The details are fuzzy, but I think my husband and I downloaded the YouTube Kids app to our TV sometime in 2022, when between one and three members of the household came down with the flu at the same time. Like countless parents of toddlers before us, we needed something, anything, that would buy us a moment to vomit in peace.
We start the bedtime routine at 7 p.m., and it lasts until 8:15 p.m. or 8:30 p.m. most nights. This includes about 20 minutes of overseeing the toothbrushing and general bedtime prep, and then I spend about 20 minutes of one-on-one time with each of my three kids, in reverse age order. The kids are welcome to read in their beds until they're sleepy enough to turn off the light,
I would routinely stay up late watching TV or reading in bed and say yes to dinners that started long after nightfall. My relationship with mornings was casual-I'd occasionally enjoy a sunrise but I certainly never set an alarm to see one. Then I had children, whose needs demanded an early start, and I spent years stumbling out of bed at their first sounds, making breakfast, and building block towers before I'd fully woken up.
Between daily errands and long family road trips, my family of four spends a lot of time in our Toyota Sienna, so keeping it well-stocked with everyday essentials and emergency provisions feels really important to me. Ultimately, stocking the car is all about understanding your own family's particular needs. If you've got a baby who's still in diapers, a packed diaper bag will be essential for you, whereas, if you've got tweens and teens, charging cables might be the hottest commodity imaginable.
When your child hears 100 times a day, again and again and again, what they do well, what they do well becomes the memory that they have in their brain and body, and they do it more because they've had so many experiences of having it reinforced,
Most mornings in our house feel like a friendly little language carnival spinning through the kitchen. Before the kids even put on their shoes for school, they've already cycled through three languages joking in Hindi, arguing in Pashto and sprinkling English on top like chocolate chips tossed over their cereal. We don't plan it or rehearse it: it just happens. Pashto is the language of feelings and family business like complaints, alliances, who stole whose pencil, who touched the remote.
I had heard about the special bonds that twins share, and I was excited to witness that up close. I thought it would be like watching a fascinating story unfold. My sons are 13 now, but they have been mostly inseparable since birth. When they were babies, they hit milestones within days of each other. Through the years, they've shared rhythms, reactions, and inside jokes that didn't need explaining.
They're asking ChatGPT how to handle behavioral problems or for medical advice when their kids are sick, USA Today reports, which dovetails with a 2024 study that found parents trust ChatGPT over real health professionals and also deem the information generated by the bot to be trustworthy. It all comes in addition to parents using ChatGPT to keep kids entertained by having the bot read their children bedtime stories or talk with them for hours.
She also doesn't understand why, as a woman in my 40s, I like certain things that she considers childish, like animated films. However, when I think about her childhood, I realize that she probably still has unhealed trauma that was never dealt with. She was born in France, just two months before the Nazis marched in, and spent the first five years of her life in wartime and economic struggles.
We all know that mom whose hair and makeup is always perfect, whose car is spotlessly clean when her kids show up at practice in new shoes, and oh look - she brought homemade gluten-free snacks. We've all wondered if some people legitimately have more hours in the day than we do. One mom took to r/Parenting on Reddit to ask users there: "How are some parents so incredibly organised?"
The best advice for foster parents is to approach each child with patience, empathy, and a willingness to grow alongside them. It's a journey filled with excitement, nerves, and sometimes overwhelming emotions. Stepping into this role means opening your home and heart to a child in foster care, providing the love and stability they need to thrive. Here we will discuss practical suggestions for fostering parents and thoughtful insights for first-time foster parents. Support, preparation, and patience will guide you as you begin this rewarding
Throughout this month, I'll be spotlighting a series of articles exploring the emotional, developmental, and relational layers of adoption, because adoption is not a one-time event; it's a lifelong journey of searching for identity and belonging.Adoption is often framed as an act of love, and it can be, but it's also a lifelong commitment that demands emotional readiness, humility, and ongoing self-awareness.
It's a random Tuesday in October, and your kids are home again. A national holiday? Nope. A snow day. Not even a speck of frost on the ground. It's Professional Development Day or Parent-Teacher Conference Half Day or one of the 15 other noninstructional days that appear in the school calendar like little landmines for anyone with a full-time job.
One of the most infuriating things a partner can say to their wife is, "But you didn't tell me to do it!" There's just so much to unpack there - why is mom usually the one in charge of delegating tasks? Why are they the default managers of the household? And why can't dads take some initiative and figure out what needs to get done in the family sphere?
I was raised by a single mom who was a teacher. We didn't have a ton of money, but we always got by. As a kid, I noticed that my grandparents' house was bigger than many others, and that they'd give me Christmas presents I'd be longing for. There was never a conversation, but over time, I realized that my grandparents were our financial safety net.
I'm lucky I'm not a lawyer or an accountant or something professional, says Peach Martine, a 23-year-old musician whose Instagram feed is a kaleidoscope of colourful faux fur and leopard-print outfits. People sometimes have trouble taking my name seriously. First, there are the jokey comments (Is your sister named Papaya?) and then the assumption that she must be a bit silly. And don't get her started on going to Starbucks. They always put Paige on the cup!
Look, we lie to kids all the time when we don't think they're emotionally ready to handle certain parts of life, like the permanence of death, or how Santa Claus can leave presents at houses that don't have a chimney. Sometimes, telling them the truth is cruel and heartless. (When my 5-year-old asked those questions, I said to him that most people live on this planet for 1,000 years before they go to cloud city in heaven to live forever, and that Santa and his
Everyone talks about "teaching moments" these days, those reframes of a shared experience that retroactively rescue what would otherwise have been a feel-bad moment or awkward encounter and turn it into something positive, and for which you're almost grateful. Still, most teaching moments are fraught with the best of intentions but the lousiest of outcomes-lessons in how to lecture, bore, and patronize your child at the same time.
Before having children, I worked as a journalist for years. I loved my job, and after my daughter was born in 2021, I returned to work full time at a magazine. My monthly salary just covered her childcare fees with little left over. This meant my husband had to cover all other living expenses, with only tiny contributions from me. When we had our second baby, a son in 2023, something had to change.
The original poster (OP) wrote in the Mommit Reddit page, "My kids have 2 birthday parties to attend coming up, and I am low on funds until I get paid in 2 weeks, but I don't want my kids to miss out for their friend's birthday parties. The friends are turning 6 years old. Any ideas on budget friendly gifts/ideas?"
"The first child is the one who makes you want 10 more children. But the second child makes you feel like you have 10 children. And boy, they weren't kidding. Everyone has heard tales of the terror that is the second child. I heard them more than once during my second pregnancy, but I'll be honest, I didn't pay it much attention. I thought surely this one will be just like the last.
