u/Cymbaltahurts95

I’m the mother of a 6 year old starting 1st grade. So far he’s done well in school but he did start off having trouble with his letters. I spent hours trying to teach him but he would get frustrated if he didn’t understand immediately. His teacher was able to get through to him and didn’t have any concerns with his learning. I have an English degree and so I read a ton of books all the time. I read with my son every day from the time he could sit up and he loves his books (He has tons of them). Now that he’s 6 he’s reading 3 letter words but he also really likes listening to audiobooks. He’s listened to the wild robot, charlottes web, Alice’s adventures in wonderland, a few of the magic treehouse books and James and the giant peach. I’m just curious what teachers would think of him listening to audiobooks.

Since it’s still summer I also bought him workbooks to go over his phonics and numbers and he doesn’t have issues with them.

Basically I’m just feeling like audiobooks sometimes have a negative connotation of not really reading but if I were reading the books to him he would still be listening to me read them. He also likes to follow along with the books when he can. Mostly dogman and other comics that I can find read alongs for.

My best friend and I had a falling out. She has been in my kids (6M and 3F) lives since my son was about 18 months old. We knew each other longer than that but she missed a chunk of his baby years because of Covid. We went to high school together and have been friends for about 13 years so when I had my kids she was their aunt no question.

Very recently she has been going through some mental health issues and taking care of a dying family member and things between us started becoming tense. Long story short things happened and she told me she no longer wants to be in my life.

My kids consider her family. She was family. I don’t know how to talk to them about not seeing her anymore. My son asks me to send her pictures of them and videos. My daughter does figure skating and will ask me to send videos because it’s something they both loved. I understand that she was going through stuff and I really don’t hold it against her but how do I talk to my kids about it without them feeling abandoned or unloved?

Some of the things she said about them made me really upset at the time. Basically that she’s tired of being my support system and she misses who I was before kids. It felt like a slap in the face to the kids who love her but I didn’t have it in me to argue about it. So now I’m trying to process and figure out what to say to my kids.

Basically my BIL is getting married this fall. He has no kids and his fiancées family is very childfree. We didn’t insist on my kids being the flower girl and the ring bearer. My daughter is 3 and my son is 6. My BIL insisted that they be in the wedding.

My issue is that we warned them that a 3 year old might be squirmy at a wedding and my son very likely has adhd but hasn’t been diagnosed (we’re going through the channels) and he doesn’t sit still for long either. My BIL insists they be there but also want me to basically be child wrangler during the wedding and bring them for photos get them ready send them down the isle and then grab them at the end and take them on a walk around the grounds if the venue if they are disruptive in any way. I won’t be getting help from my husband because he’s in the wedding party. I am not.

That’s enough but then he wants them to be there for the reception as well. We got the invitation and it clearly states this is a childfree wedding on it. They’re having an open bar which is normal but he’s told us that his fiancées family wants to get black out drunk at this wedding. He suggested having someone pick them up early but we don’t have that resource. So at this point I’m going to leave a few hours early with the kids because my husband feels like he can’t leave. But he also doesn’t want me to leave because he wants to spend time with me.

Am I being ridiculous feeling like this situation is a mess?

I might have missed important info so ask away if you need to clarify and I’ll add it to this.

I’m a beginner in wool spinning and I was just gifted two sheep’s worth of baby doll wool. I’m a jack of all trades when it comes to crafts so I was wondering if it would be better to spin the wool or maybe just felt it. I know baby dolls aren’t really known as much for their wool.

I asked in Nextdoor and immediately had old bigots yapping at me. So I’m asking here. Are there any family friendly pride events this year?

A note to future bigots. I don’t care what your opinion is so please scroll on.

I’m the mom of a 3 year old who watched the Olympics and fell in love with Alysa Liu. She begged me to put her into figure skating so I started her in skating lessons thinking she might just end up hating it and change her mind but she loves it. She wants to be on the ice.

So im asking what’s next? I signed her up for another 6 weeks of skating lessons. But I know nothing of what I’m getting myself into if we keep this up. I want to support her interests and take her as far as she’ll go.

My 3 year old obsessed with the ice. She’s been taking lessons for a few weeks now and so far she’s really interested in figure skating. I’m looking for someone who’s been through it to maybe guide me in how to encourage her interest and be the best support I can be. I know she’s 3 and things can change but when I tell you she’s determined and loves it on the ice I really mean it.