u/OtterImpossible

Hi!

I've been starting to do a real push for potty training over the past week. My son is a few months past three. I haven't done no pants or anything, just keeping him in diapers for now and doing a lot of hype around earning candies and prizes for stickers on his chart etc.

My first goal was just to get him more comfortable with sitting on the potty and trying to pee, and he's been getting the hang of that pretty well. Now trying to work on the staying dry piece and it is going...feels like nowhere lol.

The past couple of days (home with me for the weekend), he will do like a tablespoon of pee when I sit him on his potty, then say there is no more left (and I do have him sit a bit longer to make sure). Then 10 minutes later he does a big pee in his diaper. I'm trying to tell him that I'm not angry, just confused why it keeps happening!

He is semi bought into potty training (loves earning the prizes but the novelty is definitely wearing off).

Anyone dealt with this? I would love any ideas!

I let a friend of 20 years know about a discount on tickets for a family oriented holiday show that we went to together with our kids last year, and asked if she wanted to join. She told me she already got tickets to go with a different friend.

I'm just...on the scale of things I know this is so small. But she is a friend who in general has been pulling away since my husband died last year. She's very generous letting my kiddo join when she has a sitter (they go to the same daycare and have the same days off). But we hardly see each other even though we live 2 minutes apart now, and she almost never reaches out to me, it's always me reaching out to her. And she's done things like complain to me about how hard it is to be a solo parent when her husband is traveling for work (yes, that's tough, but maybe the person whose spouse is dead is not the person to complain to???).

I've been feeling really socially isolated in general and this is just hitting me hard today. I struggle a lot feeling like no one wants to spend time with me and it really hurts.

Hi!

I have a very bright, infinitely curious 3 yo. He goes to Jewish preschool and we do a monthly shabbat service for families with young kids. I'm hoping to get him started in Sunday school soon, we read PJ library books, etc.

I'm personally on the kind of agnostic/open mindedly theistic end of things. I identify strongly with Jewish culture and traditions, but the particular religious teachings, not so much. I'm of course fine with it if my child ends up finding meaning in those beliefs as he grows old enough to understand them.

My kiddo is starting to get curious about what temple is and why we go there etc. He hasn't started to ask what prayers are about yet, but I'm sure that's coming soon!

So I'm curious, for parents on the more secular/agnostic end of things, how did you start explaining the idea of religion (and various religious beliefs) to your kids, as they grew old enough to start wondering about it? (For context here, my kiddo clearly inherited my philosophy major genes, and was asking me things like, "why do people make bad choices?" as a 2 yo lol, so he's definitely not going to be satisfied with basic/pat answers! But he's also definitely not old enough to understand all the layers of nuance of Jewish beliefs and cultural identity etc...).

Not sure quite how to phrase this, but my newly 3 yo has turned into an absolute gift monster since his birthday - we spread the presents out to open 1-2 a day, and ever since they were over, he is demanding new presents/toys multiple times a day, and sometimes melting down over it.

It's been about a month and not really fading yet. I obviously don't give in, and explain that presents are a special thing that only happens sometimes. And we talk about having lots of toys already, and that we should enjoy playing with the toys he already has. (Shocker, he doesn't find any of that persuasive at this age lol).

But I'm thinking maybe a book or a show episode on that theme might help - any recommendations?

How do you all respond to unsafe behaviors?

My kiddo just turned 3 and he is sweet, bright, hilarious, and pushing ALL the boundaries right now. Which is just what he should be doing at 3, I know.

But I'm trying to figure out how to deal when the boundary pushing means he does something really unsafe. Eg the other night we were walking the dog at twilight and he ran around the corner (big hedge so no visibility, and no side walks) and didn't stop when I called out loudly to stop several times. (No side walks and while it's a quiet street, cars do drive by and one was actually coming up behind me right then).

Usually my kiddo is big on "safety rules" (thanks, firefighter obsession!), and we had had a talk at the start of the walk about how it was getting dark out so he needed to be extra close since drivers might not see him. But sometimes the 3 year old need to FAFO takes over and off he goes.

If there's an appropriate consequence, I'll enforce that, and I'll always try to explain to him why something is unsafe. But he (likely) has my ADHD genes and usually won't respond to what I'm saying. I don't want to get sucked into power struggles or come down so harshly that he just remembers my response vs the reason for it. But I also don't feel OK just going on with things if he's done something that I need him to really learn is not okay.

Anyone have good strategies?