u/MarginLA

I just took my kids to the sunset triangle Plaza event today and there were eight razor blades at the petting zoo that all these little toddlers could step on and the only employee I could find were a couple security guards who didn’t want to touch the razor blades to throw them away (which I get). There was also broken glass and bottles of booze right there at the petting zoo.

How did the person in charge not clean this area before setting up this event? Also, the petting zoo was pretty inhumane. The sheep and goats had no room to walk and there were two ducks and two chickens shoved inside of a crate that was the size for a small dog or a cat. This was very bizarre and I will definitely not be taking my kids to this again.

If you know anyone involved in this event, please lovingly pass this information along to them. I don’t think they meant to do any harm, but this was just a really badly organized event and a kid could’ve gotten hurt.

Update: I just spoke to a guy at Jewish Silver Lake and his stance was that it wasn’t their responsibility to clean the park and that it’s just like that. I told him they were the ones that put a children’s petting zoo there so they should have checked it. And he just said it should be the city’s responsibility. Wow!! I agree that the city should keep that park cleaner, but I also think if you’re choosing to host an event in a dirty park, you are responsible.

I have a 2.5 year old in swim lessons and drowning is a big anxiety of mine. I made sure that my in laws fenced their pool and I don’t let my daughter spend time at homes with unfenced pools. But I’m curious, at what age does this not matter. My daughter will be able to swim in the next year but obviously for awhile it’s still dangerous to be around water.

At what age does water become a non-scary presence? I remember during my childhood in Florida running around unsupervised near water all the time, but I’m not sure what age that started. Thanks!

Edit: I understand that as a parent it’s always going to be scary, just like having them driving and all the other risks of life. I mean at what age is it not the same level of stress of having a small child around a pool. At what age do they go from extremely vulnerable around water to being able to use the buddy system with their friends/siblings or be at a house or a hotel with a pool on the property or something like that without it being this major stress of a presence.

Edit2: also some of you seem to think that I have a pool that I want to unfence. I don’t have a pool! I just mean pools/water at other places

Hey everyone, I live in Los Angeles but travel to the Netherlands once a year and my kids have Dutch citizenship through their father, though he grew up in the US too and sadly doesn’t speak Dutch. I actually speak more than he does because I’ve been working on it the last few years because I just love the Netherlands so much, though I’m not great with languages.

However, I am determined for my children to speak fluent Dutch and am enrolling them in a Dutch weekend school in LA that’s mostly for kids who speak Dutch at home. I’m trying to catch my 2 year old up as much as possible before she starts in September. we watch Dikkie Dik, Juf Roos, Sesamstraat and Nijntje a few days a week and she loves it.

Does anyone have suggestions on what I should watch with her or how I should best teach her? I figured there’s probably a lot of English speaking parents in the Netherlands who have tried to catch their children up with Dutch before Dutch preschool starts. What worked for you? Thank you!