u/GuiltyName7169

I’ve been looking for some good ‘learning’ toys for my son who’s 18 months old.

He has a lot of block/stacking toys and does great with them, his fine motor is getting pretty good (I think). I do flash cards with him too (he loves them) and he loves books.

Maybe something that’ll be good for independent play as well as he really only will play if I’m doing it with him.

Any suggestions or recommendations are greatly appreciated!

Also Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms, dads and caretakers who took on the role as mom!

I filed for child support last week, I haven’t heard anything back yet. Assuming it’s because court needs to track my son’s father down. (I didn’t have his exact address).

My ex has been sending $50 a week “willingly” (his father was his attorney and his dad told him to send me support). But he justifies $50 a week because he “has two other children to support” (his wife’s kids).

We already went through custody court, I got granted sole legal and ex gets our son every other Saturday for 6 hours.

I’m getting nervous for support court and I hear a lot of people say support is much easier/less nerve wracking. Mostly nervous because I won’t be entitled to a public defender, and assuming ex will have dad to represent him.

If you went through it, do you have any suggestions? Anything you wish you brought? Does it get settled in one hearing?

I’m trying to figure out if this would actually be considered a violation of a custody order or just poor decision making.

My court order says my child’s dad has to be “substantially present and awake” during his parenting time (every other Saturday 10am–4pm).

Today he picked up our child at 10am, then about 20 minutes later dropped him off at his apartment with his wife and left to go to his other child’s soccer game (over an hour away).

For several hours, he was not physically present during his parenting time. Roughly from 10:20am until 3pm.

At one point I was told by my ex’s daughters mother - that my son was “home taking a nap,” but I wasn’t given any direct info from my ex about where our child was or who was supervising him. I ended up requesting a welfare check through non-emergency police just because I couldn’t confirm anything. They confirmed my child was safe, and I was told the caregiver declined to give contact info in case of emergency.

He later texted me saying he “appreciated me calling the police and did what he had to do for our son to take a nap” and accused me of harassing him.

This isn’t the first time for lapse of judgement and there have been issues with missed visits regularly.

Is this considered a violation of “substantially present,” or just bad judgment?

I’ve already emailed my lawyer but I won’t hear anything until Monday. I’ve also been documenting EVERYTHING.

I’ve been a single mom to my son since he was 6 months old. He’s almost 18 months old now. The thought about dating again seems nice but also petrifying. So many men (and women) are vile. Someone can seem so sweet, and things can go sour at any given moment. Im at the point if im dating, im thinking long term. Is this person safe for me to leave my son with? Can they handle a kid screaming and crying for hours with no given explanation? Are they stable? Will they treat my son the way he deserves to be treated?

My son’s father met someone and moved on same month - engaged moved in with and married some girl all within 6 months of us splitting. I cannot fathom, but not the point.

My son’s safety will always be #1. I’ve come to peace with if I never end up with someone again if it meant he will be okay. But he deserves a family just as much as I do. I’d love to have another kid one day. However the thought of going through this again is terrifying.

I know “everyone isn’t a villain” but you TRULY never know someone or their intentions.

I guess I’m just looking for insights and experiences from other single parents.