem now is that here in Sweden we don't celebrate Halloween that much yet, even if it is on uprising but on All Saint's Eve wish is tomorrow we light candles and place on the graves of our loved ones or in case you can't visit a grave, you place it in the Memorial Grove wish pretty much every cemetary have.
My oldest daughter have said that htis year she doesn't want to light a candle for her mother as she doesn't deserve it of how she destroyed our lives and even said that she hates her. This in turn have sown some discord as the younger one want things as we have done every year and I don't know what to do. To emphasize how bad it is, the older one is usually pretty quiet and introverted like me, but regarding this she have had outburst of anger wish in turn upset the younger one. And I try to validate that none of them are in the wrong as both has the right to their feelings and have tried to meddle between them.

I want to clarify that she want to come with us to the cemetary as we have other graves to light a candle on to but not her mother.

So any tip is welcome on how to deal with it. I have had one thought and that is to save their mother's grave for last and that the older one go to the church as they are offering "fika" wish is coffee/tea/soda and cookies and we meet there after. For those wondering you can google Swedish fika to see what it is.

Something I have lifted withg her psychiatrist is also that when she feel that when and if she is ready that she and i shall go togheter to her mother's grave and that she can sort of tell her mother mother what she feel about her. But she isn't in that space yet so need a solution before that.

I’m the more active parent in our home, bringing a lot of the nurturing energy while my wife is focused on her career and Master's program. It's deeply concerning to me that my child has essentially created no maternal bond with their mother. My flexible outdoor job allows me to spend more time with our child, but I’ve noticed it’s created a lot of resentment between us.

I can’t shake the feeling that my wife might not have truly wanted kids, and now I’m contemplating separation. I don’t want to disrupt our child’s life, especially since they seem to prefer my company—they often snuggle with me, cry nonstop when I’m not home, and seem anxious when I’m away.

I’m starting to wonder if there’s a deeper, even unspeakable, issue here with the bond between my child and their mother. Have any of you experienced something similar? How did you handle it?

I am here for advice, well maybe not advice exactly but at least to hear thoughts of people who are not involved. I am (42) and my son(25) is high-functioning autistic. He has gone through HVAC schooling. About a year and half go he started dating his girlfriend (25) who we will call Moxie. He was so excited to introduce us. She had already met his siblings (he has 9) and some other family. She came over. We talked she seemed like a nice person. I asked how they started dating. What she told me was: That when he posted that he was now a journeyman. She messaged him and told him he finally made enough money to take her out. At this point they had been dating for about two months or so. When she asked if I like her. I told her that I would do like her but if she hurt my child. I would not like her. That I do not forgive easily if my children are hurt. She said she was so excited to be close and doing things together. He was excited that we like each other. Over the next few months. I have always been close with all of my children. All together I have ten. J(26) B(25) D(25 Moxie is his girlfriend) T(22) A (21) K (16) C(13) S(10) R (8) L(5) also B husband H (25). I had different siblings of his come and tell me that they worried about his relationship. That they did not like Moxie. Some of the interactions I was told about.

She was at his sister B house. Moxie talking about get pregnant and married. So he would buy her a house. This was his siblings first time meeting her. B and H were outside in their back yard visiting with J and T. It was their sibling night that they try to have once every couple months. She told his A sister to leave their sister B’s living room. So she could make out with her brother. Literally shoot her away, and said leave so the adults can play.

Him and his older brother J had plans to go to a concert out 4 hours out of our town. She came along. She sat in the front seat while he drove his brother in the back seat of his small car. She kept looking up different lingerie on her phone asking him if he would like it or not and different sexual things.

She set it up so that D best friend would walk in on them having sex. D best friend talk to J about uncomfortable it make him feel. Later we found out that before she dated D. She has sex with D best friend and a few of their other friends. Though all before she started dating D.

The at a family gathering she kept calling D a little bitch. Examples “Little bitche go get me a drink.” “Little bitch come here” This was outrageous to us.

When we talked to D about all this he said he would talk to her. That he was sorry she had made everyone uncomfortable. He wants the family to let go and move on. He says he not being verbally abused. That he is going to marry her and have children with her. That she is the alone women that will ever want him.

Our family is as big and complex as the next with two sets of parents. We have always worked closely together to raise all 10 of them. Our family is so divided. Some just want to go a long to get along. So not to push D away. Even to the extent of letting Moxie call them Mom/Dad. Others do not want to be anywhere that Moxie is. I just do not know how to handle the upcoming holiday season. Our family has always been so close but there just doesn't seem to a way to fix this.

Hey, so I have 3 kids 15B, 13B and 11G. My eldest was recently diagnosed with ASD, and while my other 2 kids ‘understand’ what ASD is they don’t really ‘understand’ what that really means for functional day to day life. I’m struggling with division of chores. My eldest is capable of completing tasks most of the time but not always. The other kids think it’s not fair when he doesn’t complete chores. In the end I really want to have clean dishes. Now it’s divided between, 1) unload 2) load 3) clear and set. This rotates daily but because one chore relies on the others it almost never gets done. I don’t know how to make this work, obviously this is not working. There are 5 of us in the family and I feel like I have to ‘do/be responsible for getting things done’ please help.

Like the title says. Husband and I have three kids and we live a few states away from my mum. Mum has recently retired and we invited her up here to live with us.

Now we've had a bit of strained relationship and there was a mess divorce between her and my father. She also didn't have the best childhood and that showed up painfully in her own parenting. She's not well physically now. She's also mentally unwell. She probably isn't going to see out much of her retirement.

Our son is also terminal, but still is well enough to be at home with us and goes to school. He look normal and acts normal for now, mostly.

But with all that said. She's sold everything and is coming to live with us. I haven't really seen much of my mum in years and she doesn't really know the grandkids.

I like to think that she will be kind and hopefully enjoy her retirement up here and get to know her grand kids. However she does have a lot of trauma baggage. She's also been a bit flaky. She'll do some down right odd things. Sabotage, lying and general back stabbing including self detrimental / detrimental to others behaviour. Like, I've got my reasons why we live a few states appart. Other members of the family call her crazy and I'm mad about it but I can't deny it either. She's something else.

I am just praying that this is all in the past and that we are going to have a wonderful few years together and make up for some lost time. I am in my healing era and I think she is too. It's not easy to leave everything behind and move to a new place. This shows me that she is honestly trying to making things work and that she does want to have a good relationship with us, I think.

I think impending death makes people reflect and I hope that the past can stay in the past. She hopefully has a couple of good years left and my son is currently well. You wouldn't know he is terminal looking at him. I want to think that everything to go well.

I'm just shit scared it will go belly up. I just had this wave of anxiety today.

Do you think the past can stay in the past? Do you think impending death can help people be more wise about how time is spent / less petty and mean?

Part of this is mental Illness. I know she'll have her moments of mental unwellness and I will try to help her link in with good support.

How would you prepare kids to deal with an older person coming into their lives who has some baggage?

It's going to be interesting and challenging at times, but I am praying for a happy end of life time for both of them.

I like to think that when my mum passed and my son passes that it'll happen close together and I will know they they'll have each other on the other side.

Does anyone have any experience with their retired parent/s moving in?

Does anyone else have a similar situation?

Is this a terrible idea?

I know I have some shitty times ahead with both of their health failing.

Mum, I also think wants to make sure that the grandkids are looked after as she wants to help us with a home deposite. We pay a huge amount of money in rent and cannot save up a deposit. She peppered to do the deposite and we can handle the rest as we both work full time. We meet all other requirements with our bank otherwise and have never missed rent or got I to bad credit. However combining finances could complicate things if all goes badly.

However it makes sense. I think she knows her time is near. She's paid for her own funeral and told me about all the arrangements to be made and where her ashes need to go. I think she just wants to spend her final years close to family and know that the next generation is going to be ok.

I want this to go well so badly. It's been almost two decades sense my mum and I lived together.

I'm so nervous.

Ok so we have a 5 months old baby and we haven’t traveled as a family of 3 yet. I was really hoping to fly out to the Bahamas mid November for a 4-5 night stay at this nice hotel with beach service (not all inclusive and no cabanas). I am just trying to figure out the logistics of it. We can not put sun screen or the baby yet from what I’ve been reading. We can definitely put him in overall swim suit, sunhat and under large beach umbrella. Would only morning hours at the beach work for us? Or can we layout mid day also? Do we mostly baby wear or just carry him in our arms around the hotel? We will bring Doona for the airport but what do we do at the hotel for an easy access to the beach/pool and back to the room?

Tonight I am taking care of a 13 year old girl, 11year old boy 8 year old girl and 5 year old boy. I was planning on putting on a movie. What are some suggestion for this age range?(The 11year old and 8 year old can never agree on something to watch so I need suggestions!) TIA!

Hi All,

I recently quit my job due to extreme work pressure and it had started impacting my physical and mental health. I used to take anxiety pills with my family knowing about my mental condition. My father has always been emotionally absent from my life and my mother has leaned on me for support always. As a good daughter, I have always gone out of my way to keep her happy and even took over my father's responsibilities. However, offlate I have been feeling that she is using me now, it's festival time in India and knowing that I don't have a job, she pressurized me to buy expensive gifts for relatives and my sibling. She calls them over for dinners and given all of them are from well to do families, I need to order from fine dining restaurants as their kids otherwise crib a lot. I see their dad's support them financially but mine doesn't and I need to pay bills that ideally parents should be paying. She has always put additional mental pressure on me. I am unmarried and hence a lot of these responsibilities fall on me automatically. I have an elder sister who hardly shares these responsibilities. She went through trouble in her love marriage and blamed the parents. Hence, we don't openly share our lifes with her and it has become a superficial relationship. I even need to pay for the stuff that goes to her in laws, who further crib about the value of the gifts given to them. I have ignored these things for years, but now given I don't have a job, these expenses stress me out and I feel I am being used as my efforts are also not reciprocated. Am I wrong in thinking this and it's just a phase which will pass once I have a job.

So I have a 2.5 year old and a 6 month old. My spouse and I have been fighting so much lately and I feel like it makes me anxious and unsure and double guessing myself. We rarely fought before kids. I’m guessing it’s just stress of being of early parenthood. Any tips to keep calm n cool and keep the romance alive?

Longer story with more details below. We have terrible relationships with our own blood families so we are both aware of our trauma and conscious how we want to raise our kids in a loving environment. Neither of us yell or name call. I love my wife. She is my soulmate. We are just both cranky right now. Probably due to lack of sleep. We don’t have any family to help so it’s on my wife right now to take care of our youngest. I drop the oldest off at day care and make breakfast and lunch. She is taking 1.5 years off and I will take 1 year off of parental leave after. So whoever is on parental leave does dinner. Cause the eldest and I don’t get home till 530pm. We order in on the weekends so we can all enjoy family time.

Anyways, the fighting is so annoying and I feel like I’m in the dog house more and more. She is stubborn to ask for help but when she does it’s like immediately. So if I don’t stand up immediately or tend to the wrong kid she gets huffy. I know I’m not perfect but I need to figure out how to stop feeling so irritated because then I’m not smiling with the kids and I love them so much. It’s dumb fights. Like the eldest won’t sit for dinner so I try to negotiate but my wife gives in way more than me. My wife will say “I’ll just do it myself” I mess up doing the laundry and she is rude about it. (It’s paid and I forgot I did 2 washes and only dried 1). It was 1 time, otherwise I try to do laundry when I work from home. When I do work from home I dick around way too much taking care of the baby and it stresses me out. Then she says I complain that I haven’t done any of my work. I want to help a bit but man not half of my 8 hour shift. I take my time in the morning for breakfast because the eldest gets cranky if I rush her and I don’t want a crying kid the 25 min car ride to daycare. I don’t want to disturb my wife and baby in the morning but of course we do make noise getting dressed and eating breakfast. I always take out garbage, change diapers, put baby to sleep on the weekends cause I know she does the nights and my wife refused to bottle feed the baby so only breast. And I can’t do that. I never lay on the couch to rest. I hear about all these deadbeat dads and I am not one of them I’m just frustrated. Need tips. Sorry to vent.

Hi mommy’s and daddy’s, our baby has some serious gas pains and one of the solutions our pediatrician suggests is gripe water. If you use this, when are you giving your baby the gripe water?? The directions state “give separately from feedings” and not to mix with formula or breast milk.

I’m not asking for medical advice, just curious how others are using this. My thought was to give her this when she’s doing tummy time and 30 mins before eating.

I need a little advice maybe I shouldn’t feel this way but I have two young children my so has two young children as well. But in my heart I want one more I want to feel that feeling one last time. My pregnancy with my first kids didn’t go so well with their father. And it’s not like I am trying for another kid and he knows that if it happens it happens. But I told him we need to talk about this because it’s what you should do in a relationship. Somthing deep down tells me he is protecting his youngest daughter’s mother. He favors her compared to his oldies but he knows how I feel about wanting another child. But last night he says he don’t know how the kids will see it or if their will be jealousy. I got upset and said my kids are ten months apart they won’t his oldest daughter has five other siblings to another woman. I said it would be his younger daughter. Who would be jealous but what I learned with having kids back to back is let the other kids help with the youngest idk. How to feel maybe I want something that he don’t want and maybe I need to talk to him more or let him go

My daughter’s behavior was so bad that I screamed and screamed at her. I lost it. Completely flipped. She’s 6. My patience was gone. And now I am hating myself. Please tell me I’m not alone.

when did everyone allow baby to have sleepovers at grandparents? my partner and his mother want baby to go stay there but i am still breast feeding at night, he is mix fed in the day he’s 4 months old

Hi, I am not a parent, therefore I am seeking for some advice on the following situation:

A good friend of mine has a 6 months old daughter and asked me to meet next week to draw together, which is a hobby of us both. It was planned that her daughter would be laying next to us so that she can take care of her, while drawing. Now she asked me if it is OK that she invites another friend with a baby at the same age as her daughter. She hopes that the babies will play together. I am a little confused as my impression is that the baby is to small to play with another one. The last time, she could hardly be without any body contact to her mum. Therefore, I am a little worried that it will turn out into a baby meeting with me beeing the third wheel.

Do you have any advice? Maybe I am wrong and the babies will be happy together?

I have a delightful 21 month old who, for at least a year, has had episodes of purplish lips. It typically happens when he’s getting out of the bath or is just cold in general. Obviously this is something that can happen with everyone, but I never really noticed it with my older son. I mentioned it to his pediatrician, who chalked it up to him being very fair-skinned (like me) and said that if it was something more concerning like a heart defect, there would’ve been other symptoms appearing by now.

A couple of weeks ago, his daycare teacher mentioned that they noticed his lips were purplish-blue after nap (the room was cold) and then went back to normal after they snuggled him to warm him up. Then last night in the bath, there was this weird episode where he was cold, and then when I put him in the warm bath water his arms from the elbow-down turned a purplish color, and stayed that way for about 20mins. His knees were kind of a mottled-purple, too. I work in the medical field and suspect he might have Reynaud’s disease.

All that to say, tomorrow I’m going to take him to the pediatrician. From what I can tell, Reynaud’s (assuming that’s what he has) is fairly benign and most of the treatment is just preventative. Does anyone have experience with this in their kids, or for themselves? Apparently it’s pretty uncommon in children but this has been ongoing so I’m starting to wonder.

I have two Toddlers and only trust my Mom to watch them both. My two sisters and dad have watched my oldest who is 2, but I feel having them watch both kids would be way too much. Getting someone I don’t know to watch them doesn’t seem like a safe option to me.

Just curious to see if anyone else is struggling to get a break because there is less than a handful of people that can watch your kids.

Thanks, An exhausted Dad

I have an amazing set of boy/girl twins (11 months old) will be a year in a couple of days. (yes I have my hands full lol)

Recently this past week I have noticed my girl grinding her teeth at random times during the day, I had no idea babies this young would/could grind their teeth. She only has 4 teeth! I have been trying to stop it by giving her teethers (the cool ones from the fridge, plain ones, textured ones, a ton of different varieties) to chew on or even binkys but she is not a fan of the binky unless she is sleeping and loses interest in the teethers very quickly to where she will just throw them to the side after only a couple of minutes. Aside from the fact that hearing her teeth grinding is like hearing nails on a chalk board, it cannot be good for her little teeth!! Any advice on how to get her to stop or lessen the teeth grinding?

Now onto the bigger issue, recently over the past week or so as well the girl has become a biter and has bit her twin brother on a couple different occasions (thankfully not bad enough to draw blood but enough to leave some teeth impressions and make him cry). I try to stop it and prevent as much as I can if I see her going towards him to bite but these little babies are FAST sometimes. I try the same thing I do with the teeth grinding of offering teethers and binkys but the same problems arise of her just refusing them. When I see her go to bite the couch or me or her brother I will firmly say “no bite!” Or “no biting!” But since they are still so young I don’t think it registers as much as it should yet so she’ll just kinda look at me and try again not too long after. Are these just regular baby to toddler teething symptoms? Is it a phase she will out grow? How do I get her to stop biting is a real concern for me. Any teething advice is very much appreciated!

Can I get advice on how to best communicate that spoiling a child (teenager) and not maintaining any responsibility for them is not love?

Baby girl is going to be a cabbage patch doll for Halloween. What should mom + dad be? Considered being nurses to play on the whole “BabyLand General Hospital” (cabbage patch doll hospital) thing but wasn’t sure if people would get it 😂 help!!!

Pic is our inspo for our girl.

I am a new mom (sahm) and my LO is 3months. Before having her I wanted more kids (like 4) now I am leaning more towards maybe just 2. Can you guys share how many kids you have and if you wish you had more or less and why? I would love to get some perspective on this.

hello everyone, i wanted to ask how your children coped w your divorce? i wanna know because i had to go through whole of therapy and i was coping with unhealthy ways and also if you ever wished you couldve stayed married for your kids?

Hello mom of 3 currently only have roughly 40ish dollars for groceries to last us til the 10th when my food stamps hit what are y'all's fave super cheap meals ?