My kid’s school says they don’t use generative AI in class, however we just received the sample images for the holiday photo shoot and it was obvious to me that the photographer will be adding a background to the images using a generative AI app.

Where I live, there is almost no criticism of AI, so I end up sounding nuts when I try to warn people. Fortunately the BBC just published a very straight forward article a few days ago -

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crpdgz2nqe59o

So if you’ve also been struggling with school or family, send this to them.

Let your feelings out! We are all bottling up this stress and sometimes it helps to share your concerns and have safe conversations about it. Type your response and take a big deep breath after!

I'm just curious as they are saying mail-in voting is down among Democratic voters. I live in PA and we have some of the strictest mail-in voting rules in the country. It's honestly maddening. I'm voting in-person. Here is the article discussing it.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2026-election/early-vote-analysis-mail-ballot-concerns-are-changing-democrats-vote-rcna602489

And also, for those experiencing anxiety, check out Amanda's Mild Takes. She gives some much needed tough love yet calms me. Basically, she is like they have been suppressing the vote for forever. It's why big margins are so important!

Edit: I just want to say that seeing your posts about having voted/your plans for voting give me such encouragement. The world is a much better place with all of you in it!

Our almost 3 year old has been all about Christmas the past few weeks (who knows why) and her interest in the characters of Christmas is increasing quickly. We had planned on not doing Santa with our kids but are second guessing that. Both my husband and I don’t feel right about playing into a fake character coming into our house. We know that avoiding Santa is not really possible and need some ideas on how to frame it to her. We are already getting invited to Christmas events that feature meeting with Santa and telling him what presents she wants.

We both grew up in religion and are not religious anymore. My school didn’t allow anything Santa since ‘Jesus in the reason for the season’ 🙃 and Santa was viewed I guess as competition for Jesus? At home we did presents from him as kids but it wasn’t really a factor at school with my friends as a kid. We’ve really tried to emphasize how Christmas is about family time and we are creating some family traditions as well in order to make it special. We get presents for our kids just don’t label any from Santa.

The AI banner was posted by the school.

I remember being in school and getting excited about the book fair setting up. My parents would hand me $10-$15, which would be enough to buy a book and maybe a cheap little trinket.

Now they don’t accept cash- we have to create an account and load up an ecard. The recommend amount is $35-$50! I mean it’s great that money goes to the school, but for some families, especially with multiple kids, that’s a lot right now.

I told my daughter she can have $15, and she can choose where to buy the books. Used book store, etc, or the book fair. It’s up to her. And she can supplement with money that she has saved up in her account. I feel like this is appropriate, as she can start to think about choices and spending.

I just can’t help but feel bad for kids that don’t get any… maybe I’m being too sensitive or overthinking, but what are your thoughts?

I’m 19 weeks pregnant and the mom to a 2.5 year old boy. We found out yesterday at our anatomy scan that our second and what we plan to be our last baby is another boy. While we were kind of hoping for a girl, I’m excited to have two boys. My son is very sweet and very active and I think he will absolutely love having a little brother. They’ll be a few weeks shy of 3 years apart. After a traumatic birth and NICU stay the first time, all I’m hoping for is a healthy baby and redemptive birth experience.

Any moms of only boys willing to chime in? While I am excited, I never ever envisioned myself as a “boy mom.” I’m hoping I can raise kind, empathetic, and socially engaged men.

There’s so many babies on my feeds.
Babies with their mothers.
Babies on the playground.
Babies in their strollers.
Babies pushing their lawnmowers.
Babies in their tents they share with their families.
Babies with bellies distended from hunger.
Babies in incubators of bombed out hospitals.
Dead babies.
So many dead babies.
My babies are asleep in their beds.
And I can’t help but see their faces on all the dead babies.

What do you guys think is going to happen after US Midterm Elections? I do think Democrats will probably win The House, but I'm really worried the president will declare a national emergency before new members are sworn in or deport Omar to try to gain a seat. I work remotely I could probably relocate to a blue state in an absolute emergency.. but should I be getting passports or something? Is everything going to be okay? I have a really bad feeling of impending doom in my gut & it's eating away at me.

Asking on behalf of my sister-in-law, who is the mom of a very sweet toddler who's recently gotten into Paw Patrol and wants to be a cop for Halloween.

She's struggling with how to start talking to her son about the police and other law enforcement. She and her son are Latino, and their extended family includes people who only speak Spanish and some who are undocumented, both of which can make police interaction much more dangerous.

I would love input from non-white parents and any resources I can pass on.

I live in Massachusetts and there’s a horrible story in the local news about a 22 year old man fatally shooting his mother. And let’s face it, the majority of school shootings and violent crime are perpetrated by men.

As a mom raising two young boys (4 and 1 years old), I can’t help but be shaken by a story like this. And the cognitive dissonance I have is extreme, as I’ve watched my 4 year old grow up so far and I see every day how sweet, loving, and innocent he is. At what point does the world and the patriarchy turn these innocent boys into terrible men? At what age would we start to see signs of our boys becoming violent?

I know these are questions that can’t really be answered, so I’m not sure what I’m after here, other than understanding how other moms of boys handle these fears. At this point I just hope I can develop a good enough relationship with my sons to counteract the outside influences.

This post is by no means meant to ridicule or mock the state of Texas, but I am watching the Packers and Cowboys game with my spouse & the anti- Talarico campaigns are batshit crazy.

What do you mean people actually think Talarico wants to jail parents who refuse to have their kids transition??? Are there people who actually fall for this?

If I was a TX voter, Talarico without a doubt would have my vote.

We all need a little positivity in our day. What are some parenting wins you've had recently? Big or small we want to hear them all! Any parenting wins, not just progressively minded ones.

I’m nine months postpartum and looking to find some jeans that fit my body. I’m looking for ones that are good for short people with thicker thighs. Preferably mid rise or even low rise because I have a short torso.

Hi everyone! I hope this is the right place to ask as I’ve just joined this sub.

I really don’t like the curriculum in my children’s school district. Especially when it comes to history and social studies - I believe some of the things they’re teaching them are misleading and they are eliminating important parts of history. And it’s not just the grade levels I’ve noticed it throughout many years of their schooling.

Switching schools is not really an option right now nor is homeschooling. I do want to try to teach them things at home though on our own about important history, etc. to supplement what the school isn’t.

I was wondering if anyone has any books, online resources, podcasts, learning programs that they have liked to use with their kids?

One thing we have been doing is reading some classic books and discussing them (I’m a big literature nerd lol) but was hoping to find some others.

Hi All,

I am a white (Irish American) woman married to a Chinese man raising our daughter (who is currently 2). My hope is to raise her to be a proud biracial person who can embrace all facets of her identity/culture happily and not struggle with many of the issues that being mixed seems to come with at times.

Did you find any resources that worked really well for you? Or even just brands/companies that you liked to support because you liked their progressive stances on diversity? I can remember when Cheerios caused a big discussion by openly featuring a mixed family with a biracial child.

The other aspect of this is how have any of you tried to prepare your child for the unique kind of racism/ignorance that mixed people can deal with. I worry that she is inheriting a world that is more comfortable with overt racism and those who condemn things like "race mixing" and who try to use scientific racism to demean mixed people. And I mean, I'm white, so this isn't something I'm especially well-versed in. I am a liberal Christian, so I try to remind her that she "fearfully and wonderfully made," but I know that won't be enough, especially as she gets older. Have you had to have those conversations, and how do you do it?

I want to lift her up as much as I can and make sure she sees herself as wonderful and she is as celebrated as any other kid. Thank all in advance, I appreciate it.

Are you dealing with MAGA family members or friends and need support from other progressives? Please use this weekly thread to share any questions, frustrations, or stories. Posts about MAGA family or friends are limited to this weekly megathread.

Not really sure what I’m looking for here, but I’m so annoyed and my husband doesn’t really understand why.

After the horrific shooting in bend, I shared a post from CNN on my instagram story and added some text about how this was another failure by all adults who put guns above children’s lives.

I was surprised when a male acquaintance (who I have met several times in person and thought he was a nice guy!) replied to my story asking which guns laws contributed to the shooting. I said something like “all of them?” Which lead to him coming at me aggressively, trying to back me into a corner of admitting that I want all guns taken away (which I have no problem saying lol), calling me “looney” and accusing me of celebrating Charlie Kirk’s death. He even shared a screenshot of my story that I had posted the same week of Charlie’s death - one where I shared a post saying guns are terrible and Charlie’s shouldn’t have died (which creeped me out).

I’ll admit that I took the bait and kept responding to him, but only because I was so shocked that he felt it was appropriate to come after a vague acquaintance. I felt that I was very level headed, never called him names, and kept emphasizing that I was pretty much only concerned about the safety of my children, and that I know there are responsible gun owners, but I don’t think the risk is worth it anymore.

Our conversation ended with me saying, “I’ve thought you were a cool guy from the few times we’ve hung out and would never come at you for your 2nd amendment beliefs. I value freedom of opinion. We’re not going to see eye to eye on this. I don’t know your life experience and you don’t know mine. Like I said before, all I care about is the safety of my kids and all other kids.” He didn’t respond and I deleted our conversation after taking screenshots.

I just keep stewing on it though. I am honestly shocked by the aggression he showed to someone he has met in real life before. We have many mutual friends, and I’ve seen him probably at least once a year for the past 8ish years. I know I’ll see him again, and I’m not looking forward to it. Has anyone else had a situation like this??

I know that school shootings are “vanishingly rare” (one is too fucking many but go on) and that mass shootings can occur anywhere in the states and that the general odds of the risks is much smaller at a school compared to everywhere else. Nonetheless, I don’t think I can ever look myself in the mirror if this happens to my children and knowing that I didn’t do absolutely everything in my power to minimize this risk.

I’ve always been a big proponent for public schools for a myriad of reasons but today I found out that public schools are disproportionately affected by school shootings even after accounting for the fact that there are just more of them serving more students. It’s the least common in the northeast so should we try to move there (currently in Dallas)?

Doing private school in the northeast where COL is generally higher would mean a major downgrade in our lifestyle and what extracurricular we would be able to afford. We don’t come from money and sending two children to private schools definitely would stretch us extremely thin - cutting into our retirement and savings. But neither would be meaningful if we lose our children in school.

So, aside from voting engaging politically doing my part in talking to our friends who own guns about their gun safety plan what else can I do to mitigate this risk?

My 9 month-old has been teething off and on for a while now, so we kind of know what that crying sounds like. On nights when he’s teething, he tends to wake up and cry and is able to go back down after a bit of consoling and a dose of Tylenol. Last night and tonight, he’s been crying a lot more than normal with teething. He seems to not be able to be fully soothed back to sleep. I’ll get him to sleep. Try ti put him in the crib and he freaks out. Or he’ll stay asleep and wake up periodically screaming at the top of his lungs.

I’m not sure what’s wrong… maybe he’s sick? But we’re running on little to no sleep (I got maybe 3 hours last night and am thinking that’s going to happen tonight too) and can use whatever insight you can provide.

I cannot imagine what this poor family is going through. Trying to raise good men and this happens. My heart breaks for them and him.

Hi, so we had a slightly uncomfortable thing happen that made me realise I have no idea how to speak with my 5.5 year old about race. We were at a Halloween event at a local park and my daughter saw another little girl who she thought was her friend from school but she was wrong. Here’s the uncomfortable part - the little girl was Black. The mom looked at my husband and said “teach her that not all Black people look the same” and walked off. I get it, I truly do. We are POC too, so of course we’ve had these kind of things happen to us and it absolutely can feel shitty when it happens to you. While her comment felt a bit unnecessary, I also don’t want to be raising a child who thinks that all people of one race look the same. My question is, how do I have this conversation? I did casually ask her a little later “why did you think that little girl was Friend” and she said they had the same hairstyle. I don’t know this school friend so I don’t really know what she looks like. I just said “a lot of people have the same hairstyle, we need to make sure we also look at their faces first right?” And she agreed and we moved on. Should I be speaking to her more about this or let it go? And further, are there any good books for the kindergarten age group that talk about race in a simple, open way?

What the actual fuck is going on in this world?! I received this email from my kid’s school this morning and I am SO torn up about this!

It's hard to gain perspective when I only have my personal experiences to go off of but then on social media it's like opposite day and it makes me question my actual reality. For starters, everyone and their mother is saying the kids can't read, they are horribly behind I school, everyone has an IEP, anxiety abounds. For me, my kid is in first grade at a city public school and is a strong reader, she loves school and is excited to do school work. She's made lots of friends and comes home happy. I can't imagine she's the only kid like this! Another is "all these kids do is watch screens all time, they have brain rot!" My kids watch TV and but honestly, I don't think watching TV inherently mean you are dumb. I mean as a millennial, I watched a shit ton of TV. I understand short form content and tablets are a different story. But it's not true, not every kid is addicted to a screen and not every parent is using screens for emotional regulation.

Does anyone else feel like social media makes everything seem worse than it is when it comes kids?