u/RestinPete0709

Hi everyone! I’m a 25 year old writer working on my debut novel and I’ve been seeking an illustrator/designer for my cover and have had trouble finding one- mainly because my book covers a few different genres. I’ve seen SOOO many incredible artists in this sub but haven’t felt particularly drawn to one yet, so I thought I’d just let you come to me :)

My book is called the Havoc Society, and it sits somewhere between a Hunger Games-esque dystopia, a thrilling time travel adventure, and a teenage coming of age story. The book imagines an fictional United States adjacent country ruled by a cruel dictator, and follows his daring daughter as she uses stolen time travel equipment in an attempt to change his past and make it so he never rose to power at all. But she can’t do it alone- and the story is told primarily from the perspective of two of the young people she recruits to assist her- both who have their own ties to the dictator that turn their mission into an emotional journey of self-discovery.

Anyways…my vision for the cover is something gripping, something that tells potential readers that there is danger near. Smoke/explosions are frequent themes in the story, so perhaps utilizing that in some fashion. I want it dark, but still eye catching. I don’t want any character faces on the cover, but rather a silhouette form. There’s a scene where several of the characters climb five stories down a building on a makeshift rope made of jackets, which I think would make a really cool silhouette. The time travel element could be worked in more subtly. My version of time travel technology is a smartwatch-esque device with a small display where information is inputted, so maybe that could be included in the font style? (Think digital clock font maybe? Or similar?)

So…does anyone think your style would fit my vision? I’m not exactly rolling in money, but I will definitely splurge on a good artists because this project means a great deal to me. I’d say my budget is $600 maximum. (Though this is somewhat negotiable) Thank you!

I (25F) am divorced and share custody of my almost three year old son with my ex husband. He and I have a fairly amicable relationship at this point, and he’s a good dad to our son, so I know he’ll be well taken care of when he’s with his dad. However, sometimes I just miss him so much and I worry about how he’s feeling being away from me so much. I work full time and when I’m working, my mom watches him so he’s gotten very close with her and the rest of my family, which is nice but I also feel like I’m missing out on so many moments that he gets to share with them without me. I really only have him for one full day each week, plus several evenings and mornings. I don’t want him to resent me as he gets older for not being present enough. I do appreciate having time to myself and breaks from the toddler tantrums, but I always worry about how it’s impacting him. Has anyone else felt this way? I just need to know that I’m not alone.

I’m sure tons of parents here can relate, but my 2.5 year old who used to be a great sleeper has turned bedtime into a nightmare for the past 4 months or so. Seriously making me rip my hair out sometimes. I felt like no matter what I did- making sure there were no screens for a while before bed, quiet voices, strict routine, lots of cuddle and talk with mommy time….he would still fight it for an hour or even two.

I’ve spent a lot of time scrolling through this sub and various parenting websites and after trying just about everything under the sun, I finally managed to get him to sleep in under 10 minutes (not including getting ready for bed), and I feel like a freaking superstar rn. Especially since I’d been beating myself up so much feeling like a bad parent.

Here’s what worked for me- hopefully it can be an inspiration to some other struggling toddler parents.

1. I made a visual schedule of all the bedtime routine steps using pictures of Elmo (his favorite character). He loves seeing what’s next in Elmo’s bedtime routine, and it ends with Elmo going to sleep. Sometimes he’s not thrilled about that but he’s getting better about it.

2. Blackout curtains. With it being summer, his room wasn’t getting dark enough by bedtime. Even though I explained that the sun was still going down, his body told him it was playtime. He still has a nightlight, but the curtains really help with letting him know that it’s nighttime.

3. A low-dose kid’s melatonin gummy, just to help him calm his body. I had hoped I wouldn’t have to do this, but it really does help. We talked about how it looks like a fruit snack but it has medicine in it so we can’t eat too many or we’ll get sick. He gets excited about eating it but knows he can only have one a day.

4. The “Goodnight Body” Game. He loved playing this before sleep tonight. I learned this from an Elmo book actually, though I’m pretty sure it’s just a common meditation practice. I have him say goodnight to each body part starting with his feet and going up , and wiggle them as he says goodnight, then relax before we go to the next thing. Definitely helped him relax and realize it’s bedtime.

5. I got this last one from Reddit and I am SO grateful because it works wonders! After he’s all tucked in, we’ve done our game, sang songs, kisses, hugs, all the things; I tell him I have to go do something for 5 minutes (tonight it was going to check on the dog) and I’ll be right back. I expected him to follow me out of the room which he often does, but he didn’t. He waited, because all he wants to know is that mommy is coming back :) and when I did 5 minutes later, he was still laying down and looked about ready to pass out. He wanted to hold my hand so I sat with him and it only took 5 more minutes and he was fully asleep :)

After all the tears shed from both of us over bedtime these last few months, this feels like a MAJOR accomplishment. To all my toddler parents in the depths of bedtime hell, there is an end in sight ❤️ it won’t last forever

I (25F) am divorced and I have an almost 3 year old son that I share custody of with his dad (26M). I left the church in the midst of our divorce- strangely enough it had nothing to do with the reason our marriage ended, but I think leaving helped me think more freely and examine my belief systems more closely than I had before. Anyways, my ex is still very Mormon and so is all my family and his family, and ofc my son goes to church with him on sundays which isn’t really an issue to me right now as he’s only a toddler and he loves nursery and listening to the hymns and I’d hate to take that away from him.

I am worried about how things will be as he gets older though. When he starts asking why mommy doesn’t go to church with me and daddy. When he’s thinking about being baptized. When he starts asking why I don’t believe in certain things he’s being taught. How do I deal with trying to teach him what I believe while he’s also being taught things that I oppose? I’m sure there are other people who have navigated this, so what are your experiences?

I randomly remembered this story from a church magazine probably 10-15 years ago about a teenage girl who went to see a band play at a bar (scandalous I know), and when she and her friends went in, they got marks on their hands to show that they were underage and shouldn’t be served drinks. But since it was sharpie; the mark wouldn’t come off when she got home and she still had it on her hand when she went to church the next day *GASP*. I remember her saying it felt like everyone was staring at her and she felt unclean because of the environment she had put herself in.

And I guess the moral of that story is supposed to be don’t even go near places where people are “sinning” because you’ll feel like shit later. But like…shouldn’t the lesson be, don’t judge people based on appearances because you don’t have the whole story? I mean, the kid didn’t drink or get into any trouble, she literally just went to see a band. Reminds me of when my old Seminary teacher made a kid throw away his Starbucks drink even though he told her it was hot chocolate. It’s all about “avoiding the appearance of evil”, but all it does is breed kids who are either paranoid out of their minds about messing up all the time (that was me) or who get super good at sneaking around and rebelling.