u/Which-Lecture4003

I'm posting here but not sure if it's the right sub for my question. Also sorry if it's a dumb question.

My MIL told me to put a glass of water in the air conditioned room we sleep in. That way the air conditioner will take the humidity from that glass of water and not from our bodies.

I tried this and yes the water evaporates. But does the air conditioner only take the humidity from a glass of water though? Or does a water from our body evaporates too regardless?

I mean for me it kind of makes sense (because the water from the glass evaporates) but also it doesn't (how would the air conditioner know to take the water only from the glass)?

What do you think about this?

I've been brushing my toddler's teeth with only toothbrush since he had his first tooth (at 6 months).

He is now 2, his teeth are white and he doesn't have any issues chewing (even nuts), doesn't seem to have any pain.

I did however notice a black spot on one rear tooth.

I honestly didn't know parents are using toothpaste for toddlers until I saw few posts on reddit. Fluroide or not, isn't it still made of... chemicals?? My son absolutely wouldn't spit it out, he doesen't know how to do it.

I remember reading/seeing somewhere on the internet multiple times that you shouldn't use toothpaste until 5 or 6 years old.

Is this wrong? Am I wrong?

Do you have any tips on when to honk as a bike driver? What are the rules? I'm confused!

I noticed few changes since my son turned 2 and I'm little concerned and don't know what to do. I would appreciate your suggestion and experience on these 2 things.

1. He started lying. I know this is common in toddlers but honestly don't know if it is normal at this age.

For exemple, if I need a few minutes to get up, he will start saying "poop" as if he needs to be changed immediately (not yet potty trained). He gets really frustrated quickly and screams.

I either say "ok let's go clean up" or I say "sure, can I check?" He then runs away and hide, or just refuse to get cleaned up or checked.

When it is true and he has pooped, he will go straight to the bathroom.

The other day his dad has been reading him a book and then it was time for his nap. He is able to say "milk and sleep" and I know he understands well what that means as it is our daily routine and we never had issus with this. So my son said "milk and sleep" multiple times, drunk his milk and absolutely refused to sleep.

I try my best and go above and beyond to keep my promises to him, like if I say we will go somewhere or do something, so I don't know where this is coming from.

2. Sudden fears. Until now he hasn't shown much fear of anything (only very loud sounds like construction or bus for some reason).

So I was suprised that recently he started being afraid of bugs, especially at night before he sleeps - he will say that there is a bug or that he saw a bug. Sometimes he wakes up at night scared/crying and says "bug", "frog"...

He also doesn't want to let me go at night and has a little more trouble falling to sleep. We are still co-sleeping but he will go to bed 2-3 hours before me, so he wakes up in the meantime scared or crying.

He is also scared of dogs now and he very much liked them before and wasn't scared to approach them.

Is this normal and what is your advice on what to do?

Thanks !!

I have this washing machine in my rental appartment that is underperforming and doesn't have any hot water cycles.

Can you recommend me a good laundry detergent that works in cold water ? I tried Ariel, Omo and Sun but it didn't really do anything.

There are too many options to choose from!

Please help, thanks!

My son will be 2 in a few days and I'm kind lost on what toys should I get him for this age. Not as a birthday gift, just toys that are interesting for usefull this age group and for independant play.

He doesn't have that much toys because we moved few times in the past year and we would get rid of some toys each time. I'm looking to add some more to rotate easily.

We have :

- magnatiles and 2 other different types of assembling blocks. He sometimes plays independently with magnatiles but most of the time we play together. He will not play alone with other building blocks that are a bit more challenging to assemble, even though he figured out how to do it. He generally struggles with quitting or immediately calling me for help after the first unsuccessfull attemp of assembling the blocks.

- wooden vegetable cutting kit which he loves and will sometimes play independantly

- toy animals of a good size for his hand grasp but will not really independently play with it.

- few cars, trucks etc of different sizes that he usually plays independently with

- a bag of small plastic balls with different colors. He doesn't really play with them, he just gets them out of the bag so that we can put them back in and I tell him de color of each one.

- the hammer and sticks toy with a base to nail the sticks in. He is not very interested and he played with it a few times, but not for more that a minute or two.

- about 10 books, sometimes he will spend time with them independently.

I'm a SAHM and he also usually helps me with house chores too, he enjoys doint that and we go outside 2 times a day. He has no screen time, so I'm looking for toys that can give me a bit of time off !!

Looking forward to your recommendations !

Hello, do you know if there is any legitimate visa run agency in Ha Long that does 1 day trip to China with a bus ? I have seen some videos on Youtube of people doing this type of visa run from HCMC to Cambodge, so wondering if it's possible to do the same from Ha Long and if you have any experience with it ? Or even from Hanoi, but it needs to be a 1 day trip. Thank you !

So there is this J&T delivery guy that delivers in my neighbourhood. I have packages coming in and out every week, and he does such an amazing job every time.

Always proactive, writes to me on Zalo, if I'm not home he will leave it in the shop nearby and send me a photo, if I have to return a package he prints my label even if I'm required to do so and tells me to leave my package in the shop so that I don't have to wait for him. And overall he is very nice and pleasant guy. He works every day on his bike, no matter the weather and still he's always in a good mood.

With other delivery companies I didn't have the same experience, somehow it's always complicated and overall I try to avoid them because there always seem to be some kind of issu.

So I want to leave a tip and some kind of recognition for my J&T guy. What amount is appropriate for a tip in this case ? What else could I do that would help him ?

Thank you !

I'm a stay at home mum and my boy is almost 2. He has never been in daycare or stayed with a nanny, only with his grandparents for shorter periods of time.

Next year he will start going to school and I'm wondering when and how should I start introducing him to the concept of stranger danger. My son is a really frendly kid who likes to communicate with people, if another parent offers him a treat he will take it, but of course I'm with him so it is fine for now.

Can you share at what age did you start talking to your kids about stranger safety and how did you do it, especially for toddler ?

Thanks !

So World Cup is coming up and I was wondering if football is big in Vietnam?

Do you usually watch games in bars and cafes?

Unfortunately Vietnam did non qualify, but will you still watch the World Cup and who will you support?

Hi,

I recently moved to an area with lots of seafood options on the local market. I don't have much experience in cooking seafood but I love eating it 😊

I find shrimp easy to prepare and combine in the recepies, but there is one problem : I am really really scared of fresh, living shrimp.

Unfortunately I can either buy live shrimp or frozen, peeled one, and since the seafood is so available I prefere the fresh one. Sometimes I buy fresh shrimp and leave it in the fridge overnight and then it is fine, but most of the time I forget to buy in advance..... I read something about needing to twist their head before peeling it and I just feel the shrimp would attack me if I tried... Or I would just die of fear before ever touching the head...

I would really love to overcome this fear. Has anyone felt similar about shrimp and if you did, have you manage to overcome it and how ? Please share tips, thanks !

Hello,

This question has bugged me for some time now. A while ago I had a work colleague and she is French of Vietnamese origine.

One day I asked her how her family came to France. She told me that her mother's side of the family was very rich and that they fled to France (by plane, not by boat, she insisted) when the colonising forces left Vietnam. She told me this sad story about her mum not knowing how to cook or clean or do anything by herself because she always had maids, and when she came to France it was far from the luxurious lifestyle she was used to. I don't remember exactly what she told me about her dad, but I think it was a similar story. She also told me she visited Vietnam few years ago with her husband.

At that time I didn't know much about Vietnamese history and my life was a lot different, I didn't think I would move to Vietnam one day. But still I felt kind of disgusted by it because I know enough about French colonising history to know that they never brought anything good to the places they went. Still, my colleague's story never left my thoughts for years.

Since I moved to Vietnam, I can not stop thinking about it. I'm wondering how people feel today about the collaborators and their families/their kids ? Are they welcome in Vietnam ? Do you know any collaborator families that maybe regretted their decision and came back to Vietnam ? Or would they be juged by the people and/or the law if they did?

Thanks

Hi everyone,

I don't have an OralB toothbrush but I have an AquaCare irrigator (series 4 I believe, i didn't keep the box unfortunately).

I moved to Vietnam recently and forgot the charger at home. I wanted to buy a new one but cannot seem to find the original charger online on the websites for online shopping in Vietnam. However, the OralB toothbrush chargers are available.

Do you know if this two chargers are interchangables ? Have you tried to charge your AquaCare with the toothbrush charger ?

Also I don't know if the tootbrush chargers are universal for all of their models or not, so if you used one in particular please share.

Thank you !

I have sensitive skin and have googled the best natural deodorant I could buy in VN. Odes naturelles was on the list and seems like an interesting brand (I'm tented by their soap bar and hair soap too).

Has anyone tried any of their product? What did you think about it ? Did the deodorant work for you ? Is it worth the price? Just looking for something to reduce the sweating and the smell. Thanks !

Hello,

I'm looking for a school for my 3yo in Ha Long area.

We plan to settle in Ha Long for a few years so I'm mostly interested in hearing your experience if you have sent your kids to a kindergarten or primary school in Ha Long - both foreign nationals and vietnamese. Teacher's experiences would be appreciated too.

I know that Ha Long area has a limited school offer, but moving to Hanoi or Hai Phong is not an option for us. I am aware that maybe we will not be able to find a "perfect" school, but maybe something close to it 😊

That being said, we are ideally looking for a Montessori-type school with accent on personal developpement, confidence-building, life skills and outdoor activities. Learning maths or science at 3 is not our primary goal, however if there is a possibility to learn different languages (english, chinese, vietnamese) that would be a plus.

A basic Google search let me to believe that there are Montessori schools in Ha Long. We have not yet visited any of these schools but looking at their websites and social media, I had an impression that they take a lot of pictures of kids on weekly and maybe even daily basis. Maybe I'm the one that is overreacting, but that doesn't seem Montessori to me. Aside from posting pictures of these kids on the internet, that also means they are around phones/screens a lot. That is a big throwoff for me, but maybe we will still at least visit these schools.

For now we have visited the Singapour International school. It seems ok and the teachers were nice. The groups are small and they have various activities, but I'm a little concerned when I read the reviews of the school on the Internet. The reviews I have been able to find are mostly for the Hanoi and HCMC branches and from teacher's perspectives. There is not much about the Ha long school or from the parent's perspective.

I'm looking forward to learning about your experience and hearing your recommendations for the best school in Ha Long!