I strongly recommend the Nosefrida for getting out boogers, and a saline mister to loosen up the drier stuff.
Amazon.com: Nosefrida The Snotsucker Nasal Aspirator: Baby
Amazon.com: Nosefrida The Snotsucker Nasal Aspirator: Baby
Parent Thread
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Guest, it's time once again for the massively important and exciting FoH Asshat Tournament!
Go here and give us your nominations!Who's been the biggest Asshat in the last year? Give us your worst ones!
BrutulTM
Good, bad, I'm the guy with the gun.
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I thought this article was a really good read. I would be interested to hear what some of you parents of small children think about it.
The Overprotected Kid - The Atlantic
The Overprotected Kid - The Atlantic
opiate82
Bronze Squire
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It is a very interesting read. A dynamic that is going to come up with my child(ren) between me and my wife. I'm more in line with the author in letting kids take risks and god forbid "letting" them getting hurt every once in a while. My wife on the other hand will probably be chasing our kid(s) around with a tube of neosporin every time they leave the house.
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This shit drives me crazy. One example I've witnessed - family playing in the park, the three (or so) year old starts running and laughing. Parents say, "Now, don't run! You might fall." On grass. I weep for that child.
Another example - parents not letting their10 year oldkid go all the way up the sledding hill, but making him start half way down so he won't hurt himself on the "nasty hard snow." Meanwhile, my five year old is going from the top, wiping out at the bottom, laughing his head off the whole time, having a riot.
There is a line to walk between unsafe and good fun, but if you're over protecting your child, you're doing far more damage, in my opinion, than if you're letting your child take some risks, and get the occasional bump, bruise, or even stitches. My kids climb the trees in our yard, I would bet money that one day one of them is going to fall and break an arm or something. It's a very real possibility. They're still going to be out there, climbing.
ugh. If only there was one "correct" way to raise kids.
Another example - parents not letting their10 year oldkid go all the way up the sledding hill, but making him start half way down so he won't hurt himself on the "nasty hard snow." Meanwhile, my five year old is going from the top, wiping out at the bottom, laughing his head off the whole time, having a riot.
There is a line to walk between unsafe and good fun, but if you're over protecting your child, you're doing far more damage, in my opinion, than if you're letting your child take some risks, and get the occasional bump, bruise, or even stitches. My kids climb the trees in our yard, I would bet money that one day one of them is going to fall and break an arm or something. It's a very real possibility. They're still going to be out there, climbing.
ugh. If only there was one "correct" way to raise kids.
lindz
#DDs
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We just switched my 2 year old over to a twin bed. She looks so incredibly tiny in it. But now we get the joys of "I can get out of bed whenever I want!" as she wanders around the house and knocks on our door at 11pm.
Vandyn
Blackwing Lair Raider
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I fully admit I'm probably a little more overprotective of my 7 year old than I need to be. It's a me problem, not a kid problem. Still doesn't stop her from doing dumb stuff and getting hurt. I have a bigger problem with parents that don't pay attention to what their kid is doing, especially if it's in a public place. I witnessed with my own eyes two women with kids talking in a clothing store (in a crowded mall) and disregarding the 2 year old who just starts to stroll almost out of the store. The store clerk was the one who actually stopped the kid from walking out. The mom was finally able to break her conversation and retrieve her kid.
Falstaff
Ahn'Qiraj Raider
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BrutulTM
Good, bad, I'm the guy with the gun.
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I realize that the article I linked is going to be TL/DR for most people, but one of the things they talked about is that it's actually important to let kids go out and play on their own, as in out of sight and mostly unsupervised. It seems like that is unthinkable to most parents these days. Not two year olds obviously, but 6-12 year olds need to go out and do things that feel dangerous to them to build confidence and learn about actions and consequences and you can't really do that with your mother hovering over you. In the 50s and 60s kids were allowed to go out and play unsupervised in their neighborhoods but there is the perception now that that is "too dangerous" even though child abduction rates are no higher than they were back then.
They also talk about a playground in England that is basically a ton of junk (old mattresses, pallets, tires, etc) with a fence around it and the kids play there without their parents and are even allowed to build fires. That seems insane in the era of lawsuits but they show that the new sterile playgrounds that we have now haven't really done that much to reduce serious injuries but they have made it so most kids don't want to use them anymore and just wind up playing video games all day long.
They also talk about a playground in England that is basically a ton of junk (old mattresses, pallets, tires, etc) with a fence around it and the kids play there without their parents and are even allowed to build fires. That seems insane in the era of lawsuits but they show that the new sterile playgrounds that we have now haven't really done that much to reduce serious injuries but they have made it so most kids don't want to use them anymore and just wind up playing video games all day long.
Falstaff
Ahn'Qiraj Raider
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I read the print version of the article (still sitting next to my toilet actually!) and I do think it was really good. I thought the England junkyard thing was awesome; I would have loved that as a kid. Luckily for us we sort of had that as a new neighborhood was being developed next to ours so we just played in construction sites all day. I was born in 1984 and we played unsupervised all day every day until our moms yelled out the front door for us to come home for dinner.
Child abduction is definitely my biggest fear, much much more than my kid getting hurt.
Child abduction is definitely my biggest fear, much much more than my kid getting hurt.
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Any recommendations on baby gates? Two possible placements. One is at the top of the stairs that's a normal width. But the gate would be pushing perpendicularly against the banister, so I'm not sure that's a great idea. The other idea is to swing it around 90 degrees, but that's 68 inches to cover and we're having trouble finding good gates that long.
BrutulTM
Good, bad, I'm the guy with the gun.
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That is probably the worst thing that can happen to a kid/parent, but it almost never happens. Very few kids get abducted and the vast majority of those that do are by their own fucked up parents. Even pedophiles don't generally pick up strange kids off the street. Risk vs. Reward for picking up a kid off the street is just too low. Your kid is far, far more likely to be molested by a family member or a neighbor that they know than a stranger.
lindz
#DDs
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I usedthesefor the tops of stairs. Never had any issue with them besides needing to open the gate for anyone besides my immediate family because no one understands how to open baby gates. Just don't use pressure gates at the top of stairs unless your child is one of those that never touches the gates. I got away with that with my youngest because she didn't care about the gate until she was old enough to go down on her own anyways.
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A few reactions in general:
1. if you're just starting with gates - get the kind for the top of the stairs that you screw in place, and open like a gate. You'll have them up for a couple years, then you can deal with repairing the holes. That way it isn't pushing against your railing/banister. Other than that, the ones that are wooden and lock into place in door openings are pretty cool.
2. I agree, people who don't keep track of children are as bad or (likely) worse than those who are over protective. People need to realise they are the ones raising their kids, not the whole world around them. Letting your kid wander in a parking lot, for example, is stupid, you should feel badly if you do this.
3. I also agree that it is pretty important to let kids have unsupervised play, at least from time to time. It's part of why I live where I do. I have lots of acres on a road that gets no traffic and butts up against hundreds of acres of farm land. There's no one around. Some might be more frightened by that, because people could stalk us, I suppose. But the kids have a riot playing in the back parts of the property. One of them usually carries a walkie talkie with them if they're going out of sight of the house.
1. if you're just starting with gates - get the kind for the top of the stairs that you screw in place, and open like a gate. You'll have them up for a couple years, then you can deal with repairing the holes. That way it isn't pushing against your railing/banister. Other than that, the ones that are wooden and lock into place in door openings are pretty cool.
2. I agree, people who don't keep track of children are as bad or (likely) worse than those who are over protective. People need to realise they are the ones raising their kids, not the whole world around them. Letting your kid wander in a parking lot, for example, is stupid, you should feel badly if you do this.
3. I also agree that it is pretty important to let kids have unsupervised play, at least from time to time. It's part of why I live where I do. I have lots of acres on a road that gets no traffic and butts up against hundreds of acres of farm land. There's no one around. Some might be more frightened by that, because people could stalk us, I suppose. But the kids have a riot playing in the back parts of the property. One of them usually carries a walkie talkie with them if they're going out of sight of the house.
chaos
Buzzfeed Editor
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I watch my kids like a hawk right now, but they are young, my oldest is still only 5. But I also try and give them a long leash. Like earlier this week I took them to a play area in the mall while my wife was in the hospital for the day (malingering, typical). They run wild in there, jumping off shit and generally going crazy, The only time I intervene is when they are trying to leave the area.
Child abduction doesn't really concern me because I know the statistics. Abduction rates are lower now than they were when I was a kid and way lower than they were back in the olden days. I'm not really worried about lightning striking, no reason I should be worried about that either. Well, I also take basic precautions I guess, it isn't as if I am just letting my kids loose with strangers on the daily.
This has very little to do with parenting directly, but the other day some guy was robbed at gunpoint at an intersection at 530 in the morning. I was at that same intersection 20 minutes later, and I am generally there at least twice a day. That kind of shook me up thinking about it. Of course at work it prompted the gun control argument. All I could think about is that I could be shot by some crackhead while trying to find a different song on Spotify on my way home and never see my kids again and the last thing I ever did was get pissed off at them for not staying in bed. Feels bad man.
Child abduction doesn't really concern me because I know the statistics. Abduction rates are lower now than they were when I was a kid and way lower than they were back in the olden days. I'm not really worried about lightning striking, no reason I should be worried about that either. Well, I also take basic precautions I guess, it isn't as if I am just letting my kids loose with strangers on the daily.
This has very little to do with parenting directly, but the other day some guy was robbed at gunpoint at an intersection at 530 in the morning. I was at that same intersection 20 minutes later, and I am generally there at least twice a day. That kind of shook me up thinking about it. Of course at work it prompted the gun control argument. All I could think about is that I could be shot by some crackhead while trying to find a different song on Spotify on my way home and never see my kids again and the last thing I ever did was get pissed off at them for not staying in bed. Feels bad man.
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Man, this is exactly what made me have a serious adjustment in how I deal with my kids. Happened a couple years ago - I was way, way too hardass on rules. If I died, my kids would have remembered me as a drill sergeant. I haven't necessarily lightened up on rules, and getting things done, but the way I do it has really changed. The rules are still there, but my kids get a lot more explanation of why the rules exist, rather than "just do what I say," than they used to get. My kids now, I think, have a lot better understanding of where I'm coming from, and that's because I'm less of a dick.
This kid thing is easy, isn't it?
Falstaff
Ahn'Qiraj Raider
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We used to live in one of the most affluent suburbs outside of Chicago (not sure why that matters, I guess because you are supposed to feel safer?) and we would read about school kids getting approached by people at least once a month. Hardly ever hear about kids getting chased or taken or whatever, mostly just they pull next to them in their cars and ask them to come over to the car and then they run or whatever. That shit scares me just as much.
Namon
Blackwing Lair Raider
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God the joys of being a beta and being blessed with a 100% alpha son (yay for me and him). He is 7 and in first grade, and school is almost out and they have a day where they go the park and do a little walk marathon. He is not going now, and instead, spending the day in detention because he and two other little hellions decided it sounded fun to play a game shoving kids down as they walked by in the lunch room. This is a week removed from when he had a bad day where he got in a couple of scuffles, so we finally track the Teacher down who informs us these three have been basically raising hell for over a month now. There is obviously a problem here, and I am now in full on scramble mode trying to figure out what I need to change in myself as to not raise a future convict. This is all foreign to me. Outside of a few instances of getting busted talking and running in the hallway, I was otherwise scared of my own shadow when I was a kid. Now I have to figure out how to properly deal with the direct opposite with absolutely no past experience to go off of. I am not above professional help, but for now I am starting out with trying to figure out what an extrovert needs, to make sure this isn't acting out because something I'm failing to provide him. I'm introverted as all get out, and I feel like it's how I'm wired and he is wired is where the conflict is. I just need to figure out how to think like he does and hopefully cut this stuff off at the pass, before it gets too late. Ugh.
Hatorade
A nice asshole.
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IMO you are over reacting, just make sure he understands you do not approve of him being a dick. We have a firm keep hands to yourself policy in our house and my 1st grader knows it, despite this she gets into it once in a while with other kids. Again it is going to happen but don't let the little shit get away with it, punish and move on. Sounds like he and two friends escalated from something small because no one told them it was a bad idea, until they turned their "game" onto kids that weren't playing. Now if he starts killing small animals your above reaction would be appropriate.