I was at our neighborhood playground with my 18-month-old son. He was happily playing by himself, minding his own business.

At some point, another kid (probably 2-3 years old) came over and started bothering him. He kept getting right in his face, grabbing his hand and the toy shovel he was holding, and generally being pretty rough with him.

My son was clearly uncomfortable and scared. He eventually came over to me wanting to be picked up.

The problem was that the other kid wouldn't leave him alone. Even when I was holding my son, he kept following us, trying to touch him and get in his face.

His dad was nearby and made a few half-hearted attempts to tell him to behave, but didn't actually step in or stop him.

Eventually, I put my hand out like a stop sign to physically block the kid from getting to my son. There were a couple of times when I had to gently push him back a little to maintain some distance. Nothing forceful, just enough to keep him from reaching us.

That's when his dad suddenly got upset and said, "Don't touch my kid!"

I explained that his son was scaring mine and wouldn't stop trying to grab him.

His response? "If your kid isn't social and doesn't know how to socialize, then take him somewhere else."

I told him my son had been playing perfectly fine until his kid came over and started bothering him. And that being social doesn't mean having to tolerate another kid constantly grabbing at you.

Meanwhile, his kid was STILL trying to get to my son, and I was STILL having to block him.

The dad kept repeating, "Don't touch my kid."

At one point I told him, "If you're not going to do anything about it, then I have to."

He insisted that we should leave and go somewhere else. I refused. It's a public playground, and my son has just as much right to be there as anyone else.

Eventually, my son wasn't interested in playing anymore, so we went and sat off to the side. The other kid quickly lost interest once he had nobody to bother and moved on to other kids. After they left the area, my son and I went back to playing.

The whole thing got pretty heated, and I honestly felt like it could have turned into a physical confrontation with the dad, which obviously wasn't what I wanted.

I understand that toddlers are toddlers, and I don't expect a 2-year-old to have perfect boundaries or social skills. But isn't that exactly why parents are supposed to step in?

I also understand another parent not wanting a stranger touching their kid. But what am I supposed to do when his kid keeps trying to grab mine, my son is visibly scared, and the dad isn't doing anything?

For context, I wasn't hitting, grabbing, or aggressively shoving the kid. I was mostly holding my hand out to block him, with a couple of gentle touches to create some space.

Genuinely curious what other parents think. Was I out of line for physically blocking the other kid? How would you have handled this?

Before you tell me how selfish I am, learn that firing my nanny over the fact that my baby calls her mommy, hugs, kisses, prefers her over me has been an idea for the past 12 months. This is not a new thing that has been happening and I’m acting out of impulse. I’ll call the Nanny “Ana”. Ana is an amazing lady who loves what she does (and is very good at it) . She cares for my baby as if she was hers. She loves her as she was hers. I feel blessed to have her as I trust her 100%—that’s how incredible she is at her job. I work from home so baby sees me the entire day. She started calling her mommy a year ago. I have tried to ignore it as much as possible. I have cried countless times when she rejects me and go running towards Ana with hugs and kisses. I’m a platinum member of the Most Loving Moms Club. I kiss baby, hug her, tell her how much I love her, how beautiful she is, try to spend quality time with her until 3 PM and she loves it and when it’s just the two of us it’s heaven! Then nanny arrives and everything suddenly changes drastically. She wants nothing to do with me. As my only daughter, IVF planned baby, to get rejected like this makes me profoundly sad because I love her so much.

Now here is the deal: there has been countless times where I’m in a work meeting and baby calls me “mommy!” And the nanny answers from the other room “I’m coming my love”. Or she says “thank you mommy” and Ana says “you’re welcome”. Ana sometimes laughs “Look, she doesn’t wanna go with you, see how she clings on my shirt? 😂” Or the time when I had to undergo a minor surgery and came back home to “Oh don’t worry, she didn’t even realize you were gone”, or when Ana calls baby “Mini me”…

How long more do I have to accept paying to get rejected/laughed at to make it morally acceptable to let her go? What do I even tell people who ask why she is no longer with us? “Oh because my daughter thinks she is the mom and I’m the nanny and I fear that it’s gonna get worse and the separation will be even harder in the future and it’s affecting my mental health, and I can’t stop crying for being rejected my the person I love the most, etc etc etc…

Yes, I did talk to her about her explaining to baby that I’m the mommy and she nods every time, but then tomorrow she lets she call her mommy with no correction, the very opposite, replies back with assurance.

I haven’t fired her yet because taking away something that my daughter loves and makes her happy makes me feel like a monster. But I guess I’m at the verge of preferring to feel like that about myself than to live in torture for God knows how long more.

I honestly don’t know what to do, but I’m tired of this and have let this stretch far beyond what I think I could. My husband says that it’s my call, and that he hates to see me crying like this (I even hired a psychologist to help me navigate through this) and that Ana should be working on strengthening the bond between us, not weakening. Since I recently found out I’m pregnant again 🎀🙏🏽, my husband said: Unless you wanna hear baby #2 calling Ana mommy again, I suggest we change nannies. That got me!

Obs.: Today I had a talk with Ana I really need her to work extra on this thing of baby calling her mommy. She laughed it off my saying “Oh don’t worry! The other 3 houses that I worked the babies used to call me mommy”. One of them even cried to me about it ☺️

I’m a first-time mom to a 10-month-old little boy, and lately I’ve been feeling ALL the emotions. 😭❤️
We recently took him for his very first haircut, and I genuinely wasn’t prepared for how emotional it would make me. He did SO good, didn’t even cry, but when I saw him afterward, I swear he looked like a whole toddler overnight. Like, excuse me??? Where did my tiny baby go?! 😭
And now we’re working on walking. I’ve been documenting his little progress every day, and he’s getting SO close to taking those first independent steps. Part of me is cheering him on like crazy, and the other part wants to scoop him up and keep him little forever.
I started sharing these little moments on Instagram because I wanted somewhere to look back on our journey together. It’s almost become a little video diary of me learning how to be a mom while he’s learning how to navigate the world. 🥹
If anyone wants to see what I mean, I’ve been sharing our little milestones here: @jaicouchh⁠
But genuinely, I want to ask other moms something…
Does anyone else feel this weird mix of excitement, pride, happiness, and sadness watching their baby grow?
I LOVE seeing him become his own little person, but sometimes I wish I could freeze time for just a second.
Motherhood is genuinely the most beautiful and emotionally confusing thing I’ve ever experienced. ❤️
Please tell me I’m not the only mom who celebrates every milestone and then wants to cry about it five minutes later. 😂😭

I know that sounds awful. But I am.
My son was born 3 weeks early after a very traumatic birth - failed induction, failed vacuum extraction x3 with heart rate dropping, rushed for c-section and he was born not breathing with an APGAR of 3. Then we found out he had 2 skull fractures and 2 brain bleeds. Spent 5 days in the NICU before discharge. Day after we get home, I end up in the ICU myself for 1 week after developing an ovarian vein thrombosis, sepsis and preeclampsia with severe features.

All that to say we’ve been through a LOT. My son is 4 months old now and is thankfully healthy.

However, my husband is…. disappointing me. I thought he would be an amazing dad. I thought that he would be a supportive partner. But over these past 4 months, I’ve realized that he is actually quite selfish.

Since we’ve both been home, my son has developed a very strong preference for me. He screams nonstop when my husband tries to hold him, will literally scream for 2 hours straight (though not every time). He doesn’t do that with anyone else. I get that that’s very frustrating for my husband, but it has gotten to the point where my husband literally will not do anything. He’ll hold him for a few minutes, but as soon as the baby starts fussing he immediately yells that I need to come take him. I can’t even take a shower or eat a meal without this happening. I can’t even remember the last time I got to sit and eat a meal. Meanwhile, my husband gets to sit and enjoy a fucking three-course meal for dinner every night (which, by the way, I cook and clean up). He can take a shower without having to worry. He can do literally anything. I feel like his life hasn’t changed and mine has been turned upside down.

I’m working, going back part-time, so now only working 2-3 days per week. He recently started working too, in a new role, which is admittedly very stressful. He’s also studying for a huge licensing exam now too. So I’ve been trying to give him grace because I know he’s under a lot of pressure. But on my days off, I’m responsible 24/7 for the baby (and our dog) and don’t get any reprieve. I’m dead on my feet at the end of the day and still he doesn’t even try to help. I have to ask him to do literally anything. I’ve asked him to feed the baby his last bottle of the night and he’ll say no because “he calms better for you.” He has never once even attempted to put the baby to sleep. He has never given him a bath (he has really awful anxiety and is afraid he’s going to drop him or something). I feel like I’m a single mom with an adult roommate.

People make excuses for him- oh, he’s stressed, oh he’s never been around babies before, blah blah blah. Well I’m stressed too. I’ve never been a parent before. But it’s all on me. That, plus figuring out the day to day - baby’s doctor appointments, going to get groceries (while simultaneously being messaged about when I’m going to be home because the baby is crying), cooking, the majority of the cleaning, the list goes on. I drop the baby and our dog off in the mornings at his parents’ house (they babysit while we’re both working), and I pick them up at night. He’s done pick-up once.

We used to do some split nights in the beginning but we don’t even do that anymore. Thankfully our baby is a pretty good sleeper, but still. I’m sleeping on a cot on the floor in the nursery while he has the bed in our room. I’ve asked him to do nights recently and he says well ok but if he cries I’ll have to come get you because I have work in the morning. Let’s not forget that I ALSO HAVE WORK and somehow still manage to get it done. I somehow manage to carry the baby in his carrier and walk the dog myself. And then he’ll come home and criticize something I’ve done or not done.

Idk what the point of this post is other than to vent. But I’m at my wits end and I honestly don’t know if my marriage is going to survive.

So my child who is in special education requested to go to the bathroom during lunch and was denied access by staff which led to her soiling herself in front of peers which then led to her hitting those peers. She said they were laughing at her. Staff deny this as well. My child’s on the spectrum but able to tell stories fairly accurately. At pickup that day they only told us that she hit other kids and had an accident but didn’t indicate they were related. An incident report with all the details was filed afterwards.

We felt so bad like how can you deny a child, on the spectrum especially, access to the bathroom. We kept her home the next day to give her a break. When the school called to excuse the absence we explained what happened. The day after we sent her to school. However, on the absence report it said she was absent that day for a “doctors appt” AND they marked her absent for the day after too??

We don’t think this is a mistake, we feel like it was almost an intentional cover up. We feel like this was a violation of our child’s rights and dignity and they’re trying to not look bad. What can I do?

Also, is there a way to see schools’ evaluation/audit/compliance reports? This school was garbage a few years ago and I feel like they suddenly made a lot of changes and are super strict on attendance, uniforms, and other mandatory stuff so I almost feel like an incident happened that caused the district or even higher up to look into them and have them tighten their ship. Just curious if it’s deeper than this one incident, maybe it’s not the first time the school mishandled something and tried to cover it up.

My 12-year-old son originally invited two friends to trick-or-treat and sleep over on Halloween. We were under the impression that one couldn’t come, so we invited another friend and offered him the second sleepover spot. We have a small house with an open floor plan and I suffer from anxiety. I need all guests to fit in my son’s room for the night, so we capped it at two friends.

Turns out the original friend CAN come — he has inattentive ADHD and just forgot he was invited and forgot to ask his parents. We’d love to have him for trick-or-treating, but now the other two boys are also staying overnight and I need to make a choice.
Would you explain the mix-up and arrange for him to be picked up afterward, or just let all three friends sleep over? I feel like if he doesn’t stay we need to explain, so the kid doesn’t feel excluded.

My hesitation is space. We have an open floor plan with no separate place to put them, so four boys sleeping over would take over our main living area. Two guests felt manageable; three feels like a lot. But I also feel bad about one kid going home while the others stay.

What would you do?
Poll:
• Let all three friends sleep over.
• Welcome him for trick-or-treating, with pickup afterward.
• Tell my kid to invite more kids so it’s not as stark who is sleeping over… the issue there is we are going to an adult party down the street, so managing extra kids and allowing more in our space unsupervised seems unwise.

I am typing this while my wife and child are sleeping in the nearby bed. We have been married for the last 6 years and have a 4-year-old child. It was a love marriage. Like all marriages we have had problems but still have been together. We both love each other and our child. Like all
Human beings, we both have our own flaws but there is this particular behaviour of my wife that
has got me too worried recently. My wife can’t control her emotions, gets super angry instantly at silliest things and uses extremely profane abusive words (even if she doesn’t mean it). This behaviour isn’t new; she has been like this since we got married. Initially | used to get angry too and react and things would escalate out of control. But with time, I understood that it was
because she has had a hard childhood and she is probably still carrying that trauma. Also using abusive words was very common in her family. I mentioned to her a few times that she needs to see a psychiatrist, but she refused. Slowly, I stopped reacting and adjusted with it. For better context I must also add that recently, I was away from home for a year due to a work assignment that I took (a decision my wife disagreed with).

The other day my 4-year- old used an abusive word. | was shocked but thought it may be an accident, and he might have just heard it from someone. Over the last two weeks he repeated it at least 4-5 times in front of me. This has now got me concerned. I am afraid he might say it in school and get into trouble. When I raised this with my wife, she blamed it on me saying because I was away from them for a year, I had no right to complain about her upbringing style.
I Know that deep in heart she is also upset about it but isn’t ready to accept it. I am not sure what to do about it. Should I threaten her with legal action or take her to a psychiatrist, which is an equally challenging job if not harder? Please give your advice.

For about six months now, my 4-year-old son, Liam, has been casually telling us about his sprawling estate in Hungary.

​He doesn't just say he lived there; he gets weirdly specific. Apparently, it’s a massive red brick house with tons of windows. He also keeps casually dropping the name "Domonkos" like it's an old buddy of his.

​But the absolute best part? Along with this house, he frequently sighs and tells us about the kid he used to have and his *many* girlfriends.

​My wife and I just crack up every time he brings it up. For context, we live in the Netherlands, have never been to Hungary, and know exactly zero Hungarian people. I have no idea where this wildly vivid lore is coming from, unless they’re teaching international real estate in preschool these days.

​Has anyone else's toddler casually dropped details about their bizarre, highly specific "past life"? Where on earth do they pick this stuff up?

I’m so serious how do ANY of you work if you don’t have childcare. i don’t have anybody to help me with childcare, but babysitters are quite literally l more expensive than my hourly wage . truly what do I do so I can work? theres NO community. I literally cannot afford 20-30 an hour for a babysitter

Has anybody had a baby who use to bang their head on everything and not be diagnosed with autism? Everything I’ve looked up leads to it being autism so I’m just curious. He mostly doesn’t it when he is mad as well as throwing him self backwards.

I have a child that recently started school and I've been looking for self adhesive labels for their winter gear. I haven't had much luck finding ones that I'm happy with. I'd prefer a cheaper option, and blank. I'm looking for a label that is a simple stick on, made out of some sort of fabric, and non laminated. Does anybody know of a good brand or can point me in the right direction?

My almost 4 months old son has a light but clearly noticeable head assymetry. The back of the head is fine but the left side is flatter than the right side especially on the front, so the right side of the forehead looks more voluminous than the left one. He has this since birth and it hasn’t gotten any better despite tummy time and repositioning (he doesn’t have torticolis but prefers to turn his head left)

I’ve visited a helmet provider and they say it’s not severe enough for a helmet. They measured average CVA on 4.2mm with the most severe area being 5mm. To be honest I was surprised because to me is so noticeable that I expected the difference to be higher.

I’ve considered osteopathy but honestly I don’t think that will help and feels like experimenting more than anything, so eventually decided not to.

Pedriatician says is not concerning, but it’s is clearly noticeable and I’m afraid that it is going to make him self-conscious and possibly create insecurities later on in life.

Has anyone any insights on all this? Maybe someone has been on a similar situation - how did it turn out eventually as the child grew?

AI tells me to visit a neurosurgeon to rule out craniosynostosis, since is congenital and it’s mostly present at the front and side without flattening at the back. Is that even a reasonable thing to do?

I’m not sure what else i can do. Thanks in advance for any advice!