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For me the whole Santa thing is simply a fun fantasy to buy into as a child. I hadn't thought about the whole nice/naughty thing - as far as I remember that was never a part of it for me when I was a child. Probably won't be with Amelia, either.Konomex posted:My daughter, who will be four months tomorrow, has decided that she wants to crawl. She cannot wait. She started doing what other parents are telling me is called a commando crawl but I've taken to describing as 'the sort of thing you'd see a paraplegic doing who fell out of his chair' but she kicks up with her knees as well. I find that once they get something into their head - some new activity - they run and run with it. Moving is pretty fundamental, so it applies a lot to this, and yeah, I think frustration at not being better at it straight away is pretty normal. Now she's started, though, I very much doubt it will be long before she can reliably commando crawl. You might be surprised at how quickly she becomes able to move quite fast, too! If you haven't baby-proofed your house where required (stair gates in particular) now might be a good time to start thinking about it.
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Dec 11, 2012 16:33
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PXJ800 posted:My older daughter is 3 and a half and recently we've been talking about strangers. She's good about parroting the "never talk to strangers" rules but recently she's been asking questions about how strangers act, the difference between "mean" and "nice" strangers, and how to define a stranger (after a neighbor she didn't know said hello while we were walking around the block). Now. Now is the time to start her weapons training.
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Dec 11, 2012 17:28
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Hi, thread. Posted in here a couple of times, but I thought I'd introduce Amelia. She's 13 months old, and this pic of her having just caked herself in chocolate custard is the most recent I could find. She's not walking yet, but her speech is developing nicely. She's a proper assertive little madam when she wants to be, though we're starting to assert boundaries a bit so she gets used to the idea that she can't always have everything her own way. She's a very good-natured little girl and adores music, our dog Dylan and passing me stuff I don't need.  Valdara posted:A friend of mine just had a baby (5 days old) and has asked for more swaddling blankets. Other than buying flannel and hemming it myself, what are the favorite swaddlers in here? She said at least 32" was needed. We ended up using grobags, like the ones here. They're nice and convenient, look cute and you don't have the worry that they might come loose and end up over the baby's face (though that risk is of course much less severe with the little breathing holes baby blankets have). Plus you can use them long after swaddling age. Amelia still sleeps in one.
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Jan 21, 2013 15:23
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Well, Amelia's started walking. Amazing how quickly they take to it once they take their first few steps. She's meant to be having a nap at the moment, but I can see her on the monitor standing at the end of her cot (she likes to mess around with curtains). Just been in there twice to lay her down after she's lost her dummy - each time after I leave she's straight up at the frigging curtains again. So annoying. She should just give in and fall asleep soon, though. No Butt Stuff posted:The 4 year old was a dream last night. We just talked, played some games, watched The Princess Bride, and she went to bed with no issues. Here's hoping every night can start being that easy. I'm looking forward to watching The Princess Bride (among other stuff) with mine. 4 seems young though - was she scared much? Did she enjoy it?
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Feb 24, 2013 16:05
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How have people here tackled teeth brushing in young ‘uns? Amelia’s 15 months now, but she’s been pretty resistant to it ever since she’s had teeth. She normally tries to eat the toothpaste, then protests as we try to actually do some brushing. This seems to be getting worse, if anything. Obviously we can get firm and do it anyway, but we’re both worried about her ending up with a complex about it, and it’s not nice forcing her to do something that ends up with her crying. I imagine this isn’t too uncommon, so was wondering what tactics people might have employed to make the whole process easier.
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Mar 17, 2013 12:51
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Thanks for the replies so far. The lap thing could work, though it wouldn't help when there's only one of us around at bed time. Might be worth trying. I could see an electric toothbrush freaking her out a bit, but will bear it mind. Brushing our teeth with her sounds like a good idea for the obvious reason that she learns it's something that all people, including her parents, do rather than some sort of nasty thing we're inflicting on her for no reason. We do normally eat shortly after her bed time though, which isn't ideal. It could be a good way of making it seem fun for her, though, which would go a long way towards making her accept us doing it.
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Mar 17, 2013 15:41
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VorpalBunny posted:For the first 12 months of his life, we used a plastic brush that fits over a fingertip. We did it every night and we changed the Winnie the Pooh song to "brushing those teeth" to make it more interesting. We then moved on to a child-sized toothbrush and brush his teeth after giving him his nightly Poly-Vi-Sol (a liquid vitamin supplement). We don't use anything more than the brush and some water. His pediatric dentist said most kids under the age of 2 don't need toothpaste, and the stuff that is ok to swallow is mostly garbage anyway. He said that, until my kid learns how to controllably spit, a plain brush and fluoridated tap water is fine. Ben Davis posted:Our ped told us not to worry about toothpaste until Kosta figures out how to spit, so we just do water! We always sing the same song: "Brush, brush, brush your teeth, brush them every day! Brush them up and brush them down, brush the plaque away. Brush, brush, brush your teeth, brush them all day long, brush them up and brush them down, so they grow in strooooooong" to the tune of Row, Row, Row Your Boat. :3 It's really silly, but he knows the brushing lasts as long as the song (which we stretch out as needed). Sometimes he's a squirmer and hates it. If he's having a rough day, giving him a second toothbrush to hold helps a lot. When he's teething, I just wipe with a wet washcloth, because he gets super sensitive to the bristles. I've never tried it, but my wife did the song thing for a while and it worked swimmingly, until suddenly... it didn't. Think it's worth trying again though, by both of us this time. She loves Row Your Boat, so I might actually have to nick that one. I've also discussed the electric toothbrush idea a bit more with my wife. Might be a good way to get her to do it herself more. She's a bit old for the finger brush thing now, though I'm surprised I never thought of it in the past, given I used to use one on the dog when he was younger. Lots of good comments, thanks.
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Mar 18, 2013 00:22
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Amelia's starting nursery tomorrow morning - can't believe we're at this point already. Just two mornings a week to begin with. It's a lovely Montessori in my village and should give her a fantastic start. Hope she's OK with it - we've been reading her Spot Goes To School (I don't know if Spot the Dog exists in the US, but his books have been around at least since I was a child in the UK) to prepare her, but she does want to go anyway to be like the slightly older kids she knows from the childminder. Forgot to get her a bag, so I've just been to the 24-hour Asda to find one so has a proper one on her first day. Only managed to find a lunch bag, which may be a touch too small. It's Peppa Pig though, which she loves, so hopefully my wife can make it work in the morning. 
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Jan 9, 2014 02:01
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Those with little girls, what term do you use with them to refer to their girl bits? I was thinking that we really need to settle on something so that we have a word we can use with Amelia. The other day while changing her nappy I decided to try "front bottom" just for the hell of it. Only problem is that I had forgotten that she doesn't always pronounce her "r"s, and she cannot yet do "f", instead substituting a "c". Her effort had me laughing for a good few minutes as a result. "Vagina" seems quite cold and clinical, but maybe we will just go with that.
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Jan 17, 2014 11:50
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Ben Davis posted:Front bottom is hilariously bad! I agree, although I've heard much worse. "Secret tummy", for example. I'm generally resistant to cutesy/twee terms too. A friend of mine still sometimes uses "tooty" (the "oo" pronounced short like in "would"). It makes me want to vomit on her. She's in her 50s. "Privates" works well, actually. Can't believe that one didn't occur to me before.
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Jan 17, 2014 15:16
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Axiem posted:As for the butt, we just call it "butt". When I was little I was always minded to use the British equivalent, "bum", along with "willy" for my pork sword. I remember being encouraged to use "bottom" and "penis" by my mum, though. I don't really have a problem with those terms, though Amelia uses "bottom" at the moment. I think we might just use "privates" for her girl bits and then move to more specific terms as she gets older.
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Jan 18, 2014 19:52
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Apparently some people think that's a bad word or whatever, but to us, it's just what that part of the body is called.
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Axiem posted:Our 2-year-old has gotten it in her mind that she wants to turn on/off the overhead light in her room by herself. At the moment, she drags over her rocking horse and climbs quite precariously on it to do so--conveniently also blocking the door to her room in the process. Why not get her a bedside nightlight instead, so she won't have to climb anywhere to turn it on or off? Alternatively, get her a gro clock, like my daughter has. These provide a little bit of comforting light at night, and are educational too, helping you get across when it is and when it bloody well isn't time to get up. It's a UK company, but their website says they sell them in the US too. OneSizeFitsAll fucked around with this message at 10:33 on Sep 23, 2014 |
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Sep 23, 2014 10:29
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Tiny kids barf so much, parents get inured to it fairly quickly. Also at least when it's a baby it's just milk - that makes it seem less gross, at least to me. My 4-month-old laughs whenever he pukes on me, which I find kind of hilarious.
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Sep 25, 2014 11:02
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My 6-year-old cracks me up sometimes. She has a habit of coming out of her room after bedtime, sometimes for good reasons, sometimes for bullshit reasons. My wife has very short patience for when she does this, due to the often bullshit category of reason. We bought my daughter some ear defenders a while back for when we go to fireworks displays. Recently I was sitting in the living room about 8pm, and my daughter appears, wearing her ear defenders, giving me her reason for being out of bed (I forget what it was). Bemused, I asked her why she was wearing the ear defenders. Her response was, "When I come out of my room, mummy sometimes shouts at me, so I wore these in case she turns up." I should point out that while my wife could sometimes be a bit more patient, she is hardly a raging dragon, but in any case now half the time when my daughter comes out of bed she is wearing the ear defenders.
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Jun 27, 2018 10:34
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His Divine Shadow posted:Ok we let our kids use smart phones from time to time, we got old ones without a sim card they can youtube stuff with. Has anyone else noticed kids have really weird tastes? They spend loads of time just watching videos of people demonstrating various ring signals, or most recently they seem to be fascinated with church bells ringing. Less strange I guess is watching firetrucks and police cars etc. driving aorund with sirens blaring, that stuff is gold apparently but it makes more sense than church bells. Mine like watching videos of people unboxing toys, surprise eggs and the like. Also vids of people playing with toys, particularly LOL Dolls. Seems like crap to me, but probably less weird than the stuff you list, but I would probably be weirdly proud of them liking offbeat stuff. I go through phases of watching rollercoaster POV videos - they saw me one time and then got into it as well, asking for it on subsequent occasions, which amused and pleased me. They are rarely allowed to watch Youtube poo poo anymore though and their screen time generally comprises actual programmes or a bit of gaming. Youtube is allowed now and then - we're not fundamentally against it or anything. OneSizeFitsAll fucked around with this message at 15:28 on Oct 9, 2018 |
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Oct 9, 2018 15:25
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I think there's a qualitative difference between a programme with a plot, characters and basic structure, whether from today or my own childhood, and a video of someone unwrapping a toy and chatting stream-of-consciousness mundanities while they do it. Not that I don't get what you're saying, nor, as above, do I think that means the latter should not be allowed, but I'd definitely rather more screen time was spent on the former.
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Oct 9, 2018 15:54
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Irritated Goat posted:I'm pretty sure we lost my son's favorite stuffie last night. I wasn't paying attention to if he had it or not and we left it in a cart at Target. Don't beat yourself up. There are so many millions of considerations taking care of children, as well as just running our daily lives in tandem with their myriad needs, that inevitably parents will sometimes make a mistake. It's unfortunate when this happens to mean the loss of something important to the child, but it hardly makes you a bad parent. The very fact that you feel so bad about it is evidence that you are otherwise. I managed to leave my daughter's cherished nighttime toy at an AirBnB place not long ago. To compound it, on the way home, we stopped at a soft play and she took in a toy, then promptly lost the lower half of it (less my fault this one, though I should have stopped her taking it in). Luckily, the staff found it later and sent it on, as we had left our details, and the AirBnB hosts also sent the cuddly toy, but I did feel rotten that I had managed to leave it there despite doing the usual sweep to check for missing things (should have checked with her she had all her soft toys packed), especially when she was crying about it the evening we got home. It might be a bit harder to retrieve it from a Target, given their size, but hopefully your wife has some luck. Any chance you can just replace it otherwise and tell him you found it, or will he not be fooled?
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Nov 28, 2018 18:18
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Cheesus posted:What blows my mind is that these aren't strangers; they're family that he sees every month or two or less as shown in these examples. And at daycare, they loving wake him up to stay on their schedule. It's likely that it's because they aren't strangers that he feels comfortable enough to throw a fit. Kids behave worse for their parents (and, I would speculate, close family they know well) than the likes of teachers/nursery workers because when they're with parents they feel safest and most secure. I know the behaviour is a pain, but it'll pass as he grows and in the meantime take it as a compliment that your bond with him is strong!
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Jan 4, 2019 15:43
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Nanny issues, nanny issues. Must vent. Our last nanny was fab - really no complaints at all, but she changed career and we had to find someone new last Autumn. Because we only offer a part time job, and because of time constraints, we only had two candidates for a replacement. We chose the one with better references and who seemed more reliable (everything else seemed much of a muchness between them). Since starting she has been off work 8 times. Our previous nanny was off once in two years. poo poo happens sometimes, and you can't help getting ill, but that is a lot of absences, and she is supposed to tell us by 7am on the day of absence and pretty much hasn't any of those times. They weren't all for illness either - one was because of a huge argument with her partner (and father of her toddler, who she brings to work), and one was because her older son from a previous relationship has behavioural issues at school. We have since learnt that this intervention didn't work, and social services are now involved. This ties in with the relationship with her new partner, whose own children from a previous relationship have been horrible to our nanny's older son, to the extent of him having to move schools. They, and her partner's ex, are also apparently horrible to our nanny, and her partner's family support the ex, apparently because they are worried they will lose access to their older grandchildren if they don't side with the ex. On paper, this sounds like a good reason to let her go - she has let the situation with her son get to the point where social services are involved, and yet we pay her to look after our children? Problem is, it's hard to gauge how much is her fault, given the apparently awful bullying behaviour of her ex's kids and the generally lovely situation for her older son. I'd say it's questionable whether she has bonded that well with our kids and whether they respect her. My 4-year-old said quite unexpectedly this morning that he has not settled with her! My 7-year-old clearly doesn't respect her as much as she did our old nanny. Things seemed to be improving on that front, and she does seem generally good with them, enforcing boundaries and also playing with them etc. However my wife asked them on the way home from school today what were the positives and negatives about her. She deliberately did this in as neutral and non-leading a way possible, and they had no positives to say at all, and a bunch of negatives. Finally, we have a pre-paid card which the nanny can use to take the kids out, do things with them etc. Last month she didn't have her card and used it to buy some groceries. She told my wife and my wife deducted it from her pay - no problem. She did it again not long after and told my wife afterwards. Sorted same way. This weekend she did it again, but didn't contact my wife. My wife blocked the card, and she then made another attempt! I don't mind her using it in an emergency and then obviously settling the difference, but it seems to have gone a bit beyond that. Lots of things are a drama with her. When her daughter was ill the other week she was messaging my wife about it on a Sunday. It's her responsibility to find childcare for her daughter if she can't bring her to work - there was literally nothing we could do about it; she just needed to sort it and then come into work, which she eventually did, but only after unnecessarily taking up a bunch of my wife's time on a Sunday. We've discussed firing her, but it's hard to find nannies at short notice with part time hours, and anyway we want to be understanding and supportive employers - she is a nice person who wants to have stable employment. So we told her we wanted to do an appraisal, scheduled for today, where both she and we could discuss what was working well and what wasn't. She was clearly worried about losing her job after we scheduled this, based on some texts she sent my wife. Then yesterday we find out she can't come to work (about an hour before she was due, again in breach of her contract and obviously very inconvenient for my wife and me, who both work). Due to the situation with her partner she is moving out of their shared place and is packing her stuff. She tells us she has a doctor's appointment this morning, apparently to get some anti-depressants. Then this morning her mum calls us, telling us she is not herself and she might need to take this week off (she works Monday through Wednesday). As we've been not entirely satisfied, my wife had already put out some feelers on a childcare website, in case anything good comes along. What do you know, today we are messaged by a lady who was my daughter's teaching assistant in Reception (first year of school in UK, for rising fives). She had a baby and left the school last year as a result, and is now looking for part time nanny work where she can bring the baby. This lady is lovely, knows my daughter, was a TA at her school, has wonderful references from the school's headmistress and deputy head - everything about it is great on paper. We are interviewing her this Thursday. Now we have to decide whether to try and weather this out with the current nanny. She does have good qualities - she is kind, she plays with the children in varying ways. She shows initiative - for example one time when the kids were engrossed in a game together she cleaned some of the fridge (which needed doing). She was supposedly pretty reliable before this current patch just after starting with us. But my wife thinks it's likely she will make up with her partner and have another fall out a few months down the line. Plus the other issues each raise their own question marks. Plus the lady from my daughter's old school would be a much better choice - if she'd been a candidate last Autumn it would have been no contest. I now know that she wasn't signed off with stress this morning (which would have make it hard for us to fire her). She was prescribed anti-depressants, which would also I am told make things a little trickier, though less so. Having said that, we have lots of reasons to end her employment and none of them are due to her being stressed/on anti-depressants, both of which we are sympathetic to in and of themselves. I think we also have evidence that we were unsure about her even towards the end of last year. This crap has taken up far too much of my time and I'm getting a bit sick of it. But you can't ignore the importance of this role. She is looking after the two most important things in my entire universe, and while I hate the thought of firing someone and affecting their livelihood (we fired our very first nanny for safety reasons - it was a much more cut and dried decision than this - and I still felt dreadful about it), and it would be a terrible blow to her on top of her other issues, my kids must come before anything, naturally. Not really fishing for validation either way - I mainly wanted to vent - but any opinions are of course welcome.
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Jan 15, 2019 18:18
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butros posted:
A friend of ours who runs a nanny agency said basically the same thing. She's supposed to look after our children - we're not supposed to look after her (usual employer responsibilities aside). sheri posted:They are your kids! Bottom line, innit.
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Jan 15, 2019 21:22
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^^Yes, good point, and we would have done this anyway. We're interviewing the ex-teaching assistant tomorrow, along with another candidate for good measure. My wife emailed social services asking them if there's anything we need to know, given their involvement regarding her competence in relation to her son and the fact that she looks after our children. They will probably need to look into her being a nanny. The decision has been made in any case - we are definitely ending her employment, and expect to probably (barring some unforeseen issue arising at interview tomorrow or the other candidate being even better) employ the ex-TA ASAP, maybe starting next week. My wife was told by ACAS (organisation giving advice on workplace rights and responsibilities) that the social worker thing was easily grounds for dismissal, and that the using-the-card-for-groceries thing could be grounds for dismissal for gross misconduct. As she asked before using it the first time, and isn't a bad person, we don't intend to do this, as it would mean no pay at all upon severance, rather than the month's worth stated in her contract, and we don't think that's fair on her. In fact my wife was suggesting we give her two months' to ease things for her which, given her circumstances, I am contemplating agreeing to do. She may lack competence but she is a kind person in a lovely situation, even if it may be partly of her own making. I am excited by the prospect of going back to having an excellent nanny, and I know my daughter would be thrilled at having her old TA as her nanny, if that works out.
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Jan 16, 2019 13:30
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baquerd posted:If you do this, at least get a non disparagement and agreement not to sue out of her. How does that work (am in UK)? Just draw up a document to sign making the extra severance contingent on that? I would worry that suggesting it could put ideas into her head - I'm not sure she'd have the wherewithal to sue us/take us to tribunal anyway, though this might make it more likely if we went for that agreement and she refused (as unlikely as I think it would be that she would refuse an extra month's pay).
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Jan 16, 2019 16:10
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Oh god, due to the averaging of her wage over a year it looks like she might actually owe us money.  Gonna have to work out the exact state of play and determine how generous we are going to be in our course of action.
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Jan 16, 2019 20:27
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Nanny update, if anyone's interested: My wife took the day off work today to fire her. We were concerned she wouldn't come in - normally she arrives at 2pm to do some household stuff then go and collect the kids. Her mum ran us yesterday when she was moving stuff out of her partner's house. Her mum made a point of mentioning "her depression" and put her on the phone to tell my wife she'd be in today. My wife felt like they were trying to manipulate her but handled it well. She then rang this morning to ask if she could go straight to pick the kids up from school, but my wife said no, we need to have a chat. So she arrived half an hour early and my wife did the unpleasant deed. She asked why etc, there were some tears but apparently she generally took it well, and looked at it as the opportunity to get back on her feet, which is a pleasingly healthy and positive outlook. I had been dreading how it would go, and offered to come home from work to be there with my wife, but she said it wasn't necessary and she felt supported just from the offer, and in the end it went about as well as it could have. She also offered to pay the money back from the wage averaging, but we told her we didn't want that. We are giving her a month's payment in lieu of notice and not taking anything back from her apart from the money she took from our debit card and some unearned holiday. My wife also advised her that in future jobs that the card thing would be a real red line and though we weren't making a big issue of it, someone else could and it could constitute gross misconduct, and therefore termination without notice. I hope she took it on board and that she gets back on her feet and manages to sort out her problems. My wife asked her to text us in a month or so to let us know how things are going. On the happier side of things, we interviewed my daughter's ex-teaching assistant on Thursday. We offered her the job on the spot and she accepted. We filmed the kids' reaction to the news to send to her - my daughter literally danced with joy and my son, although he doesn't really know her, seemed very happy, partly in the way that younger siblings take the lead from the older one. She was delighted with the video and said she was excited too. On informing them we have received very positive responses from the school's headmistress, deputy head (who congratulated my wife on us employing her) and my daughter's current teacher. She starts tomorrow and we couldn't be more delighted. It was very gratifying to see the kids respond so well and to know they will (barring unforeseen issues) be happy with their nanny again.
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Jan 21, 2019 15:35
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Heners_UK posted:General advice to stop your 1 year old pooping in the bath? Not sure there's much you can do other than wait for them to grow out of it. The bath relaxes them and sometimes this leads to poos. You can't really ask a 1-year-old if their bowels are empty and it's safe for them to have a bath. It happened a few times with my eldest; the final time she was old enough to be a bit perturbed by it. She was saying "poo-poo in bah" for a couple of hours afterwards. Weirdly it never happened once with my younger one. He was an all-round easy baby, though. From stories I'd heard I was worried about the challenge of changing his nappies vs his sister as I'd heard I stood a good chance of having to deal with him pissing all over the place, but it never happened. Bottom line, and I think this speaks to a lot of issues I read about in here: it gets easier and these things will pass as they get older. Like the illness thing. It's stressful as hell when your tiny kid is suffering, but this is par for the course when they're really little. I remember a period of about two thirds of a year when my daughter was ill practically without any respite - one cold followed another. I remember her screaming when she had colic and my wife and I looking at each other helplessly (again, never happened with my son). But it all passed, their immune systems became less puny, the bowel control reached civilised levels and now all of that is is water under the bridge. There are new challenges, of course, and more complex ones, but that's part of the journey of parenthood.
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Feb 4, 2019 13:46
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Bollock Monkey posted:I don't know if this is the place to ask this, but the discussion has prompted me to so here we are... How do you get over the fear and decide to have kids? I was always super motivated to be a parent, really romanticised the whole thing as I'm sure a lot of young women do, and then I started growing up and becoming aware of just how loving hard it is, all the time, for ages. It's not helped by the fact that my partner and I are very much in the minority in our friendship group for wanting children, so I've not been exposed to close friends who have kids all that much - other than my one very honest, very tired, very stressed friend whose little one I've known since he was a baby. Hiya. I'm not sure you will quell that fear entirely. Although I wasn't afraid I didn't feel particularly ready, and I don't think most people feel 100% ready when they have kids. Leaving the hospital after the first birth, my wife and I looked at our tiny baby, and thought, "gently caress, they're just letting us leave with this thing - no instruction manual, documents to sign or anything." And it is tough, but you learn the ropes, through a mixture of advice from healthcare professionals/ family/friends/books/internet and just using common sense and working stuff out. Yeah, some people fail at this and are terrible parents, but the thought you're obviously putting into this and your clear desire to do a good job if you do go ahead suggests to me that you're very unlikely to fall into this category even if, like all of us, you make the odd mistake along the way. At some point, if you think kids are overall something you want, you have to bite the bullet and do it. And yes, it will be hard. But it will get easier as time goes by, as well as more and more fun and rewarding. Parenting my two now at 7 and nearly 5 is challenging, yes, but so much less so than it was a few years ago, when they were much less able to be reasoned with, much more liable to injure themselves if left alone, and had much punier immune systems. Only you and your partner can decide ultimately if it's for you, but be assured that we all find it tough, we all find things to worry about, and we all (most of us anyway) would not change it for the world! Good luck, whatever your decision.
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Feb 25, 2019 16:17
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Sibling relationships can be so cute (when they're not driving each other crazy). My 5-year-old son has a piggy bank in the form of a treasure chest. My 7-year-old daughter had this idea to send him on a fun little hunt. She made a treasure map and a scroll at school. So he didn't recognise her writing she got a teacher to write the scroll. It was from "Captain Blackbeard" addressed to my son, saying that he had hidden my son's treasure and he had to find it. When we got in from school I distracted him for her while she hid his piggy bank in the spot that her map indicated and left the scroll where the piggy bank normally is. She then engineered a situation where they "found" the scroll; he came downstairs to the kitchen excitedly showing me the scroll and the map, getting me to read it out; after I did she then helped him find the piggy bank with the map. I don't think he realised it was her behind it all. It didn't take him long to find it at all, but the whole thing was as hell, both his excitement and her having the idea in the first place to do something cool, creative and fun for her little bro. 
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Mar 14, 2019 17:32
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I agree the "stigma" of needing fertility treatment is deteriorating, as society becomes more progressive and more and more people actually need it, due to waiting until later in life before having babies. Having said that, IVF is stressful, expensive and for the woman very invasive. From that standpoint I'm not surprised people don't want to talk much about it if they are undergoing it, especially if they've yet to have success. On the other hand, my company owns a drug which is used during IVF to increase the chances of pregnancy occurring, and when I meet people for whom it has worked they are normally delighted to talk about it, especially if they think the drug made a difference. They are just so grateful and happy to finally have a family, and I'm always so happy for them too. On another note, my kids went out to play on the trampoline last night just before bed. It was about 6.45pm and maybe 7 degrees Celsius outside. After chatting to my wife about something I look out the window and my eldest (7.5 years old) has completely stripped and is naked! She's always been a hot bod and prone to removing clothing, especially at night, as a result, and OK she was jumping on a trampoline, but this was outside in the evening on a not particularly warm day and her younger brother didn't feel the need. She's a nutter.
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Apr 5, 2019 11:30
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VorpalBunny posted:Adorable! I love watching my kids transition from toddlers to little kids - they use grown-up phrases on each other and try to reason like big kids. It's pretty darn cute. Slightly later stage of development, but my wife and I were watching Avengers: Infinity War one evening the other week, at probably too high a volume, and my 7-year-old walks in and announces she can't sleep because of all the "graphic violence".
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Apr 18, 2019 17:27
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Leng, I don't know if the idea in this article might help? I haven't tried it, but a lot of people (including some parents in my son's class) have done it and found it made a big difference to their kid's anxiety levels.
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Jun 12, 2019 10:16
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Leng posted:That is a great article and great idea! We'll try this tomorrow, hopefully it works! Good luck. Hope it does!
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Jun 13, 2019 13:58
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Leng posted:Tried with no luck. Ah, that's a shame. I know it's your job to worry and nothing I say will stop that, but try not to so much - it will all get better and easier (including the separation anxiety) over time. I'm sure you're doing a great job and you're absolutely not alone suffering these hardships and concerns, and yeah sometimes it seems like everything piles on at once. Just keep being there for her and doing your thing. Regarding having more than one - on some levels obviously it's more work, but also they do occupy each other (particularly if they're close in age and generally get on), which can be a help. Plus you get the pleasure of seeing their interactions and the growth of a lifelong bond between them.
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Jun 17, 2019 14:11
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KingColliwog posted:We have a groclock which is pretty much the same thing but a bit more evolved I guess and it is amazing. My kids still have their groclocks at ages 5 and 7.
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Jul 18, 2019 21:47
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I didn't really feel much when I heard the heartbeat or even felt the kicks. It wasn't until my eldest came out and cried that it really hit home. Even then, the intensity of my love for her and then her brother has grown a trillion fold since then. I will also say that I suffer from depression, which sometimes manifests as anhedonia. When this surfaces the only thing that never fails to bring me joy is my children. Not saying you are me, and it doesn't "cure" anything (there is no magic cure for depression) but I'd be surprised if, over time, your child didn't make your life better, and if you didn't rise to the challenge of being a good father. In conjunction with all the avenues of support you may make use of. Wishing you all the best, and don't shy away from continuing to use this rather excellent thread as one of said avenues. OneSizeFitsAll fucked around with this message at 18:32 on Jul 20, 2019 |
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Jul 20, 2019 18:28
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You've done nothing wrong at all and I think you know this on a rational level but perhaps the intensity of parental feeling, maybe exacerbated by the PPD, is giving you these guilty thoughts. This issue is pretty common - it happened to both of our friends' children, and they had to wear corrective helmets, which are I presume more noticable than the bands. I don't think it prevented them from taking pictures and while it's your choice you may regret not having done it down the line, especially for such a big milestone event as a 1st birthday. She's still your daughter and those memories will still be special, regardless of whether she was visibly being treated for a minor medical condition. In the future you will likely look back at the photos and smile. FYI the treatments for this issue are normally very effective; our friends' kids had completely non-flat heads pretty much straight after removing the helmets. Don't fret - parenthood is full of challenges and setbacks and this will not affect her life one bit in the long run.
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Jul 31, 2019 15:04
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What age would you guys show your kids The Princess Bride?
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Nov 3, 2019 15:26
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PerniciousKnid posted:This isn't really an answer, but I don't really think too much about showing my kids my favorite media. I guess I figure they'll see it whenever I'm in the mood to rewatch it. I feel like if I'm trying to showcase the classics, I'll overdo it and/or just get frustrated when they don't appreciate it. I tend to overthink stuff. Mainly I just want to make sure a. That it won't frighten them too much (a bit is OK) and b. It won't sail in its entirety over their heads (some of it inevitably will - they don't have to get every layer or anything). Sweet Custom Van posted:Maybe 5 or 6? The torture scene and the ROUS might be a little intense for littler kids, but you know your wee ones and what they find scary. Yeah, although the ROUS is faintly ridiculous, the abruptness of the attack is quite startling, and a crap puppet is less obvious to a small kid. The torture scene and the disfigurement discussion (Westley's "to the pain" bit near the end) were question marks in my mind. My youngest is 5 and a half, eldest is (practically) 8. I think the older one will love it. In fact she's been asking to watch it since I mentioned it a while back. Younger one will probably enjoy it - it does have a lot of excitement after all, and he does fencing at school at the moment, which dovetails nicely with that duel. He may get restless at some parts, but not the end of the world. He can pick next time. I showed them both Labyrinth last weekend. Both loved it. Princess Bride has some more grown-up stuff in it though, and is a special film, so I wanted to not rush it if it was too early. Probably fine though. I think I was between their ages when I first saw it, on its release. True to the initial lack of success, my friend, his mum and me were the only people in the entire cinema.
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Nov 3, 2019 21:06
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AngryRobotsInc posted:While there can be some general guidelines on age appropriate media (very, very general), it also is going to vary kid by kid. Whether or not your kids are ready for a particular movie has less to do with their age and more to do with their level of maturity. While that's tied to age to a degree, it's not absolute. One eight year old might be scared or not understand something, that another would be fine with. I think that all goes without saying. It's interesting to see what other people have done, though. It's not just maturity, either. Kids can find some things more scary or tense than others. My daughter, for example, is not that bothered by violence, but we had to stop reading Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone when Harry was sneaking around the school in his invisibility cloak. Basically she embodies the Hermione line, "you could have been killed, or worse, expelled".
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Nov 3, 2019 23:29
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BadSamaritan posted:I actually lucked into a really decent, sane, science-literate mommy group through The Bump, of all things. As far as pregnancy forums went they had pretty strict community standards and were happy to call woo out for what it was. My wife is a GP and is part of a FB chat for GP mums. She loves that group and I don't blame her - the participants are generally very intelligent and obviously scientifically literate. It's very handy for getting sensible opinions and feedback on stuff, especially medical stuff obviously. I can imagine there are a lot of terrible groups - the one described earlier made my eyes roll out of my head, even though I such things all the time. Not just for humans either - I'm part of a dog FB group and there's much nonsense on there - home remedies and homeopathy for this and that, and posts starting with "are there any mediums in the group" (by the groud admin no less).
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Nov 6, 2019 17:04
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Boz0r posted:I have a 13 month old boy who needs some medicine before bedtime. It less than a milliliter but we're having trouble getting him to swallow it. We use a small syringe to squirt it into the side of his mouth while he's distracted, but he instantly freezes and starts crying. He doesn't just swallow it, so some of it may run out of his mouth or he starts choking on it while gasping for air between cries. Does anyone have any ideas here? Does he use a dummy (pacifier)? You can get ones which dispense medicine.
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Nov 12, 2019 18:37
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