Parent Thread

Hatorade_sl said:

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.

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I am definitely afraid of over reacting. Nothing worse than an overbearing parent, and that is part of my problem. I married into a family FULL of helicopter parents. However, on the flip side, had a sister and bro in law who went all lax on their son who is now dropped out of the high school and getting very familiar with the perp walk. I don't want to be that either, and this latest one made me feel like I was.

Well you weren't aware, now you are. Like Hatorade said after you make it clear that isn't acceptable behavior, see what happens now and keep in contact with his teachers etc. I can totally understand being worried about that, but it isn't panic time yet.

I let my daughter do anything she wants as far as exploring and running around (wihtin limits). Like I let her crawl up and down steps and tumble at times. Always there to catch her though if she decides to trust fall off the fifth step.

Was also with the wife at the part for a walk, kid in the stroller. I say lets let her run around on the grass. My wife keeps picking the kid up and guarding her. I told her, just let her be and see what she does.

She ate a few dandelions. Oops.

Dandelions are delicious, yo!

One thing that is really important in all this is communicating regularly with your children's teachers. If there are behaviour problems, keep in mind that the teacher has likely seen it before, and probably has ideas for coping with it. Let them help you, take their advice, let them know that you value it, and that you're making an effort. Teachers like that kind of thing.

Son is 13 months old, and he loves his binker (plug, binky, pacifier), and when he has it in, he won't try and eat anything. This gives me much peace of mind, that I can let him go off and do stuff. He can easily grab his binker, and take a bite of food, but he never does it when out and about.

Knowing he won't eat random crap, like rocks, makes it easier for me to let him run around in our back yard, and I let him run around the pool without one of us right next to him.

The pool thing seems crazy, but we tell him in a calm voice, no, danger if he gets too close, and if he does fall in, I'm seconds away of jumping in and getting him, so it's not a big deal.

As for the article, totally agree. It's crazy that despite the whole stranger danger thing, that abduction rates have stayed the same or gone down. Maybe that is cause and effect though. Stranger danger has prevented the abduction rates from rising, as the world gets crazier.

A small update. Teacher emails me (I work at the same school corp as the IT department), and says that the Principal ordered my son's little trio of terror go to the park today anyway. I was stunned as I thought that was a perfect punishment for these kids in a hope to get their attention (my son was very sad that he wasn't going to be able to go). However, one of the other kids' parents threw a fit, so the Principal caved and overruled the punishment. Meeting with him Monday with the wife to make sure it is clear he is to not be in the same class as those other two next year.

And yeah, kids totally need to eat dirt. After having kids, I finally noticed how sterile of a society we have become. When visiting back home in Indiana, there was this AWESOME park in my hometown with notoriously dangerous equipment. It wasn't deadly but believe me any kid from there can regale with tales of many scrapes and burns from there. They completely tore it down and it is basically equipment no more than five feet from the ground covered in a huge layer of rubber. They kept one of the old curly slides and made it an art piece with chains all around it. I cried inside as I showed my son "real" playground equipment. From a safe, non litigious distance of course.

Ah the ring of dirt around your toddler's mouth. Wouldn't be summer time without it.

My son has been caught a few times sticking rocks in his mouth. He'll get this "that's gross" expression on his face, and we remind him that rocks taste icky. I think he gets it.

And in milestone news, my son today finally caught on to how to use a straw. He's a drinking machine now!!! haha!

1st Birthday part was a cake-smashing success

Notice that was done in the backyard, not indoors. Busted out the hose when that was done. It was such a huge mess. He was like a great white shark in a feeding frenzy, he'd never had any sweets before, the only sugar he's really had is fruit.

So a slightly different take on the Parent thread...

My folks just made their last bankruptcy payment recently. And today they got a huge check because they'd been overpaying. It's nice to see them actually kind of happy again.

Also, I get to move back out, now that they don't need the financial help. Good feels all around.

joeboo_sl said:

1st Birthday part was a cake-smashing success

Spoiler

Notice that was done in the backyard, not indoors. Busted out the hose when that was done. It was such a huge mess. He was like a great white shark in a feeding frenzy, he'd never had any sweets before, the only sugar he's really had is fruit.

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Enjoy the toxic diapers for the next day or two, lol

joeboo_sl said:

1st Birthday part was a cake-smashing success


Notice that was done in the backyard, not indoors. Busted out the hose when that was done. It was such a huge mess. He was like a great white shark in a feeding frenzy, he'd never had any sweets before, the only sugar he's really had is fruit.

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So adorable. Happy first little joeboo!

I just love those cake covered first birthday pictures. I have them for each of my girls and are some of my favorite pictures.

lindz_sl said:

So adorable. Happy first little joeboo!

I just love those cake covered first birthday pictures. I have them for each of my girls and are some of my favorite pictures.

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I admit, the cake-smash photos are pretty damn cute, but outside of that exception, am I the only one who thinks the pictures of you kids covered in food should not be posted all over Facebook? I think the majority of them are disgusting, not cute and don't need to be shared.

Yeah, there's a zero percent chance I'm posting my kid covered in blueberries or yogurt or whatever he makes a mess out of on a daily basis. It's pretty gross. I don't even like cleaning it up, I sure as heck don't want to force that on someone else

We post those pics, people seem to respond well to them /shrug Also, am I the only parent here who pretty much keeps all sugar away from their kids? My son is 19 months old, and other than a Nilla Waffer or two, 2-3x a day as a treat/snack, that's all he gets (excepting fresh fruits of course). He's had like 1 real cookie, and a tiny taste of icecream. It's not a forever thing, but I see no need to introduce all that shit just yet. In the meantime, he's one buff little dude because he eats so damn healthy and plays outside a lot - makes me proud =)

opiate82_sl said:

I admit, the cake-smash photos are pretty damn cute, but outside of that exception, am I the only one who thinks the pictures of you kids covered in food should not be posted all over Facebook? I think the majority of them are disgusting, not cute and don't need to be shared.

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Judging by all the pictures from my wife's facebook friends, yes, you are the only one.

OneofOne_sl said:

We post those pics, people seem to respond well to them /shrug Also, am I the only parent here who pretty much keeps all sugar away from their kids? My son is 19 months old, and other than a Nilla Waffer or two, 2-3x a day as a treat/snack, that's all he gets (excepting fresh fruits of course). He's had like 1 real cookie, and a tiny taste of icecream. It's not a forever thing, but I see no need to introduce all that shit just yet. In the meantime, he's one buff little dude because he eats so damn healthy and plays outside a lot - makes me proud =)

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I don't think any kid under the age of 2 or 3 needs to eat sweets regularly. That cake was our kids first real "dessert" in his first 12 months. We give him plenty of fruits and veggies, and he's had a few sips of fruit-based smoothies that we make occasionally, but he hasn't had any cookies or ice cream or anything like that yet. If we want to give him a treat, we generally do something fruit & yogurt based, and he loves it, so why stuff him full of sugary baked goods or god forbid high fructose corn syrup.

We don't plan on being Nazis about it, once he's a little older he can have cookies and stuff, there's just no reason to give that to a little kid. Also we don't do any fruit juice or pop, as that's basically just sugar water and is horrible for their teeth to boot. He's had nothing but milk/formula/breast milk and water so far. The few times I've seen little kids(like under 1 year) being given pop by their parents I want to walk over and slap the shit out of them. That's terrible.

How has child services not been called in the last 10 years? Sounds like it's something that should have been done a long, long time ago. This is probably just the most recent major problem in a long line of them. She didn't just up and decide to be a neglectful, terrible parent after 10 years. Odds are she's been that way since day 1.