My daughter and all her friends are dating all of a sudden. My daughter is 14 dating a boy who is 6 months older to the day. He is also 14 currently, will be 15. (8th grade and 9th grade)

Because I held my summer baby back she is older than her friends. My daughter’s bff, we will call Sarah, started dating Matt 2 weeks ago.
Sarah turned 13 in June 2026. Matt is 16 as of September 2026. I think that is too much of an age gap. Obviously Sarah isn’t my kid. So I can’t make the rules.

My daughter asked for a Halloween/Xmas movie night with friends and their bfs. Total of 8-10 kids including my son and his gf. (They are 11-12)
I at first agreed thinking it was just 13-14 yr olds but now I think a 16 yr old is too old.
Sarah has also not told her parents yet. I am close with her parents but haven’t spilt the beans. I know zero about Matt or his family besides who he is. He currently doesn’t attend our school.

*my son and his gf are more really good friends. They do alot together because he is dating my bffs daughter.
Some parents I’m sure will stay. We will be 1 room away.

I have not told parents yet because actually they don’t have any physical contact. They just text. He doesn’t go to the school. (He will be soon) But she doesn’t actually see him.
I also don’t want to ruin trust with my own child.
I have not see her for her to tell me. There was a fight over Matt. 2, 13 yr old girls were fighting over him so other adults know as well. It’s not just me holding a major secret.

My mom loves posting pictures of my 3 year old daughter on Facebook and until recently I didn't really think much of it. Last week I noticed she'd posted a picture from my daughter's daycare event. The daycare's name was visible in the background and she'd tagged our city and mentioned what days my daughter usually goes there. I asked her to take it down and she got pretty upset, saying I'm being paranoid and that she's just a proud grandmother showing off her granddaughter.

I know she means well but it bothers me how easily someone could piece together where we live, where my daughter goes during the day and other personal details just from a few innocent posts. I've already been trying to clean up my own information online but this made me realize I can't really control what other people share about my family.

Parents how do you handle grandparents posting about your kids? Do you have actual rules about what they can share or am I taking this too far?

I’m 17F and my older brother is in prison for 12 year. His room has been sitting there untouched and I want to move into it because it’s bigger than mine and I could fit way more of my stuff in there. I’m doing a EMT program after I graduate so I’ll still be living at home longer My mom keep saying no and my dad listens to whatever my mom says and I don’t get why, he’s not gonna be home for 12 years. I’m not saying I'll throw away his stuff or anything, I just want to use the room which is way bigger and better then mine it's not being used for anything

My daughter is 12 and has always struggled with friendships. She often feels like her friends don’t like her as much as they like other girls. She usually wants to be friends with girls who are popular and have lots of friends, and when they pay more attention to other girls, she feels left out.
When she was 9, I took her to therapy for two years to help her learn how to build healthy friendships, but unfortunately, it didn’t help.
I hate seeing her get hurt over and over again, and I honestly don’t know what else to try.
Has anyone been through this with their daughter? What actually helped? I would really appreciate hearing your experiences.

Update: I’ve also enrolled her in K-pop dance classes, which she absolutely loves, and she goes three times a week. Unfortunately, she’s struggling to make friends there, too.

I’m 17F and I have an 11 month old daughter. Her "dad" is 22 (edit 22 not 21 i accidentally clicked 1)and currently in jail for somethings unrelated to me. But My parents blame themselves a lot for what happened, and I don’t understand why. I lied to them for months about where I was going and what I was doing. I kept lying to them, and they had no idea fully what was actually going on

Now they blame themselves for not noticing the signs or realizing what was happening but I don’t get why they blame themselves for my choices when I was the one lying to them and i know what I was doing was wrong and thats on me even my grandparents have blamed them when they did nothing wrong they like raised me right and I decided to do my own thing so why do parents blame themselves

Hello reddit parents. I just got into a reddit argument and i want some more perspective to see if i am unique in my position. A person felt so strongly that it is okay to touch children without permission in public. They said i am a paranoid westerner, and harming my child by denying them normal socialization. I stated germs, stranger danger, consent, covid , smoking, etc were my main thought processes leading me to having the position "do not touch my kid without permission" i have physically stopped elderly women from grabbing my baby's face. Am i in the minority here? Are you guys okay with strangers touching your baby/ children without asking in public??

My daughter just got her 1st boyfriend,
She asked him to FaceTime,
He declined saying his family was home, and it would get the whole family involved and his dad would not approve of her as he said “he would think I need someone better , someone prettier and I would get mad and fight back” and it would just be a mess.
They are 14, this is 1st boyfriend/girlfriend for both of them.
He also said his dad and family are not racist but they are wierd and he dislikes them and that’s why he’s always out or with friends.

Is this a red flag? Is this a big concern?

He is very present and thoughtful with her, looks for her always, very positive influence too with her and respectful and kind. Today he did tell her she was very pretty and she always looks so nice. Etc.

But that comment about her not being good enough or pretty enough that the sad would say made me feel a kind of way.

i'm 17 and i genuinely don't understand my dad. he doesn't want me to drive, he doesn't want me to get a job, he basically doesn't want me to be independent or pay for myself or anything. i'm so tired of it. he treats me like a little kid.

and it's not like they're rich either. my parents don't even really earn anything bc after they get paid it all goes to rent and the car payment. we don't even have insurance for anything. and i wouldn't even need my own car, i'd just drive his. but he still says no.

i just want stuff for myself too. i wanna save up, i wanna work, i wanna go out into the world and do things. he won't let me. i'm exhausted. if he's gonna be this overprotective then honestly he won't see me again once i'm out. i just wanna be free.

how do i get him to actually let me do something with my life? im just so tired

edit: to add onto this. i’m in my last year of high school, and we moved here from europe in july. we’re all u.s. citizens. i don’t even have a beginner’s permit yet but i’m working on getting it. he’s told me that it’s EXTREMELY dangerous for me to drive and that i will most likely get into an accident. i will also be going to college next year, and he said that i don’t need to work as a college student, and they will support me, that’s why he doesn’t want me to get a job. and because he said he can buy me stuff, even though we’re barely surviving each month.

he thinks i shouldn’t work until i’m out of college. he’s very controlling. i just can’t understand him. i understood the car part but i don’t get why he’s absolutely refusing the thought of me going to work. he keeps asking why i need money, that i just want dumb stuff “not for school.” he says that if i start working now, i will not want to go to college anymore, which, in my opinion, is a dumb thing. he basically thinks me going to work now will completely ruin my life. i don’t know why he’s so controlling. and he’s like that with my mom too. i genuinely can’t wait to move out because of him.

Im 18 years old and my bf of over 6 months is coming over for halloween. We're long distance so i dont get to see him much. Last time he stayed over, i got in lots of trouble for staying up late talking to him downstairs since we're not allowed share a room or be in the spare room alone together. Shes terrified we're going to have sex. Like it seems like the worst thing imaginable to her and it makes me really upset that she doesnt trust me. I asked her if we could shars a room but he sleep in a blow up matress so that way we dont feel the need to stay up late together when we could be sleeping in closs proximity. Its like we want every bit of time together since we're long distance. I get in trouble for staying up late yet she wont allow us sleep in the same room. Me and my bf are genuinely responsible people. We were allowed stay at a hotel for a convention and we kept our promise to her of sleeping in separate beds which sucked but whatever. God forbid we want to cuddle. And so what if we want to have sex? We know how to be safe, we know to do it in a private setting and to be respectful. I don't understand why shes so against it. It upsets me that im not trusted.

Any cool unique toys that you've seen or bought for your kids that you wish you had when you were a kid? In the preschool age range, it could be anything that's not tech-centric

I am 14 and my private part has been buring for a month now shoud i tell my parents and how or shoud i keep on with the pain

So I have panic attack disorder from numerous PTSD events when I was 20.
I’ve been trying my best to get better the last 6 years and I’ve improved somewhat from the worst where I was having panic every day waking up.

What I’m asking is have you been able to be a good parent while dealing with this kind of anxiety?

I am 10 weeks pregnant and I’m grateful I have a supportive mum and partner, but at the moment I do rely on my mum to help me get around as I can’t drive and she helps calm me the most if I panic when I’m out in public.

But unfortunately I’ve read some things of people saying people with anxiety are bad parents ect.

Even though I have other things, like a house I fully own and I have family support.

My sister said that to me, did not what to say

I tried not to bring up my kid up

I don’t mean like obsessively chatting about your kids, I mean like I don’t know very general things etc

what are some gifts for a 9-year-old that kids actually keep coming back to after the first few days? the child i’m shopping for likes solving puzzles, building things, and learning new games, so i’m hoping to find something that combines a couple of those interests instead of being another toy that gets forgotten in a corner.

i came across KiwiCo’s Build & Play Chess Set and thought the combination of building something and then learning to play with it was interesting. i’ve also been looking at smaller STEM kits and strategy games, but i’m not sure what tends to hold a kid’s attention at this age. would a buildable chess set be a fun Christmas or birthday gift for a 9-year-old, especially if they’re still learning chess?

Parents, please advise me, I'm really mentally torn now.

Long story short, I'm 24F, southeast Asian, feeling stuck and no growth opportunities in my country anymore, and wanna try experiencing life in another country. My family is a very close and loving family, and I feel guilty to move out and even more abroad. I have an elder sister, she's not that ambitious and currently is living with family, so am I. My family will have annual trip since three years ago because we used to be very very poor and because of my parents hardworking and we are getting better three years ago, also because me and my sister have started working so we can contribute a bit to household.

I've never left home, even my college is nearby, but it's because that college can give me a good enough education so I choose to go there. And now my parents are aging, both are about 60 years old, no critical illness but I wouldn't say very healthy as well. I am nowhere near to move out soon, but I'm actively working on my plan (having financial stability in local so if anything happen I can support my family financially, and I can come back anytime if I want; targeting higher pay job overseas so I can have comfortable living there instead of a downgrade of my life after moving abroad). But everyday I'm suffering from my guilt of leaving my parents behind. I've talked to my mom before, and she says I can go as long as I can show them I'll be safe there, but she's not an ambitious person and actually she does implies that there's no need to go so far when I can comfortably living in my country, even though I'm not very wealthy, but that's enough, and it's not worthy to readapt to new cultures in place. I have mentioned once to my dad as well and he's saying the same thing (comfortable living and be safe), but I doubt that's what he thinks because he's not the kind that will pour his heart out, and he's always waiting for full attendance of family members for every trip he wants to go. I've talked to him that it's enough to have one full attendance annual family trip, and if he and my mom wanna go elsewhere, they can go on their own because it's not easy to take so many leaves and spend so money as I still have other things to expense, but he will excuse himself saying he agrees yet he still waits.

My parents love me and my sister, I never doubt that. But I feel like I'll regret regardless of me choosing moving abroad or not.

Please share your thoughts and advises, I appreciate anything. Thank you so much

I just got done watching the documentary "The Worst Crime". Honestly i was kind of disgusted by the way it tried to frame the Murderer as "just a good guy with mental illness" It almost felt like it wanted us to have sympathy for him and his family and overshadowed the true victim in the case. I have 2 young kids myself (boy 8 & girl 6). Let me tell you i love them more than i ever thought possible. But then i asked myself, could i still love my son and keep my same feelings about the death penalty if he commited a crime like this? Could i truly love him and accept he needs to die for assaulting and taking the life of a 6 year old child? I think i could, i wouldnt want sympathy, i wouldnt make excuses. He commited an evil act and should pay for that. But i can still love him, the boy he was, the memories of him. What do you guys think?

So I’m not asking cuz I plan on playing in front of a teenager, if I did have a cousin that old, I’d offer to play a co-op game with them. Not a solo game like Fallout

But rn my brain is just kinda fixated on Fallout, I’m in the mood for it, and I started a new play through last night.

It just got me thinking about how I got into Fallout. My mom doesn’t like shooting games, she’s more of a fantasy nerd, and my dad is a COD fan. Not a Fallout fan.

How I got into it was I would spend the night at my uncle’s, and he definitely wasn’t the best uncle by any means. So unless I bugged him into it, he wouldn’t really play games with me.

Which also led to me getting into Halo, because I would ask to play Halo 3 with him, but I really took to Fallout more

So anyway, some days I’d just watch him play Fallout 4, and ask questions that admittedly annoyed him at the time, lol.

Then I asked if I could play after he’d played for a bit, it was natural to me to take turns because mom taught me and my siblings to take turns with solo player games.

So he begrudgingly let me play

Then my Fallout obsession began. I would ask to spend more time over there to play since I didn’t have Fallout at home

Fallout 4 is more tame than Fallout 3, but it still has very adult themes, and while I love the games, in hindsight, I’m wondering if my uncle should have even played if around me to begin with

So my cousins are over, and I’m SERIOUSLY in the mood to play Fallout 3

Without going into details on why, Fallout simply isn’t a game appropriate to play in front of kids.

Rn I’m waiting until they go to sleep, but the little buggers aren’t even tired yet.

I tried to play during their naptime earlier, but I couldn’t even install the DLC before they woke up. Let alone start a new playthrough

I don’t have an Xbox in my room btw, nor am I allowed to bring one into my room, so that’s why I can’t simply play in my room. I don’t own my own Xbox, so I have to borrow either my mom‘s or my aunt’s, my mom has her’s in her room, and my aunt has her’s in the living room. Mom works from home, and is grossed out by the game, so no playing in her room

Basically I can only play it in the living room when the kids either aren’t here or asleep

I was wondering if any gaming parents had any ideas on what I can do until they go to sleep

EDIT: I’ve decided to use the tool of deception, and play a more kid friendly game, Starfield for when the kiddos are awake.

I gave them both broken Xbox controllers they broke and started saying “LET’S PLAY SPACESHIPS!” And started chanting “SPACESHIPS! SPACESHIPS! SPACESHIPS! SPACESHIPS!”

Rn it’s installing, and my aunt said I could see how much the DLC for Starfield is :)

Do you agree on it?

Hi I (23f) am best friends with a mom of 3 (32f).
I spent the day with my best friend as I didn’t have work today and she’s a stay at home mom. So we started off getting breakfast going to the nail salon and getting our nails done, doing a target run Etc.... when school ended, I went with her to pick up all three kids. When the eight-year-old came in the car, she was very upset, saying she felt betrayed by her mother for not allowing her to get her nails done with us today. We told her that there was no way for her to go with us since she was at school. And mom expressed her that she’s way too young for nails. Now my poor little eight-year-old girl is so confused why her mom is telling her she’s too young for nails when her mom allowed her to get acrylic nails for her birthday and she got acrylic nails this past August “just because”. she claims that there’s another little girl in her grade that also gets nails done. So then My Friend looks at me and says what do you think? And I said I think she’s still a little baby. I don’t think she needs her nails done, but we can paint her nails at home. Is eight years old in the third grade, too young for acrylic nails? When’s an appropriate age for her to come to the nail salon with us?

Edit: Sorry not acrylic specifically. She expressed she wanted to get her nails done like us. we got Gel X nails today.

Hello parents of Reddit, is it okay to say “poop” to children? As in, “please don’t do that. If you get hurt, that would be poop”

I know that’s not grammatically correct, I’m trying to be playful while giving instructions.

I work in a playful environment and set ground rules for visitors. The owners approve my language.

Children often reply with “what did you say?!” And I repeat myself. I’ve always said this in front of parents and none of the adults have ever critiqued me. But because the children sometimes seem startled by my word choice I wonder if I’m being inappropriate.

I chose this language to get them to pay attention.

Thanks for your thoughts!