u/MediocreVideo1893

I love my child more than life itself. But this “why” phase is driving me crazy. I’m not exaggerating when I say I think I hear it a hundred times a day, if not more. And it’s about EVERYTHING. Things he knows the answer to. Things he doesn’t, but no answer satisfies. Things that I have no idea how to answer (“why is that a duck?”) And things that don’t make sense to ask it. Example:

Child: Look I ate all my peas!
Me: Wow, look at that, you did eat them all!
Child: Why did I eat them all?

And if I dare pause or not respond he will ask over and over until I do.

I know it’s developmentally normal. I know it’s a great sign of curiosity. But Im sorry, Im only human and yes its annoying. I feel myself getting irritated when he asks, which I don’t want to feel, because I don’t want him to sense that. So please, PLEASE share any tips that have helped. I want to foster my child’s love for wondering things but I’m so tired of it.

I will be hosting a birthday dinner for a family member this weekend and would love ideas for something new to make. We’re stuck in a rut of the same recipes and I’ve already exhausted most of them on this family member anyways.

I am searching for a crockpot recipe specifically because 1. I have kids so it’s a lot easier to assemble during their nap and 2. for logistics sake I’d like to be able to hang out with family before dinner instead of being away from everyone cooking.

The recipes Im trying to avoid (since we make them so often already):

1. pot roast
2. shepherds pie
3. Marry me chicken
4. Tacos
5. Lasagna
6. Chicken Pot Pie

Any other ideas?? I feel like everything I search online is just some variation of the above 😅

ETA: You are all AMAZING!!!! I have so many great ideas here to pick from, not just for the family dinner but to add to our rotation! I can’t respond to all of the comments but I appreciate each and every one!!

We have two children, 2 and 4. They have grandparents who are overall very supportive and involved in our kids lives.

My FIL in particular though can be overly corrective, and our oldest is reaching a point where we think it’s dimming his spark a little. It’s small things that usually hes genuinely not doing anything wrong - for example, we went out for ice cream and he kept being like “sit on the chair like this, not that. Take bites. Come on, finish up. Are you almost done?” I cannot emphasize enough how unnecessary it was, my kid was being really good the whole time and it was supposed to be fun and relaxing. There was no reason to rush either.

The one that really got me is the other night they were helping with bedtime and our son was singing the song we always do, in a silly voice like we always do. I guess FIL thought he was being too silly before bed or something because he kept telling him to stop. My kid hasn’t sang along since, no matter how much we’ve tried to encourage him to, and it’s breaking my heart.

It’s getting to the point I think we need to say something directly. We’ve tried to focus on correcting his correction, like telling our kid hey bud you can sing, or you can have more bites. And in the past my husband has kind of gently let him that our approach to situations would have been different and why, and FILs always been like “oh I was just trying to help” but I think it needs to be firmer. My husband said he is going to handle it, I just don’t know how it’s going to go or what to potentially prepare the aftermath to look like. Has anyone else been in this position who can share what that convo looked like for them?

It’s really not even close to going no contact or anything extreme like that, we just need him to ease up a little.

For important context, this is a friend of mine who has already been very difficult to remain friends with. One of the things that has built up to be an issue in our friendship is how she will use weaponized incompetence, she will really need a lot of hand holding with doing things herself and believes that she is owed a lot from the world without actually doing anything to get there.

And no, she is not disabled in any way. She just knows people will do it for her if she acts helpless enough. And then she complains a LOT. And a lot of times the things she complains about are often things that are fully in her control and the result of her not taking the steps to fix. This is something I’ve had to REALLY pull back and put some mental boundaries around in order to maintain some sort of friendship.

Well, she is pregnant. We have a big baby item that we are done with. We offered it to them to have if they need it.

They literally didn’t even acknowledge the offer and instead went on a soapbox about how crazy it is that their other friends haven’t had more baby things donated to them to use or borrow. Didn’t say anything one way or another about the one we were offering, just complained that they weren’t getting more from other people.

So I told my husband I don’t want to offer it anymore. That was a sentimental item and I was trying to be nice but I thought it was bullshit that they had such an entitled attitude when they were the ones who very consciously chose to get pregnant. It felt icky, and besides, they didn’t even answer if they wanted it because they didn’t acknowledge our offer, just went on to complain about everyone else. I feel like we could just not mention it again.

He understood where I was coming from but said that I might be overreacting a little. I acknowledge that I could be having the history of the friendship spill over into this situation, but I also just really thought it was a rude reaction in itself.

I believe I’m seeing this means they might be unsealing certain parts of the report? Or no?

My 3 (almost 4) year old goes 0-100 about any small bump, bonk, etc. I’m not talking true injuries, I mean those moments he and his brother are playing or running around and they bump into each other, or if something falls on his foot, etc - like it’s definitely got to hurt for a second or be uncomfortable but he will SCREAM as if his arm ripped off. Like banshee scream. We have tried talking with him about how he can cry if his body needs to cry but how that’s different from screaming and screaming is only for emergencies, but this feels like too big a concept for him to grasp.

I don’t know how to approach it and toe the line of acknowledgement for his feelings and that yes, it may hurt, but we can’t scream like that as a reaction to everything?

Jenis Watermelon taffy has been my number one, hands down.

Otherwise, Ive been going for a rainbow sorbet or banana split dippin dots when I can. (Can you tell I love fruity flavors?)

I have a friend that I feel like I do all of the mental effort when it comes to making plans. They will suggest a vague “we should get together soon!” but I’m the one who has to actually make a direct “okay, let’s get it on the calendar.”

Then when it comes to actually formulating the plan, everything is “Im open! Whatever you wanna do! I’m flexible!” which I know on the surface sounds polite but I feel like I am doing ALL of the actual planning. It doesn’t help they go days in between responses so it feels like dragging to even get to the next step of the conversation.

How do you handle friends like this? Because there are a lot of times it makes me just want to cancel altogether.

We all know what happened with pantygate, but no one talks about what was happening leading up to it. Lisa V starts reaching for Erika’s skirt saying “Kyle needs some underwear” and then the rest ensues. But what the heck was she originally trying to do/say? It reads so much like Lisa was just trying to embarrass Erika in the first place, so I’m confused how she walked away from that whole thing scott free.