r/Parenting

Ok so this question is part parenting, part AITAH:

We had our son's (8yo) birthday party at the park and rented a jumper. Throughout the party, random kids would just run into the jumper. I'd ask my kids and their friends if they knew these strangers and they always said "no." So now I'm telling these random kids to leave, sometimes having to yell at them because they won't leave when I ask politely.

These random kids' parents did nothing to stop their kids from going into our jumper; it's a small park and the parents are always close by. In fact some of these people are smiling as I'm throwing their kids out of our party! I didn't want to pick fights in front of my guests so I didn't go up and yell the parents themselves, but after yesterday my faith in humanity got taken down a notch.

Does this happen a lot? How do you deal with random kids crashing your party?

Or maybe you're reading this saying "well I let my kids go into other people's jumpers all the time, kids will be kids! What's the harm?" If this sounds like you: what exactly is your motivation for letting your kids do this? Does this teach them something? Is this some sort of "the world's your oyster, everything the light touches is yours" BS?

EDIT: I definitely got a good idea of how you all feel about birthday parties at parks! To address some of the broader points:

• if you didn't know what a "jumper" is, I basically meant a "bounce house." If you don't know what a "bounce house" is, 1) I envy you; and 2) it's basically a large, inflatable house that kids climb into and jump around in. These things are not provided by public parks, the way slides/swings/play structures are provided; they are rented out for parties and sometimes placed in public parks (most public parks require the party organizers to pay for a special permit to use a bounce house at the park, which we did).

• for everyone who said "it's in a public park, so therefore my kid gets to play in it, sucks to be you!"—I have to ask: if strangers are sitting at a picnic table in a public park, do you move on over and sit there with them and just jump into their conversation? Does the concept of personal space mean anything to you? Are you aware most people don't want to be with you unless they know you personally? Do you ever wonder why people don't answer your texts or return your phone calls?

• I am not at all upset at kids who go into bounce houses; I'm upset at the parents, because the least you all can do is ask me if your kid can play in the bounce house (some parents did, and I said yes because it sounds like you and your children are well-adjusted and understand boundaries)

PSA: crashing strangers' parties is a super-weird thing to do and you're supposed to be teaching your kids not to do that! Teach them to respect other people's space and not to be jerks. And if you do see kids playing with fun stuff, ask politely if you can play with them—don't just barge in and do it because you feel like it! Ultimately that was the point of this post, a point that most of you missed, and this really is the takeaway. Your children will grow up to be adults no one likes to hang out with. Bye!

Today my 9 year old (3rd grader) had a new student threaten to smack her in the ass during lunch. She replied with “go ahead and try” and that she’d kick his ass if he did.

They both got sent to the principals office with notes home. Apparently instead of retorting she was supposed to tell a teacher. Which flies in the face of repeatedly telling her class to solve their own problems and talk out conflict.

I can’t go along with the school on this one. I’m proud of her, the new kid stopped picking on her and she stood up for herself. Violence did not occur - in part due to her having a stated consequence.

I am Black, my wife is White. We both grew up in the same town. We left together to California and then came back and had kids here. Our hometown is 66% White. The Black population has never been above 2-3% (fairly significant Hispanic population however). I received a dream job opportunity in DC and was thrilled to move to the DMV area, particularly Maryland which has a significant Black population and many more like-minded people. Plus, the cultural diversity in DC (languages, food, entertainment, museums, etc.) is off the charts.

She refuses to move. She told me I could go on my own and asserted without discussion that she and the kids are staying. She thinks we can provide the kids cultural diversity from traveling. She also wants to stay because her aging parents and extended are here, but we rarely see her family! We have been "no-help" parents for ten years now, and I have provided her the opportunity to stay home 90% of the time to raise kids. She does not relate to my need to raise our kids around racial/ethnic diversity. Our children's school did not celebrate Black History Month this year -- I had to do little lessons on my own every day after school. No Black teachers. No Black staff. There are a handful of biracial kids at the school (Asian/White, Hispanic/White) and three to five Black students, and our children have NO Black friends.

I do not want to raise our beautiful and brilliant biracial kids this way! Any advice would be appreciated.

tl;dr - Black husband wants to raise children around more racial diversity, White wife refuses.

Even though grandparents keep telling my son boys don't wear dresses, I let him wear at home for now, he likes skirts he likes the dresses. He wants to be pretty and we keep telling him how handsome he is. :(

I am also not sure if that's just out of jealousy as his younger sister sometimes wear dresses. I try to dress both of them in comfy clothes because I know it would be an issue for my son and he gets agitated with his sister when she puts on dresses or skirts but of course there are times she wear those.

Today was national kids day in my country so the teachers asked all the girls to wear a red skirt and boys black jeans and white t-shirt. Before and after school, at home my son asked me to wear his sisters skirt and of course he did and he danced with the skirt on.

I could tell he was upset all day and actually picked him up earlier from school. At home I told him I was very sorry boys couldn't wear the skirt. The way he hugged and kissed me was almost gonna make me cry

My son also wants his hair done like his sister and keeps insisting he could wear blue or green hairclips as he is a boy.

I can not tell if he really is into the girly look or he is just jealous. As I think somehow I don't want to embrace him to look girly if that isn't what he wants so I could save him from being bullied. Thank you for reading

My son (HS) came out as bi sexual a few years ago. Since then he has become majorly involved in gay rights, school advocacy club etc. I only mention it because I think he is fairly confident in his sexuality. And not "confused" or anything if that makes sense.

My wife and I are very open-minded / liberal and fully support the LGBTQ community. When my son came out to us I was fine with it, and we both were really supportive. However he had a conversation yesterday that kind of made me take a step back a bit. It all started with my wife talking to him about new summer clothes. And somehow led to her asking him if he was trans... to which he responded "I'm not sure". I didn't hear their entire conversation, and didn't bring it up to my wife afterwards. However the rest of the day I felt uncomfortable and a bit depressed. A lot of things went through my mind... is my son going to be wearing a dress, make up, changing his name etc?

The entire idea of him changing so drastically scares me. I know that kind of questions how open minded I really am. But please don't be overly harsh with me, as I don't need a lecture. The main reason I posted is because life isn't going great right now and this is just an added layer of weight on me. Such as my wife is schizophrenic, two of my kids have autism, and my daily life just isn't "happy".

Has anyone else had their kid come out as trans, if so how did you feel, how did you "cope" if it was something that bothered you? Just trying to feel a bit better today, sorry if this upset anyone.

Hello Reddit,

I’m looking for advice even if harsh and difficult to accept I just need advice from people who aren’t in the mess I’m in and can be more objective.

I was a teen mother at the age of 15 and a single mother of 4 by 21!! I struggled so much. I somehow made and got a masters degree. I was born and raised in an extremely religious household in which sex was a taboo. I left my parent’s house after I was sexually abused by a man. All of this to say that I tried my best to be a different parent than my parents were.

I’ve always been open with my kids about sex. I talked to them about ovulation, periods, ways of preventing pregnancy and STIs/STDs. Well, none of that worked. I failed big time. One of my children got his almost 18 year old girlfriend pregnant (he just turned 19). Her parents are like mine were, religious and unable to see their daughter as a sexual being. They are making her get an abortion. I’m pro-choice but, I don’t believe that I person should be coerced to make such a decision. I feel responsible and want to help the girl if she does want to keep it. I just don’t want to free them from the consequences of their actions. Any advice please? Pardon any grammatical mistakes, English isn’t my first language.

This boy in my son's class is targeting him. He's extremely tall. Like the size of at least a 2nd or 3rd grader. At first it was tripping him on purpose. He's comes home with bruises and cuts on his head. I emailed his teacher. She's extremely nice to a fault. She said they take this seriously and they will handle it. Then this boy spit in my son's lunch. He gets "think sheets" he has to take home and the parents sign and give it back. That's about all that happens. Today the school gave everyone a packet of veggie seeds. This boy took my son's and threw them out. He doesn't know how to react besides tell the teacher and cries when he gets hurt. It stops for a day or two and then it happens all over again. I am getting pissed off to the point of not being a nice parent. What can be done about this? My son says he tries to stay away from him but he follows him around ! I also do not want this child in my son's class next year. I feel like his kindergarten experience is ruined because he's a really happy smiley dude but almost every day there's an issue. Everyone in the class likes my son except this kid. What do I do next? Its affecting my mental health really bad. I already have anxiety that's getting treated but when it comes to my kids I get really anxious and upset. Tomorrow I'm volunteering in his class and I'm going to talk to the teacher again.

My daycare just scolded me for not having a better drop off and pick up routine with my 3.5 year old daughter...?
Apparently we take too long to leave? But if I pick her up and she's in the middle of a puzzle or a game, I let her finish, reminding her after that we go..
And this morning one of the little girls in her cohort, who is a bully to my daughter, told her to go away when she went up to her and the other kid who always wants to play with my daughter.. so she was a little deflated after being excited about showing her sunglasses. I managed to get her to give them to me right after the rebuff of the bully kid and then my little one didn't want me to leave.
Doesn't help that my co parent also had to see family a few weeks ago for an emergency resulting in nearly 2 weeks of me and little one not seeing each other - CP didn't bother to facetime us together at all, so basically, she was dropped off one morning to a normal 5 day period with dad then didn't see me for almost 2 weeks, so I'm trying to naviagte that whole thing..
..it just came off as really condescending..? I'm I just taking it too personally?
I don't linger, but just lately dropping off has been a bit harder and I was abandoned by my own birth mom so it's really hard to just walk away when my daughter wants another hug or kiss..

*Just a quick edit to add a couple things*

-This is a daycare centre operated and subsidized by the government. I also don't speak the dominant language where we live. Not that it's not an excuse, but just imagine for a moment having to navigate these kinds of systems everyday without being able to fully speak the language. And again, this also extends to my daughter now speaking mostly French 90% of the time. Which is fine, but I struggle a lot because my French is basically the level of hers, well, hers is better. So imagine as well your kid speaks a totally different language than you do. I'm trying my best here. Today was just really hard.

-The educatrice was telling me that she noticed this for *both parents* my co-parent and I split custody 50-50, meaning we do the 2,2,5,5. Co-parent feels guilty setting boundaries with little one. I'm the one who has to do the majority of setting boundaries, making rules, etc. Also, if this was brought up already to him by the educatrice, well that never got passed on to me. If there was mention of a protocol, again, not mentioned to me and what happened this morning was completely the first time my daughter ever had a breakdown like this with me leaving. So, for the first time having to walk away like that, yes, was triggering in the moment, but I'm not there everyday hanging out with her. Like I said before, she's normally off with her friends and doesn't even care to say bye.

-Just came out of a situation where my daughter and I had to be housed in a safe house while being illegally evicted by our roommate. Then her dad takes her for 2 weeks without giving her any contact with me. That's a lot of transitions for her and so I'm already trying to navigate that whole scenario the best that I can

-Lastly, using the word bully in regards to the other kid, thanks for calling me out on it, I see that now and in the moment of writing my post was the quickest way to give context to the situation. It totally makes sense that labelling a child that young isn't a good look. And I've never said that out loud, to my daughter, her father or anyone else. It was just in the post right after the whole incident.

-Thanks to all who messaged and commented with compassion. That meant a lot for a really difficult day like today.

I would love to see how ya’ll parent toddlers because I’m convinced I must be doing something wrong. I’m going to give you an example from my afternoon.

It’s lunch time. You ask your 3.5 year old, “what would you like?” He says “chicken and peaches!” So you give him a plate of chicken, sliced peaches, and you add on a cucumber and some cheese. For the most part, he seems content with it and begins eating. So now you make yourself something to eat because you’re hungry. You just make yourself a sandwich and sit down next to your child. He sees your sandwich and starts screaming. “I want a sandwich!! Give me that sandwich!” You calmly explain, “here’s your food buddy! You said you wanted some yummy chicken and peaches. Here it is! Would you also like a sandwich? This is mommy’s sandwich!” He says yes, he wants a sandwich. So you get up and make him one. You give it to him, but he’s already mad you didn’t just give him yours that you’ve already started eating. He throws the sandwich and starts screaming/crying, then grabs your plate and throws it too. What do you do from there?

Just genuinely curious how others would parent this. Because I’m exhausted and obviously doing it wrong.

Thanks.

Edit: gotta say, a lot of these comments are truly fucking disturbing, especially the ones that said they’d hit their toddler over this, and the one commenter who said he’d “body slam” them into their bed. Y’all are straight up abusing your kids and openly admitting it. To all those who offered actual advice or solidarity, THANK YOU. To the rest of you… thanks for reminding me why this sub is definitely one of the most toxic places on Reddit!

My son is 5 turning 6 in September, he had a speech delay which he is outgrowing however he is still catching up academically. We don’t live in the best public school district so we were hoping to send him to a catholic school. He went for screening where they told us it was just an assessment and wasn’t necessarily pass or fail. Then to my surprise they sent an email saying based on his results he is not able to attend their school. I am shocked and devestated, he’s already had 3 Years of pre k and I don’t want him to be turning 7 by the time he starts kindergarten. I’m wondering if any school can deny him entrance to kindergarten based on tests? Like perhaps a Lutheran or charter school. And has anyone else had a similar experience or any advice ? I’d greatly appreciate the help and please go easy on me I already feel like a huge failure as a parent.

Daughter is 7. She can do any extracurricular she wants, but the second she doesn't want to go a few times in a row, or refuses to participate in part of it, I pull her out. I've done this since she was 3.

Recently, my In-Laws said that was teaching 'quitting' as a good thing. My Husband said that makes sense, she should stick it out for a year or season. But, why would I pay for that and waste my time on something she hates?

She's always in something, if not 3 things, at any given time. But some things last one month (like dance). Shes been in piano a year and still loves it, so shes not just tiring of every single thing. Shes also in swim for 5 months every year and loves that. But if she doesn't want to 'warm up' in Gymnastics, I pull her out. If she's too tired to go to soccer, she's done. My in-laws disagree with that approach.

I should point out, she is never in an activity that has a team or a 'show' at the end. Its all year-round things that you pay for on a monthly basis, but that is purposeful so she can 'quit' whenever.

Thoughts?

My older son has pretty bad ADHD, acting very impulsively a lot of the time. He’s in 8th grade and is bright but struggles a lot in school.
He has a Chromebook issued to him from school, and he was able to jailbreak it so that he can play games on it. He came to me later, admitting that he jailbroke the Chromebook and was so guilty that he was losing sleep over it. I believe that he felt guilty and still do, though no one at the school found out about it. We had a nice conversation and he agreed that he would un-jailbreak the Chromebook and wouldn’t do it again.
Today I found out he sent out a message in his school discord server offering to jailbreak the school-issued Chromebooks that will be available next year, for money. My younger son showed me the message and I’m not sure what to do to be honest.
I’m surprised that he would do something like this after he was feeling guilty and we talked about the jailbreaking before, though he is the type of kid to continuously push the limits of what’s allowed if he goes unpunished. I’m thinking I want to confront him, but I don’t want my younger son to get kicked from the discord server by my older son, as my older son would know that he was ratted out by his brother. I was thinking to reach out to the assistant principal to see what my options are, but I’ve spoken to him and the counselors before and they don’t seem to be very helpful or have much sympathy for my son’s issues. Another thought was to pretend as though someone else in the discord server ratted him out and say the principal called saying that he’s in trouble, though that seems a bit over the top I think.
As a side note, we’ve gone to therapy for his ADHD and impulse control before, which helped, and he’s on some medication, but we moved across the country recently so I haven’t been able to find a new therapist since.
I’m not sure how to approach this situation and I’m not too familiar with discord and jailbreaking in general. Any advice or insight on how to approach this would be really appreciated!

One of my kid’s friend’s mom, who I thought was cool, posted some crazy transphobic bs to her ig stories. I just don’t know where to find my mom tribe at all. I live in a fairly blue area but it seems like all the moms of my sons’ classmates are antivax, MLM, coocoo for cocoa puffs weirdos. It’s so lonely!

Edit to add: if you read this and think this has ANYTHING to do with politics or whatever PLEASE get some reading comprehension and keep it moving. This is about trying to find a connection with people who I share a commonality with (kids) who I come to find out, after spending time with them and growing an attachment for, that THEY ARE ANTIVAX and/or BIGOTS. This isn’t about “I dOnT likE heR soCiAl mEdiA posts”. Please bffr and grow up. I don’t fck with bigots. I just don’t. There’s no room in my life for that. And if you’re not vaccinating your kids, stay the hell away from mine.

TIK TOK TRAD WIVES HAVE NANNIES, COOKS, CLEANERS, GARDENERS, PERSONAL TRAINERS, NIGHT NURSES….

So please when you see that gorgeous perfectly put together tik tok trad wife making a sourdough loaf 2 days post partum with a face full of gorgeous makeup and not a hair out of place, remember that. She had the time to get dolled up, do a full face of makeup, and do her hair because the nanny kept the baby happy while she did. See how well rested she looks? That’s because she had a night nurse/night nanny up all night for her. See how clean her house is despite being 2 days pp with a gaggle of kids running around? You can think the maid for that. See how she’s so thin already? Her personal trainer and nutritionist who’s been working with her her entire pregnancy to gain as little weight as possible and snap back as quickly as possible is to thank for that, too.

They are not living the same life we are. Do not compare yourself to them, ever. EVERY single one that is TikTok “famous” has an entire unseen team behind the camera helping them (even if they deny it).

You are doing great!

I'm 40 years old with a 7 yo and 5 yo. I'm a newly single father as the Mom left to France or is maybe back in DC. My lawyer and I can't figure out what is going on with her.

I live in a 3,000 sq ft house that is owned by my older sister and her wife that are both in their 50's. It's like a duplex. I live on one side and she lives on the other. For the most part it's divided with one shared door. I pay her $2,000 a month in rent.

With that being said we share much of our lives together. We've built our own unique family. We go out to eat on weekends. We have movie night every Friday. My girls adore their aunt's. They are often cited at the top of their gratitude list.

My sister who never smoked, was diagnosed with lung cancer last August. It appears we are at the end of the road of options. The girls have seen her on oxygen. They see her loosing her hair. They know she is sick. They don't know that it's cancer, yet could they even understand if we tried to explain it?

I have no clue how to tell my girls that someone they love so much is going to die. I don't even know how to do this. There is no escape and I'm so pissed.

My sister has been a rock for me in my life, and she has extended that to my daughters as I went through a custody battle from hell.

I mainly been trying to look at it as I'm showing my daughters how to care for someone in their hardest times. This might be a lesson they don't pick up on until later in life. I'm haunted by the fact my kids will loose their innocence. But what is innocence? I hear my Ex's voice that I'm a horrible father for exposing my kids to this.

Any insight would help

This is really looking for advice or anything of the sorts of than to vent a little.

My brother and SIL split. Tonight she came to collect her stuff and I took my two children to say good bye as they are extremely attached and have a wonderful relationship with her. Although my nearly 3 year old doesn’t truly understand, she knows that her aunty is going home (a few hours from where we currently live). She didn’t cry or get emotional as just hugged her said bye and shouted love you when she drove off.

I am completely heartbroken for her as she doesn’t understand that she’ll likely never see her again and she will become a distant memory with her only being just shy of 3, why does being a parent have to be so hard 😅

My ex husband and I have been divorced since my daughter was 2 years old. He remarried when she was 3 years old. She's 5 now. She's a good kid but can be spacey and it can be frustrating getting her to listen.

Today I picked her up and she broke down crying because apparently her step mom hit her in the face because she stopped in the middle of a crosswalk. I asked her step mom and dad and they both said that was what happened and it was appropriate because it was a punishment for unsafe behavior. She used an open hand and not hard enough to leave a mark but in my opinion is isnt ok to use fear or pain to change a child's behavior. I live in Washington and the law is that parents and guardians can use corporal punishment within reason that is all specified. Before divorcing we agreed that we would not hit or spank. Now, he's going along with his wife and yet this is MY kid.

Obviously, I'm not happy about it but I don't think I have any legal recourse. I'm going to have my daughter talk to the school counselor because she was really upset and said "I don't want to go back there. Step mom hit me and I don't like her anymore". The poor kid is clearly feeling betrayed and hurt, even though there was no physical injury, which is why I don't think corporal punishment should be used.

I'm not sure what else to do. The petty part of me says to simple help step mom burn the bridge with my kid because "mom would never hit you but step mom does" but I know that's not going to help the situation. I just had to rant a little. If anyone has advice I'd be happy to hear it.

My daughter has recently gotten really into what she calls quadrobics, which she explains is just exercise on all 4’s. She also mentions therian things but does not “believe” herself to really be an animal, she just loves making tails out of yarn, making masks, and then jumping around wearing these things at the park and with friends.

Her father and I absolutely do not allow her to post on any type of social media, and we monitor her phone, limit her phone use, and she has all kinds of restrictions where really anything she wants to do on her phone cannot be done without our help or permission. I have also made it clear to her that there are dangerous people in the world that prey on children, especially children that do seemingly innocent things so unfortunately sometimes that means being careful about what we wear and what we do in public and on the internet, which is why she is so limited with what she is allowed to do on her phone. She knows that although I do want to encourage her and allow her to be herself my only real job in life is to protect her and make sure she grows up into a capable and strong person that is not naive but also not afraid of the world.

That being said, she does record herself doing her quadrobics, which she shows me plenty of, it’s really just her hopping and jumping on all 4s or practicing hand stands. She seems to really enjoy editing (adding music and slowing down some parts, maybe adding some type of artistic flair to them) and watching her own videos which she then shows to me and her father and to her friends who also enjoy this stuff. She also makes a lot of jokes about furries and tells me that people give her weird looks and other kids call her a furry and point and laugh. She doesn’t seem very bothered by this, but she has said it hurts her feelings sometimes. She mostly ignores it and I think she’s pretty secure in herself.

Here’s where I’m at a loss: is this some sort of attention seeking behavior? She seems to do a lot of things to gain attention (for example she claims to have low self esteem but is actually very self confident. She says she just doesn’t want to seem like she’s full of herself but does cringe at herself when she feigns humility so we’ve talked about that. She told a teacher she thinks she’s ugly and the teacher printed her a paper that said, “(child) is beautiful!” over and over for half a page as a sweet reminder. She claimed to be a lesbian to her friends for a short period of time and claimed that she didn’t really understand why she did that aside from liking the attention) which I find odd because I feel like her father and I give her plenty of attention, affection, unconditional love, all the things a responsible and loving parent should give…but she does things to gain attention from others, mostly her peers or people in general. She likes wearing her mask and tail out and about and I don’t feel like I have a reason to tell her not to. If I ask her to leave it at home, what is the why? I don’t want her to feel like a weirdo or that her parents don’t love her unconditionally. Could this just be the product of a child that feels safe to be what she wants and try different things? Or is there maybe something deeper going on that I’m not seeing? I’m just really worried about this being attention seeking behavior, and if it is what is going on that makes her feel the need to seek attention like this? Could it be the phone and seeing other people get so much attention/validation from likes and comments and she’s feeling fomo or something? Do I limit the phone use even more? I feel like I really f***ed up even allowing her to have the phone, but I really just wanted that extra sense of security to be able to see where she is and be able to communicate with her when she’s not with me…we also have another baby girl on the way in about a month and I don’t want to continue making the same mistakes. I just want my children to be and feel safe and loved. We do spend a lot of time together and talk to each other a lot so that I know what’s going on in her life outside of home and so she feels safe sharing personal things with me. She is also allowed her own time and space to do her own things, and we’re not a perfect family by any means. I feel like I’m just starting to worry a lot more with her growing up and becoming a young lady but still being an actual child in this world. I also had a terrible abusive childhood so I really don’t always know what’s normal and what’s unsafe etc.

Please tell me what you think, I don’t have a close relationship with my parents to talk to about these things and I don’t even have my own friends much less other mamas to discuss these things. Also, I apologize for the length of this post, I’d add a “tldr” but I just feel like there’s too much going on to shorten it and leave anything out. Thank you so much in advance if you’ve made it this far. It helped me a lot just being able to type this out and share with other parents.

Any recommendations on books on puberty for boys?

Saw Seemed quite comprehensive for my 9yo son. Includes cyberbullying.

Wondering if anyone has reviews on the book or suggests any other book?

Thanks!

In a nutshell : my 5 years old daughter threw a massive tantrum

• Not happy how dinner was laid out on her plate

• Asked me to bring another plate

• I gently showed her the extra plate sitting next to her

• She then demanded I transfer the food on that other plate

• I calmly said she could do it herself

From start to end, it was cries and screams while I kept my cool.

Wha my reaction right ? Or would you have transferred the food ?

I felt it was a never ending flow of demands and orders, so the tantrum would have never stopped.

Struggling with weight management due to parental influence? It feels like my parents' views on food and body image have been embedded in me since forever. Growing up, there was always this subtle pressure to finish everything on my plate, regardless of whether I was full or not. Fast forward to adulthood, and it's become a real struggle to break free from those habits.

It's like a constant battle between wanting to make healthier choices and feeling guilty about not adhering to the "clean your plate" rule. And don't even get me started on family gatherings where comments about weight are casually thrown around like confetti.

Anyone else dealing with this? How do you navigate your own journey to better health while dealing with parental perceptions? I could use some tips and support, because breaking these ingrained habits feels like trying to swim upstream sometimes.

I used to breast feed my 2 year old for her afternoon nap, but I’m trying to wean her now and have no idea how to comfort her so that she can get to sleep. She won’t let me pick her up and cuddle her or rock her, or read her a book. I asked the health visitor but they just emailed me a slide show about sleep training. The thing is, I don’t feel like I’ve even got the initial part of preparing her to sleep first. Does anyone have any tips? I’m prepared to try anything. I’ve tried laying her down in bed but she just writhes about and gets angry. And she gets annoyed if I sing to her as well.

What would you do? Toddler's father thinks it's okay to play music very loudly and yell at all hours of the night. It's been from 11pm-145am currently. I asked him to turn it down because he keeps waking our son up. His response? It's my house, I can do whatever I want. I'm at my wits end. He did this yesterday, too. All night.