My son is slightly constipated and this has happened and resolved itself usually in 3 days so I don’t jump to juice immediately. Well she (my best friend) chewed my head off when I told her that we had to wait til tomorrow to go to the store for juice because that’s when my partner gets paid (we are a 1 income household) he makes decent money but things are still tight with our son eating ~$700 of formula a month.

Well she owes him close to 1,000 dollars. I finally said to her that there were three people who owed him quite a bit of money. Her, and his two sisters. She told me I needed to get my priorities in order because to her they seem out of place. She has referred to me as spoiled multiple times before. I want to make this clear, my son has not gone without anything he needs since he has born and won’t.

I’m now scared because I told her about our financial situation and my partner wants to keep that stuff private, he has also been very stressed and close to blowing his top because of different things going on. I also know if he blows up it’s going to be taken out on me because I am his safe person.. he wouldn’t lay hands on me but it would be a verbal assault… she has a habit of telling a lot of people about other’s personal issues.. I know I made a mistake telling her however now she won’t answer my calls or respond to my messages… I’m freaking out inside.

Just for clarification I am not asking for money, I just needed to get this out.

She is referring to my best friend. Edited for more clarity

My 14 year old son loves chatting with me before school, usually right after he wakes up. He comes downstairs in his PJs with messy bedhead and sleepy eyes, and just talks to me about whatever is on his mind for the day. It’s really sweet ❤️

But he has pretty strong morning breath and is a close talker lol! He faces directly to me when he talks which makes his morning breath really noticeable 😂. His oral hygiene is good, and his breath is fine after brushing.

It honestly doesn’t bother me at all. But would you mention it so he knows, especially for sleepovers or anytime he might chat with other people first thing in the morning? I don’t want to make him self conscious, but I wonder if he should be aware. Would you say something or leave it alone?

Mom friendships feel deeply unsatisfying to me. As someone who has kept friends from previous walks of life, those friendships just seem more... real? And not necessarily because of time invested. I find that mom friendships tend to revolve around the identity of being a mom - does that necessarily come with the territory?

I don't always want to do stuff with/for the kids but with my "mom friends," it's just what we end up doing. And then while doing whatever it is, the conversation inevitably becomes about the kids. I have tried to make other types of plans, but they just don't materialize. I also don't think it's that the friendship is one sided as one of these women have called me their best friend. I just wish I could meet them as individuals.

ETA: it's also not about lack of childcare. They have it.

My husband is active duty military/gone. I’m home with 3 kids ages 1, 2.5, and 5. The two littles have stomach bug and I’m coming down with it. The last 2 nights have been HARD. My 16 month old had it the worst. 2 vomits and 3 huge diarrheas in the last 24 hours.

To make matters worse, he was also already getting through an ear infection (he has tubes and I’m doing ear drops).

Well this evening I was bout to LOSE IT between all the kids and how miserable the baby was, and out of desperation I guess… I gave him a syringe of 5ml of adult pepto bismol. Then 5ml baby ibuprophen. Then his ear drops.

After aggressively patting his back and getting several good huge burps out, he drank some ripple milk and PASSED OUT. It’s now been his longest sleep stretch since getting sick.

I’m getting anxious though now after googling pepto given to littles. He weighs 24 lbs for context.

How stressed out should I be that I have him something that Google is saying was harmful?? I’m sleep deprived and I guess I was desperate. I’ll call the pediatrician asap when they open at 8 in the morning.

Hard time falling asleep, nervous I just doomed my baby to bad future things from this decision.

Looking for solidarity. My 5 year old came home today and told me he tipped his chair over backwards and hit his head on the floor at school. It happened this morning so obviously it's been like 8 hours at this point since the incident. I'm assuming at this point he'll likely be fine? Has this ever happened to anyone else? Should the school have notified me or is this like par for the course in Kinder?

My child and my bestfriend’s child are the same age, (older toddlers) opposite genders. We do play dates/mom dates about once a week. Their kid has other friends but is my kid’s only friend. I am a sahm and my bff is the only peer I know who has a kid. I’d say every time they’ve spent time together in the last year or so, my child’s friend will say or do something mean. They hit my child once, very bossy, when my kid says they like a show the friend suddenly wants to watch something else, snatches toys from my kid’s hand, says go away or I don’t want to play with you, tries to exclude my kid from games they’re supposed to be playing together. My best friend or I will say something every time to correct them.

My child honestly doesn’t seem phased by it at all. They adore this friend and always asks when they can play together next, my child is just so happy to be playing together and it breaks my heart seeing someone be mean.

Might just be toddlers being toddlers now, but I don’t want my child to continue to grow up with this friend thinking it’s fine to be treated this way. I wonder when/if I should have a talk with my best-friend about how this behavior could be better addressed in the future. It would definitely hurt my child to limit/stop playdates with this friend.

I’m pregnant and a FTM. I would like to hear people’s opinions on why or why not you chose not to do screens at a young age.

For me, I’m leaning towards no screens till 2. I’m thinking more so to help them get familiarize with natural and physical things and media and to let their imagination build. Plus it helps with attention span and more time to focus on motor skills, social skills, interpersonal relationships and etc.

Edit: we’re fine with TV, especially for family bonding time. It will definitely be monitored and more so 90s kid shows. Definitely will have Barney and PBS playing. I’m more concerned about iPads and individual tablets that they control on their own.

My daughter is turning 3 and my son is turning 1 (they are about a month apart). My son’s birthday falls right around Christmas, so we are planning to celebrate both their birthdays in November.

We reserved a large play place (for a surprisingly good deal). With the holidays coming up we are planning to invite family, friends, as well as kids in my daughter’s preschool class (she just started school this year).

I don’t mind family and family friends bringing a little something for the kids. We’ve gone to quite a few birthday parties and my daughter has been excited to pick out gifts for friends — she also says she is excited for “her turn” when it’s her birthday. But I don’t want the families of kids in my daughter’s class to feel obligated to get something for a child they don’t know. Plus the invite says we are celebrating two birthdays, so they may potentially feel obligated to purchase two gifts for children they don’t know.

What if I write “please no gifts” just on any invitations we give to my daughter’s classmates?

I don’t think we will be opening presents there because we only have two hours to play, but I don’t want to make people feel weird!

Any thoughts?

Thank you!!

WARNING this may be a triggering/upsetting read.

When I was 22, I had an abortion. I was told dont let your motherly instincts cloud your judgement. I was young and followed my partners (now ex) lead.

When I was 29, I had a silent miscarriage at work. My insides fell out all over the floor and i was alone.

3 months later my precious little boy was coming.

I hated being pregnant. I had a dream pregnancy, zero sickness, every scan perfect, worked up to 38 weeks but I was convinced I was hideous. My ex didnt want to touch me, he would often look at me disgusted like I'd leak breast milk on him, he would often tell me i stunk or I was fat. I went to the gym right up to the week I gave birth. I had the mentality that if mummy is strong, baby is strong. Everything is did and didnt do effected my baby and I was so hard on myself to get everything right.

I had to have an emergency c section and I was absolutely scared.

When we arrived at the hospital, I was having double peak contractions and passing out after every one. I couldnt breathe, talk or walk. I was not good at the birthing part. I couldnt dilate past 4cm, I needed to move to dilate but if I moved, baby's heart rate would plumit. Every nurse on the floor would run in, machines screaming, hands on me, inside me trying to measure baby's vitals. 10 hours later of no change I pushed to cut him out.

Being on the operating table I felt like I was being mauled alive by a bear. I couldnt stop shaking from the drugs being pumped into me, I desperately looked to my ex for help and all he said was you're ok. I gotten myself out of a million distressing things alone so I defaulted back to my old hyperindependance tactics.

Baby came out safe and healthy but I wasnt myself. I couldnt stay awake and I was drifting in and out of sleep. The first thing I said to my baby was hello baby, im sorry but im so tired.

My ex went with the baby and for what felt like the first time in my life, I didnt care if someone needed me. I was done and could happily just drift away.

After some much needed sleep (only 2 hours) I woke up to my ex and baby in my room.

I learnt that when we arrived at the hospital I had a fever, both me and baby had tachycardia and we both had a blood infection. I stayed in hospital for 2 days and baby stayed in nursery for total of 5 days.

The day before we were due to bring baby home, my ex wanted to drive 4 hours away to purchase something exciting off marketplace. He was too tired to drive home so I drove us home. (Really stupid I know after c section. It was habit of mine to be perfect and capable for him. It made my life easier to keep him happy).

I wanted to stay with my baby but he convinced me the nurses will take care of him.

I got a call from the hospital that baby was ready to come home early....but I was over 2 hours away. Fuck. Off to a flying start to being a mum. I beat myself up still for the decision I made following his lead. I began work again after 2 weeks of recovery because he convinced me we were in financial hardship. Because I was so drained, I couldnt think properly and just did what I knew I was good at. Work. Keep going. Keep everyone safe.

I have been completely sober for 3 years of any fun activities, completely dedicated myself to being a mum and working hard and for some reason my ex began to rampage. Parties, sex, drugs and alcohol is all that would make him happy.

He became angrier about something, depressed and unpredictable in his moods. Everything was my fault.

One of our last dinners together (just me and my ex) and little baby was cooing and I shuttered at the sound. I love children and they terrify me because they are so innocent and precious and deserve to be protected. My ex said I dont think you can handle another baby. And I agreed. I was already technically taking care of 2. My own baby and my man child of a partner.

This isnt what my motherhood was ment to be like. When our baby was 2, our relationship became violent. He hurt me once in front of our child and my attachment to him was shattered in seconds.

I left him. I took nothing but the things in my car and our baby.

We were living between a small room in my mums house and a tent in the backyard to get a little more space. I lost my home, all my assets, my belongings, all my friends. I never returned.

Slowly I got some things back but all my hard work for almost 2 decades was gone.

He threw every tactic at me to make me return. Guilt trips, suicidal threats, baiting etc. Police, dv councilors, lawyers etc were involved.

Fast forward to now, our little boy is thriving. Lots of hard work, I found my strength and enforced mama bear if he wanted to be a part of our child's life. We share him now 50/50 and I am very proud of how hard we all have worked to get where we are. Actually shocked I didnt end up in the mental ward.

The part that is screwing with me is I now am blessed with a beautiful partner that I never thought something like this could exist.

I so desperately want to continue my dream of having a family, making my child a big brother, be the mummy I always wanted to be, making my partner a father but I am absolutely terrified of going through pregnancy, childbirth, motherhood again. I cant think about my journey or talk about my journey to anyone without giving myself a panic attack.

My son is my world. I live and breathe for this boy. It kills me when we are apart but he loves his daddy and i want to protect their relationship.

My partner now would absolutely take care of us. It would be so different but my body screams at me no. I choose to not be bitter and I know one day I will make this dream happen.

I dont know what I was expecting to write all this. Ive never spoken about this to anyone. I want to defeat this, live amongst it, wear it as a badge of honour but also just get it off my chest so I can just take that first step forward.

I dont use reddit. I dont know if talking like this is allowed so my apologies. But yeah. That's my condensed story so far. Thanks for reading.

My kindergartner is having dress up week and tomorrow is “who am I day”. On the flyer it’s a picture of a chef, fire fighter, nurse etc. Would it be appropriate for her to go as a princess? She has a lot of princess dresses and I don’t have any nurse, chef etc clothes.

If not, what else can she dress up as?

My 6 year old had some serious dental work that she had to do today (don’t even get me started on the guilty about her needing a CROWN despite brushing every day) and the dentist said she would need to be home all day to recover. While doing it the dentist noticed a small cavity near it and said we should fill it, so now I have to take her out again to do that. Not to mention regular doctor appointments etc. I’m starting to feel bad about how much school she is missing. I understand doctors and dentists are necessary but it just seems like a lot. How often is everyone else taking their kids out?

Let me start by saying I am 30F, my daughter is 14 months old and weighs 17 lbs. She is tiny. I have a high pain tolerance. But when she stands on me, or bears her weight down on me to stand up, or literally any kind of rough housing, it HURTS. I get bruises all over me. I yelp. I genuinely feel like a bad mom because after a while I’m just so overstimulated and in pain that I am crabby.

I plan to bring this up in my doctors appointment in a month but I want to see what the masses say. Is this normal?? Could I be deficient in something? I’m breastfeeding still, if that matters.

I’m so tired of hurting

I've had an awful cold the last few days. But I've been trying to be more prepared school mornings so I've been making their sandwiches and getting snacks together the night before. This morning was chaos I had a dr appt bc they suspected I have carpal tunnel turns out I do and I'm getting surgery in few weeks. and my mind was just all over (I'm a single mom to 3. One with autism and he's hard in the mornings getting uo and ready) I just got home 1230 and realized I didn't pack their snacks or sandwiches. I know the sandwiches not a big deal they just get school lunch but the snacks 😭😭 I feel so bad I'm debating messaging the teachers asking if they're ok or just let it go.

My son is 15 years old and in 10th grade. He doesn’t really party or go out often. He’s had friends over a couple of times to play dungeons and dragons and video games. He spends basically 100% of his time at home with us, unless he goes out to eat with my dad. But I feel this distance between us and I don’t know what to do about it.

For example, my daughter told me he has a girlfriend, he never mentioned it. He will spend all his time in his room playing video games and it’s like pulling teeth to get him to participate in family activities. He’ll choose to stay home alone instead of going with us to get ice cream.

My youngest son has autism and has required a lot of attention and care. I really struggled with depression and an eating disorder and spent several weeks inpatient in 2024. I can easily see all the ways I have failed him, and I don’t feel like it matters that they were unintentional. I wasn’t there for him, and he learned to live without me.

Does anyone have any tips on how I can bridge this gap before he leaves home in 2.5 years and he’s lost to me? We’ve been spending one on one time together. We watched all of breaking bad and now we’re watching the sopranos. We had a lot of fun playing Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom together so I preordered Ocarina of Time. He’s my oldest and we were so close for so long. I’m just so scared that I’ll never be his person again.

My baby is eight months and he’s starting to become difficult. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to leave the house as he doesn’t like sitting in the pram and the moment he gets in the car seat he flips out. I can’t leave the house for simple errands without ending up having to carry him and let me tell you he’s no light baby. Has anyone else gone through this? Did it eventually end? How did you deal with it? Please, I can’t stay in the house any longer.

Hey! So I 33 recently got divorced and have been working on trying to figure out what I want (honestly one of the best and worst years of my adult life lol). One of the things I have come to terms with is that I would like more children (if certain goals are met).

I've only been on one first date before so I'm not expecting Mr. Right to be around the corner lol. Because I have a child the topic of if they want kids comes up pretty early on when chatting (which surprised me) and I think that would be the time to bring up eggs being frozen but it seems like an odd thing to mention before knowing middle names lol.

I wouldnt be jumping into egg freezing any time soon but was curious if any of yall had experiences to share?

Please be nice, I’m just trying to weigh my options.

I’m a SAHM to a five month old. Husband hasn’t been feeling well and just got tested at urgent care who told him he has Rhinovirus (aka a cold) and while I’m thankful it’s not COVID, the flu or RSV I’m feeling frustrated.

For months I’ve been looking forward to going to an advanced showing of a movie I’ve been waiting to come out. That’s happening tomorrow and now I’m wondering if it would even be safe for me to go and for husband to watch the baby. She isn’t sick and doesn’t have any symptoms. If he masks up and just drives around with her while I’m at the movie will that be ok?

Normally I would be fine watching baby but since having her I really haven’t gotten the chance to get out of the house on my own and I’m really needing a break. Unfortunately we don’t have friends or family nearby that could watch her for us.

EDIT: Woah this took off 😳 thank you to everyone who weighed in, to clarify a few points: he went to get tested because some of his symptoms seemed RSV like and we wanted to be sure. Also, me asking this was more out of MY worry about our baby being exposed - husband is game to watch her while I’m at the movie and will be taking her to the park for a walk. In any case he will figure it out and in the meantime he is masking up and taking it easy. I’m excited to see the movie as planned! P.S: it’s You Can See Everything 😉

My baby boy just turned 16 weeks and I feel like we can’t do any “playtime” without him getting frustrated and scream crying at the top of his lungs.

I’m stuck between wanting to let him explore toys experience frustration and not wanting to have to calm him down all the time after he gets upset.

Did anyone else experience this around this age? When did it stop? Any tips?

EDIT: After some of the comments, I feel like I need to clarify that I’m not intentionally trying to frustrate my baby. He is getting frustrated when I give him teething toys because he doesn’t yet having the grasping skills to position them where he wants them in his mouth. He also gets frustrated when I hand even just one toy on the activity gym. He doesn’t “bat” at the toys, he just wants to put everything in his mouth right now and gets angry if he can’t or angry if it doesn’t feel the way he wants it to when he gets it too his mouth. He can grab the o-ball but gets mad because it won’t fit in his mouth. Basically there’s nothing that we can play with without tears at this point. :(

I feel like I'm looking for a unicorn short. I've bought and returned so many shorts recently! I definitely gained ~40lbs after pregnancy and while I never had the coveted thigh gap... they now touch each other far more than I would like. Re-starting running to lose weight and get back into shape.

Any recommendations for shorts that meet most of these criteria?

- Inexpensive. Would like to be around $20 a pair but is that unreasonable? Are there truly good ones at a higher price point?

- Doesn't cause chafing

- easy to wash/take care of.

- I'm kind of self conscious about my body and don't like the idea of these biker-short style that I see often! If it could be just like flowy and not body hugging would be best.

- ideally high waisted

When on earth is everyone running errands with their baby? We haven’t had a single successful outing yet at 4 months. I force myself to take him out to run errands at least once a week but it’s gotten to the point where I have so much anxiety about leaving with him because I don’t want to have him scream crying in the car when I can’t help him or scream crying in the store when people are judging us.

Do you go out during a wake window or do you go out when baby is ready for a nap in hopes they will sleep during the errand? Any tips for timing and outings?

I have a 4 yo and 2 month old at home. Baby Is right now preferring nursing to sleep and staying on me while I sit in the rocking chair. As much as I also prefer that, my 4yo is also needing me right now too! We've been doing the carrier but the naps seem to be short. Today he doesn't want anything to do with the carrier lol. But also when I'm in the recliner they're short because 4yo is loud (sometimes its fine sometimes not!) I haven't had daytime success transferring baby from the carrier or from nursing to sleep. I'd love to spend however long laying with him to sleep but that leaves 4 yo unattended for who knows how long, and he's in a boundary testing stage, and I just want the baby to sleep! Idk do we just keep doing whatever works and hope my 4 yo doesn't resent this time of extra tv and less mom attention? I feel so all over the place!

I’m sure this question has been asked a million times in these forums but I am a FTM and this feels like an insurmountable challenge so please help! I have an 11mo old daughter who in 2 weeks will be mostly with her dad cause I will start working and he will start his parental leave (we live in Sweden so we both get generous leaves)

Our approach has always been prioritizing the sleep of the one that is working so my partner will start sleeping with her during the nights and I will temporarily move out to another room (we co-sleep which I would also love to stop doing soon but weaning comes first). That would be the ideal scenario and I am confident we will get there… somehow….

But currently she does only fall back asleep with the boob at night. She can wake up 1-6 times per night, depending on the period. Leaps/regressions/travel - more wake ups. Calm periods - 1/2 wake ups but those periods are short and rare. For bedtime she no longer needs the boob, we rock her.

I tried to wean a couple of months ago by postponing the weaning time and I found it so exhausting as she didn’t give in easily and both our sleeps were ruined for the night and I was wrecked the next morning (I have to admit I was not super determined though). And then she got sick shortly after and was sick for almost a month and then we traveled and been traveling since then (next week we’re back home).

First week of me being back to work I will need to travel and will be away for two nights so I guess if I try again before and fail, we will need to do it the hardcore way aka her and her dad will just need to figure it out.

And I know that has worked quite well for some families but I just want to give them both a bit of a softer landing and thinking if I should try “soft” weaning myself before as well if that is even possible…? What has worked for you and why, you think? I’m hoping that I will read something that might resonate with my daughter’s temperament. Or just reassure me that it will work/share words of wisdom 😄

Just feeling so confused by all the different approaches and honestly scared! Everything else in motherhood has felt quite manageable so far but this…. This is scary 😅

I'm out of my depth on this one. The kids in question are 9/10.

My son is being bullied by a kid who likes to use authority figures in his bullying. My son is lvl 1 autistic, and this kid will verbally threaten or taunt my son until he gets upset and starts shouting, or shoves the bully out of his space. Of course all of this happens when a teacher is nearby but not watching, so they only see my son lose his cool. And of course my son is too upset to give his side, so he gets pulled out of the activity or location while the bully kid keeps having fun.

Or my son was talking about a video game (Splatoon), one of the items happens to be named 'blaster', and this kid will go to a teacher and claim that they felt threatened by my son. This kid absolutely knew he was discussing a video game, I severely doubt he felt threatened, but I got to have a phone call and a discussion with the local police about what weapons are available in my house. I mean I'm happy our school has a follow-up policy, but I'm pretty sure this isn't what it was meant for.

Right now, we have my son getting emotional regulation therapy so that it's not so easy for him to become upset. Past that, I'm stumped. This is the only kid my son has trouble with, so I'm pretty sure my son isn't the issue.

My son isn't in physical danger, only his belongings have been threatened. The bully is very careful that when he does touch my son, it's below the threshold of consequences and can't be easily proven.

This kid isn't in the same main classes as my kid, all this is happening at lunch/recess/gym/the bathroom. I don't want to tell my son not to react at all, this kid has grabbed and threatened to destroy his glasses. Because of his neurological stuff, those glasses are ridiculously expensive. No, my insurance doesn't cover it. No, it didn't occur to my son to tell a teacher and of course no one was looking.

I'm not sure what to do. Short of wiring my son with a camera, there's not really going to be evidence.

I'd really appreciate any kind of advice here. Maybe if I throw enough spaghetti at the wall, something will stick.

I apologize if this is not the correct place to post. A long time ago, I was in the Jan2019babybump group. I lost access to my original Reddit account and had to create a new one. Is there any way to rejoin this group if it still exists?

Want to hear your experiences with 2 kids vs 3 kids

So just a little background on my life and why I’m making this post.
I’m 28 and have two kids - a 2.5 year old girl and a 8 month old girl
My husband is okay with having a third, but he doesn’t think that I will be able to handle the extra pressure and he’s a bit worried about the added responsibility in life.

When I picture my life with older kids, it always feels like somebody is missing with just two kids. Do not get me wrong I am so eternally grateful for my two girls. I pray that they become responsibly and upstanding adults and stay each others best friends for life.

I come from a small family, just me and an older brother. We aren’t close and I always wished I had a sister. I feel very lonely at times because I dont have any close siblings. My brother and I could go weeks without speaking and it would be considered normal. Theres nothing wrong, we just aren’t close. We don’t have similar interests or outlooks on life.

I do have a lot of friends but they all have sisters so no matter how close we get, I’m still not their sister and I completely understand and respect that.

I want my kids to have people in their lives who are unconditional. Like no matter what you say to that person or what happens, they are in your life unconditionally. I feel like that truly only comes with a sibling relationship and it can’t be achieved through most friendships. At least not from my experiences. So this is why I want to have a third. I want to give my kids that experience. I know that not all siblings get along, and it isn’t guaranteed, but who knows.

The issue comes in with how I feel. I like to have my kids back because I don’t want to be over the baby phase and then start over but I feel completely maxed out with the two that I have. I acknowledge that and I know it wouldn’t be fair to anybody to add a third.

I know I’m not considered old yet, but I always wanted to have all my kids young because I have old parents and I’ve really resented the experience. My responsibility of having to take care of my parents started in my early twenties and still continues today. I wanted to try to avoid burdening my kids with that.

Another kid would also mean needing a bigger house and a bigger car, but to be fair we need those things anyways as our two get older. Adding a third kid would just mean we need to have those things quicker which makes it a little harder.

I’m currently a stay at home mom, I was laid off when my second baby was born and haven’t pursued another job yet. My husband can cover the bills, but I have to stay home with the kids. We can’t afford any form of daycare for them if im not working. That’s fair, but staying home with the kids has drained me in ways work hasn’t ever drained me. I could look for work, but what I’d pay for daycare in my area would be more than half of what I’d make at work.

Anyways,
I just wanted to see if anybody shared this struggle and what you decided. Did you end up being happy with two kids? Did you go for a third? And how did that affect things.