u/EarlyAd3047

My husband and I both work full time. I had a 4 month maternity leave and my husband thought that since I was on maternity leave I should do ALL the parenting by myself 24/7. Very little family support as our parents live out of state, colicky baby, last minute C section. My husband eventually got his shit together when I went back to work. Now the parenting workload is close to 50/50 and our boy is over a year old but it took a LOT of fights to get to there. I had to start a fight over almost every single thing and the whole experienced soured my opinion of my husband. I am still angry and have trust issues and we get into the same fights over and over again where he says he does his share now, asks me how I am feeling constantly, and feels like I still make him out to be the bad guy. I always feel like he wasn't there when I needed him the most so it's empty if he asks me how I am doing now. People tell me to let it go, he's a man, etc. and they all think he is a great guy when they see or hear stories about him, but I just see a guy who was playing video games in the next room over while I was killing myself taking care of his kid around the clock.

My son was gifted 3 pairs of shoes on his first birthday, all size 5s. If I wait for him to outgrow them, could I skip a size or two or do I have to buy every single shoe size as he gets bigger?

Since my son goes to daycare and I send food from home, I am looking for the perfect marker/pen for labeling his food containers. The containers are glass but I think the lids are plastic and I write on the lids.

I am looking for a marker that is washable, but not TOO easily washable where any drop of liquid runs the ink right off. Currently using Expo Wet Erase and have this problem. Ideally it takes a little bit of soap and rubbing, but not too much.

If anyone knows what marker/pen does the best job, I would appreciate it!

My 12 month old still cries if you try to set him down on the floor. He wants to be carried everywhere even though he is 24 pounds. He can sit up, crawl, cruise, stand, and even climb. He also eats every 2 to 3 hours, including waking up multiple times in the middle of the night to nurse. He sleeps with me and my husband because he will scream inconsolably if you gently set him in his crib. We tried sleep training him but he screams and never stops screaming until you give up. Even in the car he will start crying if the wrong song plays on the radio, or I played the songs he likes on repeat too many times, or if I don't play music at all. He has always been extremely opinionated, starting from when he was 6 weeks old, and I wonder if I am enabling his behavior by giving him what he wants all the time.

I was gifted a jar of La Famille Crystal Cream but I can't find any reviews of this product. I did a double-take when I saw how pricey it was. Is it a gimmick luxury item or is it a genuinely high end product?

My son is a toddler and his two cousins are the most poorly-behaved children I have ever seen. They will scream and throw temper tantrums at restaurants even after their mom brings them toys to keep them occupied, because they then fight over who gets to play with which toy. When we go on trips they each go in a different car so that they will be more manageable. The older one has unmedicated ADHD while the younger one doesn't, but the younger one sees the older one getting away with everything so he copies his older brother.

One example of every day bad behavior is when they went to a park with a big splash pad. The mom made them change into swimming clothes (cue them fussing and yelling and her yelling back for them to behave), we get to the park, the older one starts shooting a water gun at passing toddlers. The mom starts yelling "how big are you? How big are they? Leave the babies alone!" And 30 seconds later the older one shoots a water gun at the same toddler. The mom yells "what did I just say!" And the older boy yells back "I wasn't doing anything!" even though we all saw him. He gets a 10 seconds timeout while repeatedly screaming that he wasn't doing anything. Then he will go to a zipline just a few minutes later and continue to ride it over and over while other kids line up and quietly wait their turn, and the mom has to yell at him to stop hogging the zipline. He will stop after she yells, but every 30 seconds or so there is a new thing she had to yell at him for while watching him like a hawk. Since all the attention is on policing the older kid, the younger one doesn't get attention unless he acts out too. When they get home in their wet clothes, there is more fussing and screaming and tantrums while the mom gets them to shower and change into dry clothes. I am exhausted and overstimulated just watching all the yelling going back and forth. My husband compares the dynamic to Malcolm in the Middle.

My husband is convinced our son (currently a toddler) won't end up like that because we will be better parents. But I don't necessarily think the mom of the two monsters is a bad parent, she IS telling them not to things this or that but they just do it regardless and scream and act out when they get a time out. She won't medicate the older boy because she thinks he shouldn't be medicated so young. What is interesting though, is the boys DO seem better behaved when the mom isn't around. So parents of well-behaved children, what would you do differently in such a scenario?

My baby just turned one and since his separation anxiety kicked in he oooooonly wants me. We had family visit for the first time in 5 months (we live in different states) and they tried so hard to help me since I am burnt out, but the harder they tried the worse they made it. For example, they tried to take turns holding him during lunch and that meant he screamed his head off and didn't get to eat, so he cried the entire car ride home out of hunger. Then at home they AND my husband tried to take turns holding him (while offering him food) and he continued to scream for me. Every time I tried to take him back they told me to rest, they've got this, but maybe half an hour later he was still screaming, refusing to eat, and now overtired. By the time I got him and nursed him to sleep, we were running an hour late and might miss the planned group activities. I just have to accept that I don't get breaks :*)

My boy is 11 months old and supposed to go into the toddler room when he hits 14 months. Last week I noticed they stopped tracking his meals/naps on the daycare app and at first I thought he went hours without eating or drinking anything, but it turned out they sent him to the toddler room for a couple hours and said he did great. Since then he's been constantly placed with the toddlers. I'm not too bothered by it because my boy is a very active climber and big for his age so he was probably causing trouble being around the younger babies, but is there anything I should be concerned about him being moved up to the toddler room early? The policy is usually that they wait for the babies to hit 1 and then slowly acclimate them to the toddler room whereas mine isn't scheduled to go to the toddler room for 3 more months but he's there all the time while still an infant room baby on paper.

I have never been particularly interested in babies. I always liked kids (especially 4 and up, when they are curious about everything) and have been told I am very patient with them, but I never had much interest in babies themselves. Years ago, a coworker brought her baby to work and while others cooed over her baby, I wasn't interested at all and thought of how differently I would have reacted had she brought in a puppy. When I mentioned to people I didn't really care about babies, they said it would be different when it was MY baby. I heard the hormones change you, it's love at first sight when your baby is born, etc. Well maybe it's because I had a C section after developing a high fever after 50 hours of labor, but I woke up in the hospital 9 hours after the birth and was disoriented, I felt like I was handed some random baby after having major surgery for no real reason. I have memories of being pregnant and the C section of course, but it's all wrapped in this cloud of trauma.

I have done what it takes to take care of this baby, and he is very attached to me (prefers me over my husband by a LOT), but he is 11 months and I still don't feel those maternal instincts. I feel no more affection for him than pre-pregnancy when I was considering a hypothetical child. I feel like I've honored everything I would have done for my hypothetical child (singing to him, reading to him, keeping him happy, etc.) but there is still this very detached feeling.

I mention he won't be a baby anymore next month and people say "but he will always be your baby" and I think "I guess?" but people seem to assume I will miss him being this young and no, I really won't.