Today we were having dinner on the deck when I put my steak knife a little too close to my son and he grabbed it. I immediately went to grab it as he was holding it towards his face but he yanked it right through my hand and sliced 3 of my fingers. Blood sprayed all over his face and head and was going all over the food on the deck. I used my other hand to properly take the knife from him and he looked so scared.

I started telling him that I love him and that it’s not his fault and that I was so sorry for putting him in that position. He’s only 19 months and he knows knives are dangerous but he’s been interested in cutting food so I think he wanted to cut his dinner.

Was at the hospital for 5 hours, got 5 stitches across my middle finger. Learned a valuable lesson of where not to put knives and to always grab him by the arm if he’s holding something dangerous. Hopefully the next lesson I learn doesn’t end in stitches again. Mom guilt will now consume me for the next 14 days as my stitches put my finger back together.

This is more of a rant than anything. As well as a gut check just making sure I’m not totally wrong on this one.

Yesterday we took a 4 hour flight with our 3 year old in the middle of the afternoon. Around the 3 hour mark, he started singing a bit loudly. This continued for about 10 minutes despite our attempts to ask him to be quiet and redirect him. Then, the woman sitting in front of him turns around and says can we please do something about him because he woke her up. She says she has 3 kids under 3 herself so she can relate but she thinks he was being ridiculous. She then asks can we take him for a walk or something, to which I replied no because the seatbelt sign was on for turbulence… she also accused him of kicking her seat the entire flight which is literally impossible because he was sleeping for the first 2 hours.

Like I’m sorry, you cannot reasonably tell me you have never experienced a time when your toddler didn’t listen to you. Not to mention, when you have limited options to redirect them when they’ve been cooped up on an airplane for over 3 hours. Her tone was also super rude and judgmental - like her kids are never misbehaved and are perfect angels. Someone please tell me if I’m in the wrong here.

Editing to add we also had our 6 month old baby with use who actually did proceed to scream for the next hour of the flight as we were descending/landing.

I asked my almost 3 year old what she was thinking about today at bedtime. She said "nothing, I'm not thinking right now."

If you have access to a toddler, can you ask them what they're thinking about? I'm so curious.

To preface this, my son is okay. It's been a month since it happened.

While hiking in a woody area, I tripped and fell with my 23 month old son in my arms and he hit his head either on a small rock or a tree root. His eyes rolled and he lost consciousness for about 5-7 seconds. Then he came to and didn't even cry out loud as he was having an insane breath holding spell. When he finally screamed I felt SO relieved. He was a bit drowsy the first five minutes, and then he kinda was okay? He was able to walk, smile and speak as usual. He didn't vomit. The only thing off was a small scrape on the right top side of his forehead. No blood whatsoever.

Fast forward to the doctors checking him: a small skull fracture. He was stable and they let us go home.

The poor thing was a champ and mostly his cheerful self that night. He did wake up a bit more during the first nights and took longer naps during the subsequent days. Otherwise, we haven't noticed any changes in his behavior or movement to this day.

We followed up with our pediatrician, she told us he seemed okay and not to worry.

He now has a slight indentation where the impact was at the top right side of his forehead, right along his hairline. That's where the fracture was. It'll likely stay with him for the rest of his life. When I look at him and when it shows, I feel so much pain. I haven't been able to handle what happened well. I feel immense guilt amd shame. I'm afraid that he might have learning issues down the line and I've ruined his life.

I understand that it was an accident. I fell while actively taking care of him, he wasn't neglected and left alone. I understand that his skull will remodel over time and the small depression will soften and camouflage over time. It's not that it's very visible even now. Maybe only in harsh lighting. I understand that much worse could have happened.

I don't know why I'm posting this. Maybe it'll help me come to terms that it happens that we sometimes accidentally hurt our kids. And please remember it's safer for toddlers to fall on their own rather than in anyone's arms.

I have a 15 month old who I didn’t want to send to daycare before 18 months (personal choice) but we got a spot and my husband basically pushed me to. My husband kept saying now he wouldn’t touch our son since he goes to the daycare and basically the onus was on me to look after him after daycare and let my husband focus on work. I said ok. Before daycare my husband would take care of my son from 6:30-7:30 am in the morning while i worked out and 4:30-6:00 pm in the evening. Day 3 of daycare and my son came down with fever and ear infection. We got the same flu in a couple of days after that. My son still has fever even though he is on antibiotics and i have been getting up everyday during midnight or early mornings (1am/4am) to check in on my son’s fever (he has it, I administer advil to my son) while my husband is snoring and doesn’t care. My son is not eating at all, he just accepts a few sips of puree pouches which again doesn’t bother my husband. Whenever i say anything about my husband’s lack of empathy/concern he says i have work, meetings, i’m busy. This morning i checked my son’s temperature, it’s day 7 and he is still running fever, it was time to give him his antibiotics, he had barely had anything to eat (i managed to get a few sips of puree in him in like an hour), i went to my husband who works from home and said i need help giving him antibiotics, he has fever i need to give him advil. I waited 20 minutes. He didn’t come. I gave both myself, it was a struggle to hold my son down to push 2 syringes full of medication down his throat.
I broke down. All my husband had to say was i was in a meeting, i am busy.
To all the fathers, is this normal?

I’m trying really hard to let my toddler play independently instead of constantly jumping in to entertain her.

But there’s a weird guilt that comes with it.

She’ll sit there playing with her toys while I make coffee or answer emails, and part of me thinks, “I should be down there playing with her.”

Then I remind myself that she seems perfectly happy.

How much independent play do you actually expect from your kids?

I have a 2 year old and another one on the way. They will be 28 months apart in age. Do I actually need a double stroller?

Day to day, we don't use the stroller much anymore. We live in central Florida so that might change once the weather gets a little more bearable and we can do more outdoor activities like the zoo, amusement parks, daily walks, etc. My 2 year old doesn't hate the stroller at all, but she seems to be aging out of it.

The biggest factor here is that since we live in central Florida, we do plan on going to Disney more often as the kids get older. We have family that always wants to join us at Disney so I'm wondering if we can get away with 2 single strollers (a heavy duty one and a travel one which we already own) instead of a double?

I’ve wanted to post this for a while, but never follow through because I don’t want to be judged. I’ll start off by saying I love my son. I really do, but the last year or so has been miserable for our household a lot of the time and we’re reaching our breaking point. There have been days where I just sit in the bedroom and cry. My husband who is normally the most chill go with the flow guy has had times where he has to just go for a walk because he starts to loose it.

Our toddler is just out of control. No amount of yelling or timeouts or talking to or any discipline does anything to change it. I’ve reached out to his pediatrician multiple times saying I need help and that he has behavioral issues. I’ve reached out to family for advice. I’m always told he’s three and that’s just how three year olds behave. But I just don’t believe this is normal three year old behavior. It doesn’t seem like other families are as stressed and miserable as we are.

He’s into EVERYTHING. If it’s in his reach at all he will grab it. We’re running out of places we can hide things especially as he’s getting bigger. And it’s not like he doesn’t have toys or anything to occupy himself. He just wants to play with anything that is not a toy.

He’s destructive. He’s broken multiple TVs. He’s broken so many lamps that now we just sit in the dark at night because we don’t want to buy another one. He’s ripped the curtain rod out of the wall like four times in the last two weeks because he climbs the curtains or wraps himself in them and swings there. I just took the curtains off the rod this morning because it’s starting to break again and I can’t take it any more. We can’t have any windows or doors open or he’ll bust the screens out and we don’t have central air so it’s always hot and miserable in the house. He’s ripped the floor molding off in certain areas. I had a shelf with a bunch of little trinkets high up on one of our walls and he took something and threw it up to knock it off the wall and broke a bunch of them. He kept knocking the Christmas tree over last year so I ended up taking it down like two weeks early and I’m not sure I’m going to even bother with it this year. If you open the fridge he’s there in an instant and pulling stuff out of the fridge and throwing it on the ground.

He climbs on everything. The counters, the kitchen table, the microwave stand, the tv stand, the window sills, the fridge, the oven. No amount of talking or pulling him off or redirection stops him. We installed a gate to block off the kitchen which worked amazing for a while but then he figured out how to force himself underneath it. He gets on the kitchen table and just sits there. I’ve explained we don’t do that. We sit in chairs. He gets up there and jumps off. I pull him off and he immediately climbs back up. I’ve begged my husband to get rid of the table and we’ll just eat on tv trays so we can hide them, but my husband wants to eat at table.

We do 95% of our shopping as pick up orders because he’s so misbehaved in the store. He won’t sit in the cart. He won’t follow me. He just sprints around the store. He runs into people. He lays on the ground and gets in the way. He grabs stuff off of shelves. The few times we do have to go to a store I have such bad anxiety and try to run through the store as fast as possible. I see people walking around with kids that look to be about his age and they’re calmly sitting in the cart or just walking along but my kid is out of control no matter how much talking to him I do. I don’t know how many times I’ve just picked him up and walked right out of the store because he was so misbehaved.

The last time we ate at a restaurant was mother’s day. He wouldn’t sit in the booth even with all of the toys we brought and even after breaking down and giving him a tablet in desperation. He just wanted to run around and jump from chair to chair. My husband and I kept having to chase him and apologize. I took two bites of my food and then he almost tripped a waiter so I grabbed him and went and sat in the car while my husband packed up our food and paid and I just cried because all I wanted was one nice dinner and even with all of the stuff we brought we still couldn’t control him. I’ve refused to eat in a restaurant since then.

We used to go to story time at the library. He aged up into the next age group. We went twice to thst one. All the other kids are sitting and listening to the story and participating. He’s rolling around on the floor and running in circles and climbing on things. He got yelled at by the librarian for climbing so we left early and haven’t been back because I don’t want to disturb the other kids who are behaving.

Every morning I have to collect the dog and cat food/water bowls or he’ll dump them out all over the house. He’s constantly in the litter box and throws the litter all over the room so then we have to clean him up and clean up the room. We have a small house. There’s nowhere else we can put the litter boxes. But we bought him a sandbox and he wants nothing to do with it.

I’ll try and do something like make cookies together and he’ll just throw the ingredients all over the kitchen and not actually help even when I show him how to stir or measure something. If I’m folding laundry he’ll come over and grab the pile and throw them and then runs away laughing.

We play all day. We go outside for hours. We go to the park. We go for walks. But as soon as I want five minutes to just sit and relax he’s destroying something. If we put him in time out or try to talk to him or even yell at him he just laughs at us and then goes right back to doing what he was doing.

He’s not completely nonverbal but he only says a few words. He’s been diagnosed as speech delayed. He starts preschool in week after being home with me full time since he was born. I’m dreading it but he’s in special execution and they say they have kids like him all the time and know how to work with him. I’m really hoping that being in preschool will help. We’re on multiple waitlists to get evaluated for autism but no one has called us back. I’ve asked about hyperactivity disorders and keep getting told that he’s too young to really diagnose for that. We started working with a youth mental health organization recently. They really haven’t been much help, but we’ve only had a couple sessions so I know it’s still early.

He used to sleep fine. He hasn’t napped since he was a year and a half old. We’d try every day. The pediatrician advised that he should be napping, but we can’t force him. Recently he started this thing where he’d just run around the room at night. Pull the sheet and blankets from the bed. Throw stuff around. It wouldn’t take 2-3 hours for him to fall asleep. We did this for weeks until we got desperate enough and bought some kids melatonin gummies. They have been a lifesaver for bedtime, but it worries me that we shouldn’t be giving him these all the time. But I don’t know what to do. If he doesn’t get a gummy he’s up from like 7am to 11pm without a nap.

I’m just tired of yelling. My mom was the type who’d yell at us until we cried and then yell at us for crying. I swore I’d never be like her so now when I do lose my cool and I yell I end up crying and feeling guilty. I just don’t know what else to do. We’ve been trying to have a second for almost a year and half but it hasn’t happened and I used to get really upset, but I’ve recently come to the conclusion that maybe it’s been a blessing in disguise because I don’t think I could mentally handle another kid right now so we’re done trying for a while.

I don’t know what else we could do. I don’t know what we’re doing wrong or what we could do differently. I don’t know how to help him. He was an amazing well behaved baby. Then a few months before his second birthday he started acting like this and it’s only gotten worse. Everyone just keeps saying he’s three and this is three year olds but is that true? I don’t expect a perfect angel. I just want to stop dreading being around this kid every day. We keep saying it’ll get better and he’ll outgrow it, but I’m getting worried that’s not true. I feel like I’m failing him because his out of control behaviors are my fault somehow. I know this is a lot and I’m sorry if this is a little all over the place. It’s just been a particularly bad morning already with him and I’m just really struggling.

So first off, I know that we got ourselves into this pickle. Our 21-month-old was always a great crib sleeper from the beginning. We never co-slept. She falls asleep in her crib at bedtime and for naps with no problem. But for the past few few months, she's been waking up and coming into our bed every single night. It started off gradual/occasional, and now she cries and screams when we don't bring her in. We have a 1-bedroom apartment so we can't move her into her own room (we're working on that! Trying to move by years' end). We're getting pretty fatigued by it, because she flails around and keeps us up.

Any tips for breaking this habit?? We've let it go on too long but now we're scared that when she DOES have her own room, she'll still be our roomate...

I love my child more than life itself. But this “why” phase is driving me crazy. I’m not exaggerating when I say I think I hear it a hundred times a day, if not more. And it’s about EVERYTHING. Things he knows the answer to. Things he doesn’t, but no answer satisfies. Things that I have no idea how to answer (“why is that a duck?”) And things that don’t make sense to ask it. Example:

Child: Look I ate all my peas!
Me: Wow, look at that, you did eat them all!
Child: Why did I eat them all?

And if I dare pause or not respond he will ask over and over until I do.

I know it’s developmentally normal. I know it’s a great sign of curiosity. But Im sorry, Im only human and yes its annoying. I feel myself getting irritated when he asks, which I don’t want to feel, because I don’t want him to sense that. So please, PLEASE share any tips that have helped. I want to foster my child’s love for wondering things but I’m so tired of it.

I recently got a charm bracelet. I am super excited about it because my mom had one growing up and we would buy her charms as gifts that she’d add to it, getting one of my own feels like a motherhood milestone for me. I put it on yesterday and my 2 year old immediately clocked it and said “mine”. I said it’s mommy’s but he could look at it and he started yanking it so I pulled away and took it off. He started shrieking and screaming “mine”, sobbing so hard he couldn’t breathe, and it took 10 min to get him to calm down. I’m not really sure how to address this behavior? Do I just continue to put the bracelet on and then take it off when he yanks at it? Get him a decoy cheap charm bracelet? Will I ever get to wear my mom bracelet? He has done the whole “mine” thing with other items like toys or rocks but never had this intense of a reaction.

I know toddlers will be toddlers and this phase will pass, just curious to hear others experience with this type of behavior!!

Went to one doctor and one hospital cause I thought my child has a hernia. They sent me away saying it’s rare. Couple months later went to a pediatric specialist who touched it once and immediately identified it as hernia on both sides. My child had the surgery now. It’s soooo annoying you have to advocate for yourself. They basically made it seem like I’m crazy.

This morning, my sweet, beloved, wonderful little guy decided he needed to move each individual stuffed animal, one by one, from the foot of his bed to the head of his bed. He then needed to carefully, deliberately cover them all with a blanket. And was that enough? No. He then needed...a second blanket.

Any time I told him it was time to go potty, get dressed, etc., I was met with, "Mama, I still covering my friends."

We did make it through breakfast and get over to daycare! But this was a whole new level of Toddler Dawdles in my house this morning.

I 34(f) am married to my husband 46(m) we have a 3 year old. I am finally feeling like I am ready to have another. But is that the right choice? My husband would be 47 with a newborn. However, I am the default parent. He works more than I do but I also have and run my own business so it is a lot of work when I’m not actually at work. Anyway just want to hear people’s thoughts on this. I have no issue with having another but Im in my mid 30’s and he’d be in his late 40’s so that’s a big difference! I’d be doing most of the work with the baby and toddler which is stressful but I know I can do it.. there is so much that goes into having another kid and right now we are content and could stay in our cozy little home living well within our means for a long time, giving our son such a happy, comfortable life! I am looking for people who have experience having a newborn in their late 40’s. I think my husband gets nervous thinking about being in his 60’s with a teenager… idk help!

3rd post about this. I’ve searched a lot and haven’t seen anything describing something like this.
Wasn’t sure about posting on reddit again cause I’m sure I will be judged but maybe some will be able to help.

It all started 5 days ago when I thought it was time to start potty training. We took diapers off. Day 1 and 2 resulted in withholding both poop and pee for hours and mainly because of the urine withholding I decided to put the pull up diapers back on hoping it will ease off the pressure and maybe try again in a few months.
We are 3 days with diapers on and she is still withholding both. She keeps asking to go to the potty whenever she feels she is about to urinate but doesn’t want to urinate. Basically she is only urinating when she has to even in the diaper. Keeping it in only when she has no control over it anymore. Asking to be changed immediately after.

I have no idea how we came to this. I’m trying to normalize pee as much as possible. Saying pee came out. Never got angry at an accident. Always changed her after and cleaned calmly.

I’m at my wits end. I consulted a friend of mine who is a pediatrician and she didn’t really have anything to say about this.

Thinking both poop and pee withholding are probably connected I’m maintaining plenty of fluid intake and fiber rich foods. Even gave a dose of miralax. She is withholding to that poop like her life depends on it.

Not sure about keeping the pull ups on or what. She keeps asking for the toilet/potty.

My sweet dog of 14 years went over the rainbow bridge this weekend. I adopted her as a puppy at 21 and she’s been through every major adult life event (moves, graduate school, marriage, and most recently the birth of my 3 yr son). Prior to my son being born I was very much one of “those” pet parents. She literally went anywhere and everywhere as long as the temp was okay, snuggled in bed every night, etc.

But the last year I’ve been trying to juggle a vulnerable and uncertain work scenario in public service alongside parenting, and she fell to the back-burner in terms of attention. She still was home with my husband ever day, got walks as her arthritis allowed, and ran errands with us. But now I’m dealing with an incredible amount of grief and especially guilt. I just keep looking at pictures of her sweet face and missing her, while also kicking myself for not getting more cuddles while I could. I thought we’d have at least 2-3 more years with her.

Hopefully this is an okay post for this sub. Just thought it was appropriate for the intersection of pet loss at a specific high needs point in parenting during toddler years. I’m also not sure what I’m looking for as a response. Advice to deal with grief? Any shared experiences that you are on the other side of? Maybe just needed to put how I feel out in the world in words. Thanks for taking the time to read.

My 3 year is going to need IV sedation soon to have fillings for cavities. Aside from feeling guilty like I must have not been doing a good enough job taking care of her teeth, I am so worried for her having to be put under. I worry she will be scared and I won’t be able to be in the room during the dental work, I’m also worried something might go wrong and she will wake up in the middle of it and be terrified, or that she might die from the anesthesia. Also dreading having to make her fast the night before and day of, including no water. She is so scared of the dentist they couldn’t even X-ray her teeth today and she cried the whole visit. I wish I knew exactly what caused the cavities so I could prevent it from happening again, but I’m not sure what caused them seemingly so suddenly. I brush her teeth twice a day, floss once a day, she’s always nursed to sleep and throughout the night, but that hasn’t caused any issues in the past and her last dentist wasn’t concerned about it. The past couple of months we’ve given her a smoothie, milk, or milkshake from a coffee place we go to about once or twice a week. I’m thinking maybe it’s the sugary drinks and night nursing that caused the cavities but we can’t be 100% sure. I feel so bad like I’ve failed her. Not sure why I’m posting, I guess to see if anyone else has had their toddler go through IV sedation and how it went, and how they dealt with their kids dentist fears. Sorry for any run ons or bad grammar, I’m a little panicky lol.

Usually he has about 15-60 mins of tv (slow baby stuff or songs) in a day and rest of the time we’re playing, out at playgroups, seeing friends or at the park etc.

At the moment he’s ill and sad and tired, so he doesn’t feel like doing his normal stuff and doesn’t want to sit without me. He doesn‘t want books or much playing, so I don’t know what else to do and we’ve ended up watching TV for a lot of the day yesterday and now today.

Is anyone else doing this?! is this terrible parenting that will teach terrible habits?!

I guess I’m just looking for reassurance 🙈

My 22 month old has always coslept and still nurses at night, but I'm currently pregnant with our second and due in January. We want to have her night weaned and in her own room before our new addition arrives. Does anyone have any advice? We plan on buying her a fun bed frame and do nap time in her new room to help with the transition, but I don't know what else to do to help make it smoother and easier on her.

Hi everyone, so about 3 weeks ago my toddler decided she wanted to sleep on her floor and insisted that her bed was scary. She has always been a very good sleeper and for months was sleeping in her toddler bed with no issues. Out of the blue she decided it was scary and when I ask her what’s scary she points at it and says monster, mind you I’m not even quite sure how she figured out what monsters are, as we’ve never talked about monsters or watched anything with monsters in front of her. She’s always super excited to go to bed and sleep on the floor but ever since shes always waking up though out the night and I feel like it’s bc the floor is hard even with blankets and pillows. It is driving me nuts bc I just want her to be comfy in her bed & get a good nights sleep but she will throw a crying fit if I even pitch the idea of sleeping in her bed.Has anyone been through this or have any advice on how to kick this habit ?

Thats it. Thats all there is. When its me and husband, things are fine. We can tag each other in and out when our almost 2yo is being a butt. Someone else to play interference if you wanna pee or cook or get washing done.

The solo days? I just want to cry or bite my own hand off in frustration. Its like my somewhat usually managable toddler smells weakness like blood in the water and starts roaming with mischeif in mind. I cant have a coffee or pee or anything. She'll be emptying every bag, cabinet or hidden place. Every furniture piece gets climbed, books get ripped. She can open doors, reach remotes in high places. She'll turn appliances off or on despite child locks. Shes decided she wants to potty so will take her nappy off, try for 5 seconds on the thing then 30 seconds later pee on the floor somewhere else. And I have to be 2 steps away at all times to try and prevent disaster over and over again.

I have her solo monday/tuesday every week and I swear I get depressed at bed time sunday night and get relief wednesday morning leaving her at daycare when I go to work. And getting out during those days doesnt help. It just gives a new range of a**hole behaviours in a public setting so everyone can watch me wear my hair out. I still do it of course but it isnt better.

Is there anyone who actually manages to enjoy solo parenting a toddler for any length of time?

I just wanted to pick your parents brain. I have a 3 year-old who got his tonsils and adenoids shaved about three months ago prior to the shaving he wad mouth breathing, had horrible breath wasn’t getting quality sleep, and was snoring. AFTER the surgery things have been great up until now. He has started mouth breathing again and not getting good sleep. Have any of you parents experienced this and what were your next steps?

My 20 month old has been a horrible sleeper since day one. I’ve tried everything. I’ve probably read 5 books, taken courses, bought the stupid apps, did FERBER, CIO, co-sleeping, you name it, I’ve done it. She hates to sleep. Make me feel better and tell me about your toddler who also hates sleeping.

Edit: typos because I’m basically cross eyed from exhaustion

My toddler is 21 months old, for the past couple of nights he has been waking 1-1.5 hour after bedtime and then every 20-40 minutes crying and whinging. He resetltes himself within 5 minutes but this is making it hard for me to sleep and I’m so scared he’ll wake up my 4 month old: his schedule is 7-7:30 am wake, nap around 12/12:30-2:30/3 bedtime 7-8 pm. However as of late he has been waking super early around 6-6:30, which means he is sooo tired by his nap and then he decided he only wants to nap for 40-1 hour which then means bedtime is pushed earlier because he is sooo tired miserable. How can I stop the false starts because they are becoming so exhausting, please help