u/Ok_Cauliflower_2143

My son is turning 2 and I’m struggling with gift ideas for him. I have a 4 year old already and between the two of them, they really don’t need anymore toys. Their toy room is already exploding with toys and I didn’t want to just give an idea of some junk toy, she already has a history of buying cheaper toys that don’t last and end up just getting tossed anyways.

My SIL asked for ideas and I ended up telling her that instead of gifts this year I’m just going to ask for money that I could put towards a bigger gift. She told me that’s awkward and then asked what the bigger gift idea was. I told her that I wanted to get my son a play couch. She basically told me that that’s a terrible idea because it seems like a gift that would go towards my daughter and my son. While yes it’s something that my daughter would use, I don’t see an issue in asking for it since it’s something my son is also going to use.

In the end she told me she will just figure out a different gift, she made me feel pretty bad about asking money towards gift that I know my son would use and isn’t gonna to end up with just some random toy to add to the collection. So am I the asshole for asking for money instead of getting guts for my son?

Is it wrong of me to just ask family to just give some money so I could put it towards a bigger gift instead? I have a 4 and 2 year and by now they have all the toys in the world and I’m struggling with giving my family ideas for them. I’m thinking of just telling family members to just all chip in so money so I can buy a play couch for my son’s birthday. Is that wrong of me? How do I go about telling them that’s what I want to do? I don’t want to come off as rude

I want to start off with I come from a very rural and small community. Our “gymnastics club” takes place in our area in the hockey’s off season. So we don’t have all the equipment that regular gym would. We have a small floor, one beam, one runway for vault, a small area for bars that aren’t the uneven bars. Just like the bars you would get for your at home gym type of thing. And one bouncy floor runway mat.

I put my almost 2 year old and 4 year old in gymnastics this year. The 2 year old comes with me to our mom and tot program. We’ve only attended 4 classes but out of the four classes I’ve had to leave early or my kid has just cried the whole time.

The teacher keeps the classes very structured for example -She pauses, has the kids sit still in the parents lap. While she herself explains 5-8 instructions on different equipment that are all advanced. Then get up and do them, then pause again and reset and explain 5-8 new activities for them to do.

the other moms all agree that it’s far too structured. Example of one of the activities:

Flamingo touches, balance on a beam, and touch the opposite toe to the opposite knee.

Gecko climbs, hold onto a bar and walk feet up.

Etc. And most the children are 12 months to 30 months. And they are crying and cranky after class

Wondering if this is normal expectations for kids under 2.

I have brought my 4 year old to a different mom and tots program that was in the city in an actual gymnastic club and it was not this structured at all.

This gym is so small and it seems unfair of the child can go and explore and be contained to only a small area

For example- if they are doing circuit on the floor they are not to touch the beam that is attached to the floor and they will be scolded.

Any input is appreciated.
.

For context, we have a 4 year old girl and an almost 2 year old boy together. I’m a stay at home mom and he works away like %90 of the time, leaving me to parent by myself majority of the time.

Today I took our son to our mom and totally gymnastics program where I had a not so good time because the teacher scolded our 2 year old son for not listening. I had explained to my husband what happened and he basically told me that I need to stop letting our son get away with so much.

Our son is completely different from our daughter. Our daughter was so gentle and kind. Not super energetic. My son is a little maniac. He’s full speed or no speed type of kid. I’ve been struggling lots with him, he can be really mean to our daughter, he will just punch and bit her without any reason. He’s constantly running and jumping off things. I try to talk sternly with him, I get down on his level and talk to him. I’ve tried giving him timeouts. This kid is just way different from what we are use to with our daughter.

It upset me when my husband basically didn’t have my back when I told him about what happened with our son at gymnastics. He made it sound like I just allow our son to run buck free and do whatever he wants. I’m solo parenting %90 of the time.. there’s only so much I can do. I don’t know how else I can help our son out. He can be a really good kid, him and his sister do get a long for the most part, and they have started to get a really good relationship going but he just goes through these phases of just being a shit disturber. I really don’t think it’s fair that he basically just gets to judge me when he never has to be the parent.