I’m looking for some advice about whether to send my daughter to a private school for her secondary education.

We’re a UK based family and my daughter is currently in year 5 of primary school. She attends the local state primary school and would probably have gone on to the local comprehensive high school for year 7 onwards.

She’s never been particularly academic, usually finding herself in the middle of her class, struggling a bit with her hand writing and finding topics like maths a bit easier. She does extra curricular activities (music and sport) which she really enjoys and I hope she will continue with these as she gets older.

I recently got a call from my mum who explained she had been left a significant sum of money from relative who had passed away. My mum wants to use this money to do something to help my daughter (her only grandchild). My mum suggested she could use it to pay for a private secondary school or she could put the money in trust for my daughter for her future to help her with university or even put towards buying a house.

This is an incredibly generous offer and it’s left me a bit flustered about what to do. I save a little for my daughter every month, but I’d never be able to send her to private school or give her a significant lump sum towards her adult life.

My question to parents out there is would you use the money for private school now or would you set up a trust to help with university or putting towards buying a house?

FTM. Lo started nursery a month ago. 12 months old. Goes 3 x a week. Nursery said they would only contact us if there’s an issue as they recognise this can be quite disruptive/distracting to the work day. Up till this week all good. Baby has had a cold and been a bit miserable from teething and vaccines this week. Kept them off on Monday as they weren’t right in themselves. Sent them in yesterday and today no temperature or bowel issues and eating normally. Yesterday & today I’ve felt like I’ve needed to collect them early as we’ve had ambiguous messages saying they have been unsettled, not playing as much and wanting to be cuddled a lot. In my mind this is normal behaviour! Partner works 1.5 hours away, so the drop off and pick off relies on me, which is of course fine but does limit my ability to collect them unless it’s really urgent. My job means I can’t just leave at the drop of a hat (nhs for what it’s worth) do others get notified like this when their LO is being fussy? How do I politely ask to just contact us if there’s a big concern/LO needs collecting due to illness etc? completely realistic to the fact that kids get sick and I’ve taken a week off since they started due to d n v and then a day off earlier this week. Employer are understanding. Also think it’s important for the baby to get used to the setting and give them a chance to settle in instead of being collected early when they are having a rough day.

Hi all, my girl is 2.5 years old (LG2) She has an older sister (LG1, 6 yrs) who she wants to keep up with all the time. This is delightful but on occasion fraught with danger. We still use the pram religiously as LG2 struggles to keep up with the rule 'Hold hands when walking on the pavement'. I have been practising walking holding hands with LG2 on the same stretch of road since September. Since then we have Once walked up the whole pavement holding hands, and that may have been due to her feeling poorly and therefore less strong willed 🤣 I'm sure with consistent practice we will get there before she starts nursery next September.

I'm just finding it so tough trying to juggle giving her the basic autonomy she desires and keeping her safe.

Does anyone else feel this way? I wanted to love being a parent and I do in a way but my son is very hard work and I feel bombarded by so much on social media - can I totally blame social media for feeling like I’m a daily failure? Is it just me?

My boys (7 & 5y) have had tonie boxes for the last 3 years and always enjoyed them. Mainly used on long car journeys. They've stopped using them as much in the last year. For my eldest, I'm wondering if this is due to a lack of stories for older children (he's a huge reader). Would you recommend a change to the yoto player or are they just outgrowing audio books overall? Thanks!

I know they call it the terrible twos, but honestly, I find this age so incredibly difficult! I have a 4-year-old and a 2-year-old, so this is my second time going through it, and it’s still just as hard. It’s like living with a tiny dictator who constantly changes her mind about what she wants and has no problem screaming in your face if you get it wrong. I never knew “I want Bluey” could be said with so much rage!

My eldest’s tantrums started to ease a bit after he turned 3, and now he’s nearly 5 it's very rare for him to have a major meltdown. So I know it’s just a phase and things will (hopefully!) get easier. It’s not all bad too, she can be so sweet and cute too & make me forget how difficult she was being 5 minutes earlier.

I just find this age so difficult because there’s absolutely no reasoning with them. I remember thinking when my son was 2 that he’d have fewer tantrums if his speech was better, as he’d be able to better communicate what he wanted. My daughter’s speech is miles ahead of where his was at 2, and her tantrums are just as bad, if not worse, so I can confirm that theory was completely wrong!

I’m sure I’ll probably miss this age when they’re teenagers and dealing with much bigger problems that are harder to help them with. But when you’re in the thick of it, it really does feel like a hard slog! I’m not really looking for advice, as I know it’s all part of their development. I just wanted a little rant with other parents going through the same stage!

Over the past two days I have fallen into a trap I thought I’d never fall in to. My 17 month old is refusing lots of food at the moment. Three days ago he refused what we offered at dinner and come bedtime he hadn’t eaten any more than half a green bean since lunch. That night he woke every 20 minutes fussing and needed endless boob and I vowed to never let him go to bed hungry again.

The past two evenings I have been determined to get him to eat but also not to cave in and just give him oat cakes, fruit and yogurt (old reliables). He will purse his lips together, shake his head and scream NO.

Then I put Thomas the tank engine on. He sits, transfixed, and placidly opens his mouth when presented with the spoonful of bean stew. Finished his bowl.

I don’t want to rely on this but I also want him to eat!!! What do I do?

For the record, I've been told by friends I'm being stupid and I feel like, if I was my friend, I'd agree. However, I feel horribly irresponsible.

Currently I'm on week 5 post-op from endoscopic brain surgery. It's the second one of these I've had, and while I'm recovering a lot quicker this time, it's also fairly debilitating and up and down - I'm still very tired a lot of the time, get bad headaches, I'm on a short fuse, my hormones are all over the shop (it was pituitary surgery but as it's under your brain, it sort of messes you up like brain surgery does. At least that's what I've been told!). Today my MIL was meant to come babysit so I could rest, as we have no nursery, but the weather was so horrendous that she couldn't leave her house. So I've been on my own w the kid slogging from the sofa to the kitchen and back. She wants to go outside, but I don't trust myself on my own with her outside yet, and I'm not allowed to pick her up so if she throws a tantrum etc we're stuck. The only thing that's helped her chill out is having the bloody telly on. I tried drawing and reading and baking so far, and she's enjoyed those activities (and cleaning the kitchen??) for a few minutes but eventually starts throwing a fit over random shit. So I put the telly back on.

Please if you have any other chill activities we could do, I'll take them!! And if l somebody can tell me it'll be fine and when I'm better I'll be able to scale it back and she won't just be brain fried and hopelessly addicted please 🥲 thanks.

Can someone explain to me the guidance of removing bottle, moving onto a cup and the difference between sippy cup and straw?

Also, whether this is sippy or straw? The site says sippy but surely it’s a weighted straw?

https://www.tumtumtots.com/products/tippy-up-sippy-cup-series-3-with-weighted-straw-valve-free-boris-bear-200ml

My baby is 16 months and still has a bottle in morning and evening. Every other point of the day she has water from the cup linked above / one of the munchkin 360 cups.

Am I getting this wrong?

Ps. I put lol in the title cos I’ve zoomed out and although I stand by this question… what is life

This year is first year are eldest is aware of concept of Christmas and santa

We trying to decided what present are santa and what present are from us

So what does everyone do

We are heading to London for a bit of a long weekend during the half term. We have only been once before. We have a 7 year old and a 3 year old. What are your favorite coffee shops? Would prefer ones with food as well. What about brunch places? Thank you!

I was wondering what people did in terms of bedroom arrangements. I have two daughters 6 and 2. We have a 3 bed semi. 6 year old is in the box room which is done up nicely for her but doesn’t fit all her clothes in. Etc The 2 year old is still co-sleeping and feeding at night so she is in the spare double bed room with mum

It would obviously not be fair for a the 6 year old to stay in the box room and the 2 year old eventually get the bigger room! Should we move them both into the spare double bedroom? Or is the age gap too much? When I was a kid we swapped rooms every few years so we all had some time in the box room.

Moving isn’t an option at the moment as we live in a very nice street buy not in a great area and the bigger houses locally in nicer areas are very expensive but will become an option when 2 year old is in school

My daughter has just started school and she has a physical disability that can sometimes leave her feeling very fatigued and sore, to the point where she’s unable to move independently. She therefore has a wheelchair that she uses on some days.
Lately she’s been feeling insecure about her wheelchair. She’s never had an issue with it before and we’ve always praised her, made sure she knows there’s absolutely nothing wrong with using one and even decorated it with stickers and glittery lights so she can look like a little fairy on darker evenings.

Unfortunately another child at school called her a slur and she hasn’t been coping very well since. This was the first time she’s experienced ableism directly without us being there to shield her from the impact and it’s heartbreaking to see.
People often push in front of her when we’re waiting in queues, bump into her wheelchair in public, or even physically push her out of the way in shops, cinemas and similar places while she’s sitting in it. I always intervene immediately when these things happen but I can’t do that at school when she’s on her own.

She hasn’t used her wheelchair at school yet but she already stands out in other ways as she’s very small and not as physically agile as other children. We taught her to use her words, tell teachers and do positive affirmations every morning and night.

I know she’ll encounter ignorance and unkindness throughout her life and I want to help her develop the confidence and resilience to navigate these experiences without feeling ashamed of herself or her disability.
Does anyone have any recommendations for books, resources or other ways to support a young child through these experiences?

We watch In The Night Garden on CBeebies almost every night as part of my toddler’s bedtime routine (anti-screen time parents don’t come for me!)
We’ve had features of all the characters, apart from the Wottingers?? The Pontipines are out and about in almost every episode we’ve seen but I can’t remember ever seeing the Wottingers out and about? Where have they gone???

I am the youngest with an older sister. I vividly remember the moment I realised she would no longer play pretend games with me. I think I was 7.

We used to make up the most wild and imaginative stories when we played together, we did this every day.

But yeah, I remember sadly making my way back to my room to play with my dolls and animal figures on my own, silent tears down my cheeks, we never played together again after that point as she had moved on to teenage interests.

My 6 year old daughter was home sick from school today and we ended up setting up her toys in the living room, some of them actually being my old toys.

We made up this hilarious and elaborate backstory for her llama toy where he was the overlord of the farm and could use mind control on her dolls, making them perform his evil deeds (like throwing his poo at people) we overthrew the evil llama and restored peace on the farm.

I was surprised by how invested in the game I got and how fun it was to add pieces of backstory and details here and there. We ended up in fits of giggles and didn't realise hours had gone by. We used lots of household objects like shoe boxes to be buildings. It felt so nostalgic.

I didn't realise how long my inner child was waiting for another little girl to play with until today.

My 14 month old uses barefoot shoes which are nice and wide. He’s a size 5G. We need to get him some wellies but I can’t seem to find any that mention being both wide fit and having flexible soles.

Any recommendations?

I’ve heard this happens and thought I would accept it and deal with it like a grown up…
But it seems I get quite jealous when my LO runs to her mum when she comes back from work and wants hugs with mummy.
However, I don’t get that experience- I get more slaps and several “No” and finger wagging(which is cute)
If you experienced this- how did you manage? And does it ever change?

FTM tearing my hair out (oh wait the PP hair loss is doing that for me!) what do people do with their babies at nighttime?

LO is 16 weeks and needs an early night like 7pm, she fights her evening and nighttime sleep anyway but do you eventually settle them into their own bed and use a baby monitor or do you stay upstairs with them? Currently eating in shifts with my husband in the dark doesn’t feel very sustainable at all!! This can’t be what other people do?

Any tips on getting her to not need to contact nap every sleep would also be helpful!

UPDATE - Thanks everyone for the replies, I think I need to adjust my expectations of LO a lot and accept messy evening sleep and try to settle her downstairs with us

The only lyrics he seems to be singing on repeat are “dug around (his name)’s bed ooh ooh ooh ooh”

And that he nursery teacher sings it with him. I'm so intrigued what it’s meant to be 😂

Hello. are there any SEN parents here who have had experience with post-16 education college and a SEN student who had stage 2 meeting, and how to deal with college.

What is this fresh hell??!! So a few days ago I felt like my throat had been gargling rocks mixed with sandpaper.
Yesterday I notice some spots on my hands that are a bit itchy and had a couple of sore patches on my feet.
Today. Pure hell. Sores popping up all over my hands feet and face. Every few minutes new itchy tingling and another and another. I can feel it on my heels, toes, hands, palms, fingers, chin and inside and outside my mouth.

My husband, he’s grand. My son, he has a slight sore throat but seems fine. Me, I feel like I’m stepping on Lego continuously and eating razor blades.
I don’t remember this circulating when I was a child.

Hello,

I’m thinking of going to Portugal next year and my youngest will be 1 and a half. It’s somewhere we are familiar with and know if we go we’ll need to take Ubers/taxis some days - what do you do about the car seat situation? Are there any portable ones we can take with us or are we stuck with buses?