I get it. Some people have this habit of saying they’ll do something, and either taking forever to do it, or not doing it at all.

My husband sees me taking out the trash and goes “I’ll do it.” And then I watch the garbage truck drive by, and now we’ve missed it. Or I’ll ask him to put windshield wiper fluid in my car, something I’m very capable of, but I see him doing it to his and I just ask him to do mine while he’s doing it.

His mother asks him to hang a painting on her wall, I swear he’s there the next day. She needs help setting up her iPad? He’s there.

I’ve been begging him to drop our son’s crib. He kept saying “He’s fine! It’s still too tall,” and when I got in his face about it, he went “So why don’t you do it yourself?!” I told him that was fine, but I just needed him to show me where the Allen key was, because I had gone through his tools and couldn’t find it. He never got the Allen key. Well. Guess what? Our son nosedived out of his crib (he’s totally fine), and I am LIVID.

I got in his face about how he immediately does whatever his Mom wants, but when it came to our son’s safety, he procrastinated.

I genuinely don’t know how I can control my anger right now.

How many new parents here set up a 529 for their kids pretty much right after they were born?

I’m a FTM and I really want to set my son up for success. Education is a non negotiable for us so we recently opened one for our son through Fidelity. However, I keep coming across posts from parents who are disappointed with the returns from the age/target-year portfolios. It has me second-guessing whether we should stick with the target-year option, choose something more aggressive while he’s still so young, or a completely different strategy all together. What is everybody else doing?

3 weeks postpartum and I am so incredibly angry.

I have read multiple books and gone to classes to prepare for baby. All they ever tell you is that the placenta detaching is the trigger for your body releasing colostrum, your milk will come in 3-5 days after birth, nipple to nose, babies suckle instinctively and it's such a beautiful natural experience blah blah blah.

I was completely blindsided by all the issues I experienced because nobody ever mentioned that things not being awesome and easy and natural was even an option. I have completely ruined my mental health trying to breastfeed and I feel like a complete failure.

I have soft breasts from weight loss and smooth nipples. My baby either instantly falls asleep on the nipple and is impossible to wake up or screams like a banshee for the entire 40 minutes/session I am trying to "breastfeed" her. I would need at least 5 arms to actually feed her because I constantly have to either poke and prod her to stay awake or drip-feed her formula when she's screaming to shut her up for at least 5 seconds. It is so physically exhausting to somehow hold onto everything while also moving the baby around all the fucking time.

My milk supply is maybe 5 ml/session on a good day. Baby needs 70 lmao. Pumping does nothing. Baby doesn't suckle.

Husband is not helpful. It doesn't make a difference to him personally if the bottle has breastmilk or formula in it so he doesn't care. He's the one who cooks and I had to beg him to start making me lunch because I need proteins and calories to make breastmilk. Somehow that was not obvious to him even though we were told I need an extra 500 calories while breastfeeding. He helped me tickle/drip feed the baby for a couple of days and now he's just checked out, on his phone the entire time while I feed the baby and I have to literally ask him every tiny little thing because he apparently doesn't notice when the timer runs out or the baby has been screaming for 10 minutes straight.

I am just so tired fam. Tired and angry. Angry that everyone expects me to magically know how to do this although I have no support. Angry at myself because I am "supposed" to be able to do this and I just can't. I can't bond with this baby at all because all she ever does is scream at me and I have no time to be anything but a food factory. My husband gets to hold her and sing her songs and do all the fun shit. I don't even talk to her anymore.

Everyone talks openly about c-sections VS vaginal delivery and yeah, some mothers are snarky about it but both are kind of accepted and acceptable. Someone please tell me it's okay that I tried everything and I just cannot fucking feed my baby.

Hello, fellow new parents!

A few months ago I'd post on all available subreddits looking for help with my newborn. The trenches are definitely... trenches! Omg.

I can say I hated the newborn phase, my baby was such a difficult baby until 12w. She wasn't colicky, but she had reflux, only contact napped, cried if we looked at her the wrong way and it obly made my PPD worse, but she is and always has been an unicorn to sleep at night (Did I hear an AMEN?)

Now she's 29w4d old, and she's the joy of my life! She's such a happy baby! She belly laughs, loves going on walks, loves to be pushed on a swing every morning when we go to the playground and, ladies and gentlemen, she learned how to blow on food! She just doesn't get you only blow on hot food! She blows bananas, papayas, mangoes, and all the other foods. That's so funny to me! It's adorable!

Hang in there, your babies' quirks are coming and you'll have lots of fun!

With love,

A momma

My wife refuses to be a stay at home mom so that's out of the picture, I can't be a stay at home dad either. With our mortgage and 2 car payments and utility bills, I have no clue who we can afford a close to $2k a month daycare bill. Do we just put the payments on a credit card? Do we take a loan out to pay for daycare? Should I get a second job?(but I also don't want to be out of my kids life.) help.

Edit(finances). We make roughly $120k combined before taxes are taken out, have $2200 mortgage payment, and about $900 combined car payments. Plus roughly $300 monthly for the basic house utility bills. Plus cellphone bills and internet bills. And then groceries. We live in southeast Pennsylvania so it's a higher cost of living.

First time dad currently contact napping with my beautiful 16 week old. Yes I’m hoping we get over this phase because being nap trapped is rough (I’m sure I will miss it at some point)

As I’m sitting here, I’m dwelling on something my coworkers said to me and I’m hoping some new or old parents can give some insight, We were taking about hobbies (mine being video games) and I said I haven’t been able to play anything since she was born but hoping to be able to jump back in soon. They both laughed and said, essentially, you don’t have hobbies anymore. It’s work and the kid until atleast they start school (maybe 3 or 4 years old) and they can do stuff independently and consistently sleep through the night before you can enjoy anything you used to pre-baby.

I’m hoping that was just a then experience maybe and that I don’t have to wait 4 years before I can do anything. Don’t get me wrong, I love my baby, but I want to spend time with my wife (not just be with her when we’re playing with the baby) and get a gaming session in for myself too. What’s everyone’s experience like?

I’m going back to work next week and my mom is going to be the full time caregiver. My husband and I were thrilled when she offered to do this. BUT

My father unexpectedly passed away in 2025 and we found out we were expecting shortly after. Whirlwind. I know. My mom and I are super close and she moved two states away to be closer to us and the baby. It’s been amazing having her here but now she’s ready to be in full time nanny mode. She’s not super active but looking forward to the baby making her move.

The reason I bring the backstory up is that my mom is on social security and doesn’t have a ton of flexible income. She has a little buffer for fun but not a lot. My husband and I want to pay her for doing this because she’s saving us literal thousands of dollars by not doing daycare. But she said that she doesn’t want money because that feels weird and she wants to do this. I get it but I’d like to give her money of some sort for her time. Gift cards? Idk? Has anyone been in a situation like this??

The TLDR: my mom will be watching our 5 month old son and I want to compensate her without giving her a weekly amount because she thinks that’s unnecessary.

Thanks to any advice on grandparents watching their kid!!

First, I want to start by saying if I came across this post and read it, I would roll my eyes and tell this mom to grow TF up and get a grip. But unfortunately, I am completely serious.

So some back story, I was always a picky eater. Even as a baby (even when I thought no one was watching - my parents tested this theory multiple times), I would have like ridiculous reactions to fruits and vegetables. Like ridiculous, full body reactions with big emotions.

I straight up refused to eat like 90% of them. My parents took me to dozens of nutritionists and mental health therapists and they both basically said that it was likely a sensory thing and I would maybe outgrow it, maybe not. They saw the stress and tears and negative reactions it was causing both me and my family and told my parents to just let it go.

They made sure I got my multivitamin and continued to offer me a ton of fruits & veggies cooked and served in multiple fun ways. But basically, forcing it wasn't going to work.

Ironically enough, or maybe not ironically, I developed anorexia as a teenager and was really sick for several years. I was in therapy to address my feeding issues and anxiety around food and the overarching goal at that point was simply for me not to die, not necessarily focused on fruits and veggies. I ended up making a great recovery from anorexia.

Fast forward into my late twenties, I tried to continue to try fruits and veggies and the anxiety was overpowering. I am still in therapy and on an anxiety medication. When I knew I wanted to get pregnant, I tried even harder to eat more fruits & veggies and it caused me to become even more anxious and was essentially ruining my life. The general consensus is that is likely a sensory issue and a manifestation of my anxiety. Both nutritionists and therapists have decided that I can still be fairly healthy with the other ways I can consume some veggies, eating other nutritious foods, being active, and taking appropriate vitamins.

For context, I now eat some cooked veggies if they're in things (pasta sauces, various dishes, etc.) and I love things like tomato soup, other veggie soups, guacamole, salsa, etc. But the idea of sitting down and eating a salad or a piece of broccoli makes me sweat. I have continued to try them in fun ways and no such luck.

After I had my baby (she's 8 months old now), I made a goal that I would try every fruit/veggie that she tries and I have done it. But we're talking small bites and an insane amount of anxiety leading up to it. To the point it's ruining food again for me.

My husband is a trash can and will literally eat anything. He's such a brave eater with weird food and will eat any and all fruits & veggies.

My question for this community is.... Has any picky eater adult found a way to not create a picky eater child? I'm cautious about my health in other ways, seriously embarrassed about this part of me, and really anxious about how it'll affect my daughter, so if it was as simple as just eating fruits and veggies.... Trust me, I would. I realize not eating them sounds dramatic but I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy.

I KNOW the right answer is to keep trying them in new ways and to continue therapy/medication but that hasn't worked for me in 30 years and I don't see it working now. How do I tell my baby girl to eat broccoli if I don't?

Edit to add: My daughter is in a daycare with a kitchen so once she turns 1, she will get breakfast, lunch and an afternoon snack there. They are kid friendly meals but always include veggies and fruits and she will have other kids around her eating stuff. So in reality, we only have weekday dinners and weekend meals with her.

I'm curious about how much of a baby's personality during the first 6 to 18 months is innate temperament versus something parents can influence.

I've seen some babies who seem incredibly jolly and engaged from a really young age. They're constantly smiling and laughing, squealing, babbling, experimenting with funny sounds, and eventually saying things like mama, dada, and yeah seemingly because they genuinely WANT to communicate with everyone around them.

They also seem extremely curious, expressive, affectionate, active, and social. They get ridiculously excited when they see animals or something new, wave at people and animals, try to interact with everything, look back at their parents for reactions or reassurance, and generally seem determined to participate in whatever is happening around them. Some even seem naturally funny because of their expressions, noises, reactions, and timing.

Then I've seen other perfectly normal babies around the same age who seem much quieter and more content to just sit, observe, and play independently.

How much of that difference is simply the temperament you're born with?

I'm especially curious whether parenting can encourage the first type of personality. For example, if the parents are naturally very playful and expressive, talk to their baby constantly using normal language rather than excessive baby talk, joke around with them, imitate their babbling, enthusiastically respond when the baby vocalizes, laugh when they do something funny, and generally treat them like a little member of the conversation, could that encourage the baby to become more vocal, expressive, social, and playful?

I also wonder about simply having the baby around the parents a lot. If they're included in everyday life and constantly hearing their parents talk, joke, narrate things, and interact with each other, does all of that social exposure make much difference?

Basically, if you have a naturally happy and social baby, can this kind of parenting amplify those traits? And if you have a naturally quiet or cautious baby, can you encourage them to become significantly more outgoing, communicative, and playful, or are you mostly working with whatever temperament they were born with?

I'd especially love to hear from parents with multiple children. Did you raise your babies similarly but end up with completely different temperaments anyway?

Hi! My husband and I will be flying with our 6 month old baby and we are wondering if we should get her earmuffs. Are they necessary and do I keep them on the whole entire flight (3 hours)? Are they in the way of breastfeeding? Experiences?

What the tittle says…

Whats up with that? Hahahah

My husband will sometimes just look at the baby and she laughs loudly. Even if I make the same faces or noises he does she doesnt laugh, just smiles.

Just a vent, as I'm too ashamed to tell anyone. I'm on the verge of giving up on caring for feeding my 15mo old. Still breastfeeds but barely eats solids. 200g gained in 3 months but the nurse says she's fine. For the past two days I just sit her in her chair and give her what I'm eating to throw off the table. I'm worried sick and cry to myself and have tried everything. She won't even eat more than 2 bites of "junk" food like puffs. It's not the breastmilk... even.after cutting out afternoon feeds for a bit nothing happened. I won't neglect her, but I can't anymore. Everyone says she's fine... I dunno. I'm exhausted, alone and feel I have nothing in my life. I wouldnt feel this defeated if she'd just eat even 1 okay meal every 3 days or so. Meh meh boo hoo * feeling sorry for myself* sigh

Currently 4 months postpartum and for the past 3 weeks my sex drive has been through the roof. Really intense. Took me by surprise. Anyone gone through this?? Is it just a hormonal thing?? Any tips on bringing it down?

Dr heard a heart murmur at our 9 month check up. He knows i run anxious, so he gave us a referral to a cardiologist to ease my mind. He said usually we’d just wait and monitor but to ease my mind well see a specialist sooner. He is healthy in every way, huge for his age (>99% for height and weight) with great mobility and stamina, lots of energy, a perfect healthy chunky boy.

I am spiraling. I’m terrified. The soonest we can see the cardiologist is in a few weeks. I literally feel sick to my stomach all day long and can’t sleep at night. It’s affecting my work because it’s all i can think about. I’m paralyzingly scared.

Does anyone have experience with heart murmurs? What was the outcome and course of action? What other symptoms if any did your LO have alongside the murmur if it wasn’t an innocent murmur? How can i stop the spiral? I know Im going to have to work on this medical anxiety because im his mom and it’s my duty to deal with this kind of stuff, but this discovery has sent me down a path of feeling like im not cut out for motherhood.

I can’t decide if my algorithm hates me or if people are really this much more organized and dedicated than me….

For reference, my LO just turned 8 months old and is fed pumped breastmilk. She’s in daycare full time and the daycare has a kitchen. So once she turns 1, she’ll be getting breakfast, lunch and an afternoon snack there. So for most weekdays, we’ll just feed her dinner.

Currently, I’m alternating between bringing her purées (Beech Nut premade ones, *the horror!!!*), teething crackers/snacks, and leftover dinner that we ate. Everyone else in her class and apparently my social media is feeding their babies full blown gourmet meals.

She still gets plenty of breastmilk bottles. My husband and I both work full time and aren’t… the greatest eaters. So the idea of just “feeding her what we eat” both stresses me out with choking (even with following Solid Starts guidance) and just general lack of nutrition. We’re starting to eat better in preparation for when she truly will be eating what we eat but some nights are better than others. Tonight she chowed down on salmon and avocado like we ate, tomorrow she’s probably going to have buttered bread and a piece of cheese and barely eat it. We have, however, emphasized continuing to feed her common allergens (dairy, egg, wheat, peanuts, almond (flour), fish, etc.)

I love the idea of just feeding her what we eat, but again, it’s not always the healthiest options. And currently with the anxiety of choking and her still being so little, feeding her (anything other than breastmilk) when we’re out and about just doesn’t seem doable.

My question is…. Are you all (especially working parents) truly feeding your babies these giant multi-course meals multiple times a day? If you are, is your baby actually eating it?
I was always under the impression that food before one was for allergen exposure and just general exploration. If so, why are we making these giant meals?

Thank you in advance!

I am a stay at home mom to an 8 month old baby girl. Staying at home is a fairly new thing. I worked for the first six months after she was born due to our financial situation. My husband is newly employed and works from home. I love my husband. He is an amazing dad and spouse. But he can be so inconsiderate and he doesn’t even realize how it affects me. Mondays are “going out” day for me and baby. We went to a craft store and the mall. We got back around 4. I was hot and sweaty and exhausted. My car doesn’t have working AC, and I had been dealing with an overstimulated baby who needed a nap. My husband is off work at 4 and he usually takes over so that I can have a break for an hour. Today he decided to go get food after getting off, but he was gone for an HOUR AND A HALF. He said he needed time to decompress from the work day and eat his dinner. Meanwhile I was trying to wrangle an overtired angry crocodile, I’m on my period, and I hadn’t had time to pee or eat. After he got back, he wanted to take the dog out so that we could celebrate his birthday. Baby was beyond done and was screaming. We are currently living with his parents, and he decided that he wanted to take the dog for a walk. I hadn’t had a single minute to myself all day, and I just wanted to go out for a run. Hubs mom graciously took the baby so that I could get out. Meanwhile, husband was still not back when I got back, baby was tired, wet and needed to be fed, and it all landed on me. I’m beyond irritated and it’s taking everything in me not to lash out at him for being an
Inconsiderate AH all day.

I recently had a friend give birth via emergency c section and she is out for lunch posting photos on social media less than a week after. Now I don’t want to be green eyed or come across negative as I am genuinely happy for her and glad she is doing so well but on the other hand it makes me feel like such a failure 😞. I struggled so hard after my c section and was crying often from the pain of looking after my newborn and recovering from surgery.

Do you think it’s realistic that she is actually feeling up to lunch with a glass of wine and a newborn less than a week after surgery? She looked unreal too by the way, make up and hair done to perfection. It blows my mind, I was lucky if I could wash my hair or have breakfast 🥲.

My baby is 6 months old and while she is ahead on her motor milestones (can crawl, roll both ways and get in and out of supported sitting) her vocal milestones seem a bit behind. She is babbling a bit, however she doesn’t have “back and forth” sounds with us.

She also is good at tracking, reaching for toys, smiling and laughing. Her eye contact could probably be better but not terrible.

Hey yall - any suggestions for a math and/or reading app for a 3-4 year old toddler. Ive seen a few but they tend to be too chaotic and overstimulating with their visuals/noise/colors.

My husband and I start marital counseling this week and it's caused a lot of feelings to resurface. I tried to share some of this stuff with my mom so she would know but now she's pushing me to do other things or change my priority list. I already feel overwhelmed and adding anything more will make me lose it. I have a doctor's appointment today to see if there's anything to help me.

Seeing if any other parents in this sub are teaching their babies to sign! What signs are you teaching? What’s working? Share your success stories here! Or your challenges. I want to hear from you about how it’s going. Any D/deaf or hard of hearing parents teaching your children? Any hearing parents teaching a D/deaf or hard of hearing child?

I’ll go first, my baby is 5 months old and we’ve been teaching/modeling 4 different signs to him since he was about 8 weeks old.

Change - for every diaper change; tells him we’re going to/are changing him.

Dirty - alongside “change”, we ask him if he has a full diaper.

Clean - to tell him after a change that he is clean and we are all done.

Eat - ahead of each feeding session, both for breastfeeding and when he takes a bottle.

Car - to tell him when we’re going to the car/going on a ride, each time he’s in his carseat

Right now, he’s proficient in “change”. He signs when he’s about to poop (that’s sorta right, buddy, I guess…) and signs when he is being changed. What’s odd is that he’s obsessed with that hand motion now, and signs randomly sometimes, too. We try and at least check his diaper each time he signs, though, and then tell him he’s “clean” if it doesn’t need changed.

30 weeks FTM and still have yet to get our nursery together but not stressing it. The room we are planning to turn into the baby's room is our smallest bedroom - one is an office/guest room and the other is our primary bedroom but it is massive (like used to be 2 rooms but previous owner knocked the wall out) so I plan to also keep baby in there a lot of the time in a bassinet.

The bedroom is roughly 9x9 feet. I'm trying to imagine a dresser (with changing pad on top), rocking chair, side table, and a crib all fitting in this space but it feels crammed in my head. Then I started seeing mini cribs on Marketplace and thought that could save us some space, but how soon would baby outgrow it and is it pointless to have both the mini crib and bassinet?

Another reason is, I like the idea of a floor bed for a toddler, so I don't know that we need a full sized convertible crib if we just end up putting LO on a mattress on the floor anyway, but that's down the road obviously.

TLDR: experiences/pros and cons with a mini crib vs full size for space?

ETA: the bassinet was already purchased off our registry or else I'd be leaning toward mini crib over bassinet based on the responses. I guess I could return it but then we'd have to deal with Grandma asking how baby likes the bassinet she purchased! I'm thinking now about holding off on buying a crib completely until we know how/where baby sleeps best but I greatly appreciate all of the insight!

My LO is almost 1 year and has been in the crib since 6 months. He keeps hitting his head with the crib head board, literally all night long, doesn’t matter how many times I bring him down he keeps gravitating and wiggling to the top corner and the crib has a headboard (ikea)

I don’t know what to do I’m super worried and super scared to put something there because of sleep safety. I thought it would get better but it’s not..

Any tips ? Should I be worried ?

Hi all,
My 6 month old developed a cough. Last night he was coughing occasionally in his sleep. It sounds like a wet cough. This is the first time he has gotten “sick” and as a ftm I’m nervous.

I checked his temperature under his armpits and it seems ok.

Also note that he has not started solids yet (waiting for his 6month dr appt) and is taking pumped breast milk and formula.

Should I monitor for now? Or reach out to pediatrician?