u/Strict_Appeal_5822

Hi everyone! I’m about to be new to parenting more than one child and trying to figure out scheduling extracurriculars for my eight year old with a new baby due in November.

My eight year old has always been in a ton of activities, and we did shift it down to two this year so that it’s overwhelming with the baby. Her biological dad who I coparent with will be taking her on his day to one activity, so I got lucky there. The other activity she chose is dance, and I guess we have hit the age where most dance classes are now during the week and fairly late. Like, 20-30 studios by us only have dance classes for her age at 6-8pm. How does this work with a baby?! I feel like having an evening wind down schedule was important for the first year or so with my daughter. I know having more than one requires some flexibility I didn’t need to have with one, but I’m genuinely surprised this seems to be the end of weekend options for her classes.

My husband is extremely helpful, but he works overnights so he can’t tag-team with me to watch one while the other goes somewhere else.

I also want to add that we’re not at the place in grade level yet where her school offers after school activities or clubs. I think that starts around 5-6 grade for us.

Has anyone else gone through this? I need some encouragement of how to do this!

I’ve been patiently waiting and disappointed that Thursday never booked an NJ show for this tour. I know that they made a post earlier in the year that included they were working on it, but then nothing came of that. A few people have commented on their posts hoping for an NJ show, or more specifically, a Starland show, but they’ve never responded to these. Does anyone think we might get a holiday show? I just don’t understand why they’re not booking in the home state.

Signed,

a NJ fan who misses the hometown shows

Cross-posted in SocialWork subreddit.

Hi all! I'm looking for experience and suggestions. Apologies in advance for the long post but I want to be sure I provide context and what has happened so far.

I unfortunately had several miscarriages this past year, all while working full time at the University where I am also a graduate student. Although my husband and I started trying with the hopes for me to be able to give birth over the summer so as not to disrupt my final year of my MSW program, we are overjoyed to finally have a healthy pregnancy, but I am now due in November 2026.

My MSW program's final practicum year is one placement that covers both Fall and Spring semester with a short winter break in between. Essentially, from September through May with a two week break around December-January. Since I am due in November, I immediately contacted my student advisor who thought I wouldn't be able to complete practicum next year because of this. This would put me back a full year, because my MSW program only allows you to begin practicum in the Fall.

I then immediately contacted my practicum liaison/coordinator (they find our placements for us - we can't find our own) to let her know to essentially stop searching for next year's placement for me. When I told her about my due date, she actually said it would be possible for me to do my practicum for next year. She said I could work with a practicum agency to stack my hours a little bit differently, AND that she had a fully remote practicum site for me so that I could take a shorter leave of absence of only a few weeks after giving birth. I agreed to this under the condition that it was a fully remote site.

I then interviewed for the fully remote site, and a week later, received an email from them letting me know that they had already moved forward with another candidate and didn't have another spot for me. I had been forthcoming with them about my brief (3 week) plan for leave of absence during birth recovery. They didn't state this directly as a reason, but it was actually the first I had learned that my University had even sent another candidates to the same agency. The way my liaison discussed it, it sounded like she had matched us, not that I was a candidate of many and that others had already been selected before I interviewed.

Since then, I have included in emails the following people: Title IX coordinator, program Dean, my student advisor, and my practicum liaison/coordinator. I have not been given another remote option for a practicum site from my program because they said they don't have any. I have asked for alternative solutions, like starting outside of the traditional Fall semester or some other alternative that would either make it feasible for me to do practicum or not wait an entire year to graduate later. I have received no response from the Dean about this yet despite follow up emails.

Edit to add: I also had a meeting with the Title IX coordinator when I first talked to the above folks. They told me that there's no formal process and procedure, or form to complete for accommodations. Rather, they told me things are usually decided/agreed upon for accommodations via email threads that include the Title IX coordinator, dean, and the rest of the folks mentioned above. So, I have done that and have heard crickets.

Any suggestions? Should I just take a year off? Am I missing something I could be doing to advocate for myself or a creative plan that worked for anyone else? Thanks for reading!

Hi all! I'm looking for experience and suggestions. Apologies in advance for the long post but I want to be sure I provide context and what has happened so far.

I unfortunately had several miscarriages this past year, all while working full time at the University where I am also a graduate student. Although my husband and I started trying with the hopes for me to be able to give birth over the summer so as not to disrupt my final year of my MSW program, we are overjoyed to finally have a healthy pregnancy, but I am now due in November 2026.

My MSW program's final practicum year is one placement that covers both Fall and Spring semester with a short winter break in between. Essentially, from September through May with a two week break around December-January. Since I am due in November, I immediately contacted my student advisor who thought I wouldn't be able to complete practicum next year because of this. This would put me back a full year, because my MSW program only allows you to begin practicum in the Fall.

I then immediately contacted my practicum liaison/coordinator (they find our placements for us - we can't find our own) to let her know to essentially stop searching for next year's placement for me. When I told her about my due date, she actually said it would be possible for me to do my practicum for next year. She said I could work with a practicum agency to stack my hours a little bit differently, AND that she had a fully remote practicum site for me so that I could take a shorter leave of absence of only a few weeks after giving birth. I agreed to this under the condition that it was a fully remote site.

I then interviewed for the fully remote site, and a week later, received an email from them letting me know that they had already moved forward with another candidate and didn't have another spot for me. I had been forthcoming with them about my brief (3 week) plan for leave of absence during birth recovery. They didn't state this directly as a reason, but it was actually the first I had learned that my University had even sent another candidates to the same agency. The way my liaison discussed it, it sounded like she had matched us, not that I was a candidate of many and that others had already been selected before I interviewed.

Since then, I have included in emails the following people: Title IX coordinator, program Dean, my student advisor, and my practicum liaison/coordinator. I have not been given another remote option for a practicum site from my program because they said they don't have any. I have asked for alternative solutions, like starting outside of the traditional Fall semester or some other alternative that would either make it feasible for me to do practicum or not wait an entire year to graduate later. I have received no response from the Dean about this yet despite follow up emails.

Edit to add: I also had a meeting with the Title IX coordinator when I first talked to the above folks. They told me that there's no formal process and procedure, or form to complete for accommodations. Rather, they told me things are usually decided/agreed upon for accommodations via email threads that include the Title IX coordinator, dean, and the rest of the folks mentioned above. So, I have done that and have heard crickets.

Any suggestions? Should I just take a year off? Am I missing something I could be doing to advocate for myself or a creative plan that worked for anyone else? Thanks for reading!

I feel so much shame and guilt for feeling as emotionally drained as I do. I have an autistic/PSAer 8 year old.

The first 3-5 years were a different kind of hard. She didn’t sleep for 5 years and I feel like it changed my brain and I’ve never recovered from it. I was first parenting her navigating the beginning of learning about autism and her needs while in an abusive marriage. Then I did it as a single parent.

My kid has changed a lot over the years - as I suppose all kids do. Those first 5 years were filled with insomnia and profound anxiety and nonverbal communication. Now, my daughter is verbal, and most of the challenges that come up today are about frustration, emotional dysregulation, and demand avoidance/anxiety. I feel like I should just be so grateful that she communicates with little support today, that I got a Mother’s Day card written by her, and that we are in a place I never thought we would be all those years ago, and not be complaining or tired anymore.

Now I’m married to a great guy who planned a whole day of Mother’s Day for me of my favorite things. We picked the restaurant together to find something my kid could eat at, which was actually difficult to do. I planned activities she likes before and after so that the meal was sandwiched between her likes. Basically, we planned Mother’a Day around her. And still, she spent the bulk of the day complaining and crying about the food, about wanting to do something else, about wanting to go home, etc. She loves being out and doing things, but cannot tolerate when it’s not the things she wants to do. And just to note, she typically loves going to restaurants when they have her favorite food like they did today. We purposefully picked places to go that wouldn’t set things up for failure.

I feel dragged by the daily verbal remarks and anger. I just wanted a few hours and my husband tried really hard. I just wanted to cry during the brunch because of how we tried to plan it around her needs and she was still unhappy. I’ve read a lot of experiences where people say that they just give themselves the Mother’s Day they want, but it feels really hard to figure out a way to do that when all I wanted was a nice brunch and a few hours of family time outside. Like every other day, I came home feeling exhausted. I’m sure I just need to shift my expectations but I’m really sad about it. I love my kid more than anything and I just wish I could see her happy when we’re doing things like this but everything always feels really hard and tiring.