u/kittyCatFoo

New business owner here and feeling a bit lost on where to start with CRMS/managing orders and payments.

I’m planning to do an initial soft launch through Instagram and Facebook only, as I’d rather keep things manageable and avoid being overwhelmed if demand is higher than expected.

I sell a single personalised product, although customers can order multiple items at once. As I’m currently on maternity leave and caring for a baby full-time, I’m looking for a simple, low-cost system that can handle the essentials in one place ie collecting customer information, taking payment, generating receipts, and allow me to track my own progress.

I’ve considered using something like Google Forms with payment links, but I’d prefer to avoid having information spread across multiple platforms and then having to reconcile everything manually.

Shopify and similar platforms feel a bit expensive for me currently, so I’d really appreciate recommendations for free or low-cost alternatives that are easy to use but robust enough to help me stay organised from the start. Ideally, I’d like to have a system in place that can grow with the business so that when I launch, I can focus on fulfilling orders rather than managing admin and paperwork.

I’m leaning towards jotform but any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Help! My 2.5 year old has been sucking his thumb pretty much since in the womb but the dentist has said he’s starting to create a dent in his palette, which can improve over time provided he stops with the thumb.

Does anyone have any advice on how to get him to stop? He does it so absent-mindedly, we constant remind him to stop and save it for “naps or bedtime” but it just goes back in 3 seconds later.

I’ve tried constant reminding, gently pulling it out his mouth, a plaster and the nasty nail stuff but they do diddlysquat.

Just a rant and chat I guess? I was out at a soft play today with my kids and got chatting with one mum who’s LO was 4mo, mine is 9mo. As you do we got on to the topic of sleep.

She said her baby was a crap sleeper and seemed to be getting worse, and she’s been trying to do the “shush and pat” method but felt like it was hours of her baby screaming and upset by the whole thing. I told her at 4mo they tend to have a regression, but went through all the different methods I had tried (shush/pat, cosleeping, rocking, PUPD etc) and none worked consistently, but had some luck with CIO but eventually that went completely backward to we’ve moved to the wave method and were finally having some consistent progress.

For context, my baby used to wake up every 30-60 minutes for MONTHS. We were dying until we got somewhere with CIO, and now with wave method she’s usually out before or just after first check in at 5 mins, and only wakes 2 times for feeds which is fine by me.

This mum I was speaking to then says she’s here with a sleep coach friend, who just then pops round the corner. This mum then proceeds to tell her sleep coach friend about my horror sleep story to which she immediately retorts “I NEVER advocate for crying of any kind.” I then politely said that we had tried a lot of other methods but all meant essentially more crying and less sleep. She responded “oh well NO judgement on you, I would just NEVER allow a baby to cry like that, I’m a HOLISTIC sleep coach, but whatever works best for YOU” (with a very patronising tone) and then walks off?

I just giggled a little to myself thinking about someone chanting mumbo jumbo over a crib with some incense sticks because I’m clueless but seriously though what does holistic really mean? Like your friend has just said her baby cries for HOURS trying a non-CIO method so at what point does it cross the line from not crying to crying?

Just to add I’m all for doing whatever suits you and your baby, and I mean that genuinely not patronisingly.

Just a rant and chat I guess? I was out at a soft play today with my kids and got chatting with one mum who’s LO was 4mo, mine is 9mo. As you do we got on to the topic of sleep.

She said her baby was a crap sleeper and seemed to be getting worse, and she’s been trying to do the “shush and pat” method but felt like it was hours of her baby screaming and upset by the whole thing. I told her at 4mo they tend to have a regression, but went through all the different methods I had tried (shush/pat, cosleeping, rocking, PUPD etc) and none worked consistently, but had some luck with CIO but eventually that went completely backward to we’ve moved to the wave method and were finally having some consistent progress.

For context, my baby used to wake up every 30-60 minutes for MONTHS. We were dying until we got somewhere with CIO, and now with wave method she’s usually out before or just after first check in at 5 mins, and only wakes 2 times for feeds which is fine by me.

This mum I was speaking to then says she’s here with a sleep coach friend, who just then pops round the corner. This mum then proceeds to tell her sleep coach friend about my horror sleep story to which she immediately retorts “I NEVER advocate for crying of any kind.” I then politely said that we had tried a lot of other methods but all meant essentially more crying and less sleep. She responded “oh well NO judgement on you, I would just NEVER allow a baby to cry like that, I’m a HOLISTIC sleep coach, but whatever works best for YOU” (with a very patronising tone) and then walks off?

I just giggled a little to myself thinking about someone chanting mumbo jumbo over a crib with some incense sticks but I was pretty peeved really. What does holistic really mean? Like your friend has just said her baby cries for HOURS trying a non-CIO method so at what point does it cross the line from not crying to crying? I’m confused…

Today I was at the pub with my two littles, 2.5yo and 9mo. We bumped into some “pub friends” who we see all the time, they’ve got a 4yo and 9yo. My 2.5yo and their 4yo get on like a house on fire and usually have a great time playing together with cars or running about outside.

This time, we bumped into them but they also had some other friends with them and in turn a bunch of other kids, I’d say in total there were 8 kids in all (including by 2.5yo), mostly 6-9 year olds though.

My friends 4yo had brought a police bicycle of sorts and everyone had been taking turns throughout the afternoon, but then at one point things went weird. With mine being so little I had been watching my guy as he has no real sense of danger at the moment so at any point could run off. All the kid were surrounding one boy on the bike backed up against a wall, with the biggest kid standing in front of him, blocking him from going anywhere.

I said to the other parents casually “oh well that doesn’t look good” to gently say hey, someone needs to step in here. My 2.5 yo was in the circle watching but was very clearly uncomfortable in his behaviour. Just as I was about to walk over to collect him because I could see he wasn’t happy, the biggest kid started punching the boy on the bike in the face, the boy was obviously crying and not defending himself either.

Out of instinct I went over quickly, heard my friends 4yo who was in the circle saying “they’re arguing over my bike” so I just said “right kids well if no one can play nicely, no one can have it, everyone off.” The boy who was crying on the bike got off, and the bigger kid who was punching just moved to one side. Then two of the dads came running over, and the dad of the bigger kid (who as it turns out they were brothers, the bigger kid and the one on the bike) said the same as me - if you can’t place nicely no one gets to play.

I ended up taking my kids inside and away because I was honestly just stunned that none of the parents came quicker to deal with the situation, and shocked at the behaviour in general. My kid was visibly freaked out by the whole thing so I wanted to make him feel safe.

As we sat inside it just dawned on me that I had handled it all wrong and badly. I should have told the kid to stop hitting, and to not hit as it’s wrong to set an example for the other kids there. I should have asked the boy on the bike if he was ok, and if he had been able to have a turn, or if he wanted to have a turn. Instead I robbed all the kids of a nice time because 2 boys misbehaved, and the other ones including my boy were punished. I should have said to the dad that he should have come sooner, he should have intervened the minute the first punch was thrown. Instead I took the easy way out and I’m so upset with myself. I had an opportunity model the right behaviour and I didn’t. I worry I’ve taught my son the wrong thing. I’m honestly so mad at myself.

(Side anecdote, my husband later said that the mother of the two boys said to the dad to go and deal with it, to which the dad said “no, it’s raining”)

What made me even more annoyed with myself is once we went inside, we bumped into another friend (childless 50yo man) who then said after I explained what happened - “well that’s how boys learn.” Like is this what we’re ok with? Letting boys beat each other because that’s how they learn to be tough? Shouldn’t we be teaching them to respect each other and understand boundaries? I feel like my words are failing me on what I’m trying to say here. idk like my actions essentially encouraged this behaviour because I didn’t address it properly?

Idk. I’m just, really annoyed at myself. I was so worried about my son being scared that I took the easy way out. I should have done better because I know I could have done, and I also know what it’s like to be a kid who is punished for other kids misbehaviour and I hated it growing up.

Meh, rant at myself over.

TLDR: I essentially punished all the kids instead of the one kid who needing correcting for being a bully, feel bad about it.