u/A-Friendly-Giraffe

Basically the title.

My daughter and son are 4-year-old twins and are taking ballet class and are going to be in The nutcracker. I'd like to find a picture book that we can read together To get them excited.

Most of the books that I've been able to find about ballet have only girls in them.

The ones that have a boy in the book are about being the only boy in ballet class. I don't want my son to think that it's weird for him to do ballet class since this is the activity that he chose to do. (Plus, his ballet class has three boys).

I feel like books about being the only boy are creating problems that don't exist for us yet but I would like a book that has some male representation.

The plot isn't as important since they are four. Even if it's a book about a girl who does ballet but there are boys in the background in her class that would be fine.

Thanks, I know this is kind of specific.

Basically the title.

I listened to the podcast " nutrition for mortals" episode on organic food. They are both nutritionists and looked at what the research said around organic food. I don't think they necessarily have an agenda other than "the podcast that says that life is too damn short to spend your time and attention worrying about your food choices."

https://www.oceansidenutrition.com/podcast

My takeaways from the episode is that:

1. Things used to be a lot worse

2. Organic can still be big AG and still have pesticides (but only certain kinds).

3. Nutritionally for the most part it doesn't seem to matter because a lot of the differences between things are very slight.

Are there people who know more about the organic movement or organic farming that can tell me things that the podcast may have missed.

I think it's possible that a nutrition podcast can be accurate, but still have some blind spots that don't necessarily go into their particular field of study.

Thanks

Basically the title.

I listened to the podcast " nutrition for mortals" episode on organic food. They are both nutritionists and looked at what the research said around organic food. I don't think they necessarily have an agenda other than "the podcast that says that life is too damn short to spend your time and attention worrying about your food choices."

https://www.oceansidenutrition.com/podcast

My takeaways from the episode is that:

1. Things used to be a lot worse

2. Organic can still be big AG and still have pesticides (but only certain kinds).

3. Nutritionally for the most part it doesn't seem to matter because a lot of the differences between things are very slight.

Are there people who know more about the organic movement or organic farming that can tell me things that the podcast may have missed.

I think it's possible that a nutrition podcast can be accurate, but still have some blind spots that don't necessarily go into their particular field of study.

Thanks

Basically the title.

It just seems like lately my house is so much chaos. Coming up with a macro level system to organize things or waiting for my partner to do. It hasn't really worked well. I think if there was a nice printable checklist that we could do and then hold ourselves accountable to, maybe that would work better.

If it was created by a third party rather than one of us, I think it would feel more neutral.

I've heard there are charts that tell you what you should be cleaning everyday and then you can just stick to it.

I think what I'd like to do is start with a system that will get us 80% of the way there and then we can tweak the rest of the things.

The mental load part is really hard and I think if there was less on that it might free up room for other things.

Basically the title.

It just seems like lately my house is so much chaos. Coming up with a macro level system to organize things or waiting for my partner to do. It hasn't really worked well. I think if there was a nice printable checklist that we could do and then hold ourselves accountable to, maybe that would work better.

If it was created by a third party rather than one of us, I think it would feel more neutral.

I've heard there are charts that tell you what you should be cleaning everyday and then you can just stick to it.

I think what I'd like to do is start with a system that will get us 80% of the way there and then we can tweak the rest of the things.

The mental load part is really hard and I think if there was less on that it might free up room for other things.

Basically the title.

It just seems like lately my house is so much chaos. Coming up with a macro level system to organize things or waiting for my partner to do. It hasn't really worked well. I think if there was a nice printable checklist that we could do and then hold ourselves accountable to, maybe that would work better.

If it was created by a third party rather than one of us, I think it would feel more neutral.

I've heard there are charts that tell you what you should be cleaning everyday and then you can just stick to it.

I think what I'd like to do is start with a system that will get us 80% of the way there and then we can tweak the rest of the things.

The mental load part is really hard and I think if there was less on that it might free up room for other things.

Note: I posted this in working moms as well but thought I might get some different types of responses from this sub so thought I would post twice

Basically the title.

It just seems like lately my house is so much chaos. Coming up with a macro level system to organize things or waiting for my partner to do. It hasn't really worked well. I think if there was a nice printable checklist that we could do and then hold ourselves accountable to, maybe that would work better.

If it was created by a third party rather than one of us, I think it would feel more neutral.

I've heard there are charts that tell you what you should be cleaning everyday and then you can just stick to it.

I think what I'd like to do is start with a system that will get us 80% of the way there and then we can tweak the rest of the things.

The mental load part is really hard and I think if there was less on that it might free up room for other things.

I saw on Facebook someone posted something about birth order.

Oldest children tend to be like this, middle children tend to be like this, youngest children tend to be like this. Only children tend to be like this etc.

I'm wondering if anyone knows of a study that looked at how twins who are the only children in the family tend to end up.

Like, would they be more similar to the oldest, the youngest, the middle, or the only children?

I knew this is not an exact science, but I'm curious if anyone knows any studies that looked at this particular research question.

I see a lot of people evaluating daycares on here and trying to figure out the best one. I thought I would share my story in case it helps someone.

My kids have been going to their preschool for 2 years and it's been great. The teachers loop with the kids and the class moves together, lots of outside time, great ratios etc. Genuinely caring and loving people. Our kids learned a lot of the potty training just from watching the other kids in the center and the teachers were active partners in it.

Yesterday, we were told that they had a class A violation and by law they need to inform us. (Short version, the students in another class were playing in the outdoor play area, they all went inside, they did a count and one was missing, they counted again, one was still missing. They went back and found the kid playing with a toy in an area that wasn't observed from the windows. The kid was alone for approximately 5 minutes. The kid was fine.)

The center reported the incident themselves to the state.

The staff got retrained.

However, there is now giant paper saying that there was a violation in front of the school. They had to tell all of the parents and get their signatures.

My initial response when we had the meeting was that stuff like this can happen. The parent next to me said something along the lines of "Wow, 5 minutes is a long time. If it were a couple seconds that wouldn't be so bad but 5 minutes..." This made me second guess myself and wonder if I was being too cavalier.

I asked in the early childhood subreddit and most of the teachers there said that the school did everything right given the circumstances and that it wouldn't particularly worry them given the situation.

To my understanding : A type A violation would be if a kid was found alone wandering the parking lot or if the kid was in the gated fenced in area attached to the playground 10 ft from the classroom door (as what happened here).

When I think about how much work it was on them to handle it correctly, I'm proud of the center for reporting it because while it's the law, I can see the temptation to sweep it under the rug.

#So My kind of long winded point is essentially... Just because a school has a violation, even a type A violation, I wouldn't necessarily completely write the school off. Look at exactly what happened and determine for yourself if that's a deal breaker.

If you want more details, feel free to PM me that I can give you more. This was sort of the summary.

Basically the post title.

My 4-year-old twins are driving me nuts at bedtime.

They have more or less consistent bedtime.

We have a routine.

90% of the time there's no screens an hour before bed, on the times that there is I haven't noticed a difference.

They can go potty, But also wear a pull-up.

Yes, I know separating them would probably help but we don't have another room to do that.

My daughter doesn't usually nap at school, but will still take until 10:00 at night to fall asleep.

I'm considering trying a weighted blanket or one of those little expensive sleeping bags that I see on Instagram.

If you're reading this because your kids don't sleep either, solidarity.

If you've been through it, I'd love some other things to try.

My kids are four and it seems like whenever I'm at a park with a playground my kids are at the median age of children and probably slightly older than the mean age of children.

I rarely see a kid over about nine. It seems like the majority of the people using the park are children who are two or three.

My city has been renovating their Park so a lot of them are really nice, so I don't think that's a factor.. A lot of them are rated to 12 years old too.

I've been looking forward to this for over a month and tried to really prep the kids for it.

I complained about it to my partner and he's sort of like, well. What do you expect?

It was just a really disappointing day.

My twins are four and really like patriotic things after the 4th of July and watching world cup soccer. Watching the national anthems at baseball games, now they want to learn the words. (And they actually know quite a bit of them). They point out " the flag of our country" when they see it. We watched a small 4th of July parade in our neighborhood and they each got little American flags to wave and they were so pleased.

I remember when I was four and I was watching the Olympic games and feeling a similar pride in my country.

I guess what's really tricky for me is that these types of behavior seem now to belong to conservatives and the right. If they show up to preschool in t-shirts with giant American flags, it could be taken the wrong way.

Like I think explaining to them that some people kneel for the national anthem will be a little bit above their heads...

I'm trying to figure out how to teach them " Old fashioned" pride in the country that I am personally struggling to feel proud of right now.

How are you teaching your kids that our country is great but also telling them about some of the not great things our country is doing.

I'm not sure I'm quite explaining myself as well as I'd like, but would love to hear other thoughts on theme of patriotism.

Our g/b twins are almost 4. They are still in toddler beds now. They share a relatively small room currently and will for the foreseeable future.

They will need twin beds trying to think the best space efficient but still useful bed style.

I was thinking low loft with drawers.

Saw ONE of those on FB me for half off

https://a.co/d/05MLLQTx

Would love to hear from people who have done it.

They are quite active kids, if it matters.

I just want to say I know some people have it much worse but I'm still bummed and want to vent to the universe and this is a supportive place.

I was told that I could sleep in this morning and then I was going to a gym class. The plan was to stop at my favorite coffee shop and get breakfast afterwards.

Even though I could technically sleep in, I woke up at the usual time and didn't really get to sleep in. My gym class was a Pilates class and the instructor was running it much more like jazzercise with super fast music and coordinated dance moves. It was not like previous Pilates classes that I've taken that were a little slower and focused on form. I ended up leaving halfway through.

I decided instead to go to my favorite coffee shop and get my favorite coffee and my favorite breakfast, both of which they are currently sold out of.

My partner said they're heading back from there morning out so everyone will be there when I get back and neither of the kids said happy mother's Day this morning

My 3 year old kids recently went to the dentist and behaved amazingly. Let the dentist look at all their teeth, floss, sat and the chair by themselves, etc.

My partner decided that they deserved a "treat" for doing so well.

I asked if we could give them a treat that was NOT sugar as a reward for the dentist. Since it just seemed counterintuitive.

He then suggested TV time.

They ended up with a bowl of Lucky charms as a reward for doing well at the dentist.

I realize I can't win all the battles but I'm just really frustrated with how this turned out and I'm curious what other people do.

Edit: I don't have a problem with some sugar in their diets. I feel like we over rely on it though.

Good job= TV/screens

Good job = sugar

Good job = new toy (especially small disposable plastic stuff)

I was looking for some new suggestions for our arsenal and I already have gotten some. Thanks