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lindz

lindz

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My third was the hardest to wean. I tried to stop nursing at 12 months but it was absolute misery so we went until 15. Even at 15 it was very very hard. She used it more for comfort at that point and so we just went cold turkey. It was a couple of very unpleasant weeks in our house by my goodness does it feel nice to get your boobs back!

She'll be two at the end of april and is still very tactile. When she is sleepy, upset or just needs mommy love she lifts my shirt, rubs my stomach and bellybutton. It is incredibly annoying to have little fingers in your bellybutton but also super adorable. My other two needed (and still do) their cuddle time, but this one really needs the skin contact.
 
Joeboo

Joeboo

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For being a horribly evil corporation as a whole, Bank of America has amazing employee benefits. My wife got 3 full months at 100% pay, and then within the next 12 months she can take an additional 3 months at 50% pay if she needs to. They offer the same thing to men as well, and my wife says that she's seen a lot of men take it. Hell, why pass up 3 months leave at full pay? You'd be crazy to do so.

Of course, this creates ridiculous short-handed situations in the actual banks. When a bank only has 5 or 6 full-time employees, being without 1 for 3+ months is a huge burden on the people still working. If you bank there and ever wonder why the service is so crappy or slow when you go into the bank or a drive-through, they probably have 20% of their workforce out on maternity leave, especially since bank tellers tend to skew more towards the young female demographic for some reason. My wife is in management, but that even tends to skew more towards female demographics. Probably 2/3 of the banks in her market have female managers. Seems odd...
 
Falstaff

Falstaff

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Yeah my friend works for BofA corporate and he got 3 months paid paternity leave... I was insanely jealous.
 
opiate82

opiate82

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Most guys don't take that much time off for paternity because there is basically a stigma against it, especially in the workplace where men who do take extended leave are often not considered as serious about their careers as those who don't and are passed over for promotions. Furthermore, men aren't afforded the same level of compensation for leave that mothers are.

Some good friends of ours just had a baby and he went to apply for 3 months of leave to bond with and care for the newborn (he works at a refinery). He was denied any paid compensation for his time off, where a woman in his exact same position would have been paid for the the full 3 months. He managed to work around it by getting the doctors to change the paperwork to say that he needed to care for hiswifewhile she recovers from childbirth, but there is a double-standard there.
 
Joeboo

Joeboo

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I only took 1 week off when our kid came home, but our kid was in the hospital for 2 months before he got to come home, and I took a lot of random days off during those 2 months since my wife was pretty much living at the hospital and sleeping on a couch during that whole time. Had to give her a few breaks now and then so she could come home and sleep for like 24 straight hours.
 
Falstaff

Falstaff

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opiate82_sl said:
Most guys don't take that much time off for paternity because there is basically a stigma against it, especially in the workplace where men who do take extended leave are often not considered as serious about their careers as those who don't and are passed over for promotions. Furthermore, men aren't afforded the same level of compensation for leave that mothers are.

Some good friends of ours just had a baby and he went to apply for 3 months of leave to bond with and care for the newborn (he works at a refinery). He was denied any paid compensation for his time off, where a woman in his exact same position would have been paid for the the full 3 months. He managed to work around it by getting the doctors to change the paperwork to say that he needed to care for hiswifewhile she recovers from childbirth, but there is a double-standard there.
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Yep. Although 4 years later, my friend who I used as the example is now a VP and U.S. head of an entire division so his paternity leave didn't do anything negative for his career.

I took a month off using my own saved up PTO and the agreement that I'd work 4 hours a week answering emails and fixing problems that no one else could.
 
I

Irongut_sl

shitlord
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0
So, my 14 month-old son is obsessed with Wheel of Fortune. We don't let him get much screen time, but this show transfixes him before bed.

I've heard other parents say this about Wheel of Fortune. What is it? I know I can't stand the contestants and I'm fairly sure that Pat Sajak knocks a few back before each taping.
 
meStevo

meStevo

I think your wife's a bigfoot gus.
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Wife and I both get a week paid off paternity/maternity, then it's like 6 weeks of short term disability. I think her vacation is cashed out too when she goes on leave.

I'm taking the paternity week and another 2-3 weeks of vacation, like I did for my first born.
 
Kovaks

Kovaks

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My wife got 6 weeks disability paid and another 6 weeks Paid family leave which apparently i found out today despite her paying into state disability is not tax exempt. She took another month off unpaid because she really wanted to spend the time with him from 3-4 months. I took off the first month after he was born just using vacation and sick time. I was hopping to get Paid family leave as well but since we don't pay into SDI I apparently don't qualify which sucks because my work is really flexible with maternity/paternity leave, my boss is willing to give as much time as people want to take, we just can't afford any more unpaid time off.

Re. bank of america, paid paternity leave, it seems like the most evil corporations have the best policies for this stuff,When I was at AT&T they also had paid maternity and Paternity leave for up to 3 months it just sucked working there.
 
Joeboo

Joeboo

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Irongut_sl said:
So, my 14 month-old son is obsessed with Wheel of Fortune. We don't let him get much screen time, but this show transfixes him before bed.

I've heard other parents say this about Wheel of Fortune. What is it? I know I can't stand the contestants and I'm fairly sure that Pat Sajak knocks a few back before each taping.
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It's the spinning wheel full of colors and lights. Same reason everyone loves the big spinning wheel on The Price is Right.

Random funny(to meat least) Wheel of Fortune story... I had a younger cousin that lived on the same street as me when we were kids, and his parents always watched wheel of fortune each night at 6 or whenever it was on. All of a sudden when he was around kindergarten age, we'd be watching the show with his parents and he would come into the room, and solve the goddamn puzzle with only 1 or 2 letters. Did it off and on for a few weeks. We all thought he was a goddamn genius. Turns out the feed of Wheel of Fortune that we were watching on their families main TV via cable was like a full 2-3 minutes delayed from the over-the-air broadcast. Little fucker would go to the basement, turn on the old black and white TV to get the puzzle answer, then come upstairs and pretend to guess it before it had been solved on our broadcast.

Cheating little bastard...pretty ingenious though, he had us all going for several days
 
iannis

iannis

Musty Nester
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joeboo_sl said:
It's the spinning wheel full of colors and lights. Same reason everyone loves the big spinning wheel on The Price is Right.

Random funny(to meat least) Wheel of Fortune story... I had a younger cousin that lived on the same street as me when we were kids, and his parents always watched wheel of fortune each night at 6 or whenever it was on. All of a sudden when he was around kindergarten age, we'd be watching the show with his parents and he would come into the room, and solve the goddamn puzzle with only 1 or 2 letters. Did it off and on for a few weeks. We all thought he was a goddamn genius. Turns out the feed of Wheel of Fortune that we were watching on their families main TV via cable was like a full 2-3 minutes delayed from the over-the-air broadcast. Little fucker would go to the basement, turn on the old black and white TV to get the puzzle answer, then come upstairs and pretend to guess it before it had been solved on our broadcast.

Cheating little bastard...pretty ingenious though, he had us all going for several days
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Nah. That's a smart kid either way.
 
Tarrant

Tarrant

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Irongut_sl said:
So, my 14 month-old son is obsessed with Wheel of Fortune. We don't let him get much screen time, but this show transfixes him before bed.

I've heard other parents say this about Wheel of Fortune. What is it? I know I can't stand the contestants and I'm fairly sure that Pat Sajak knocks a few back before each taping.
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My youngest son was the same way, I think it's the wheel. It spins, it's different colors, it makes noise and people clap... Combination of it all and it's like kid crank.

I actually bought the board game just to give him a mini wheel it came with and he absolutely loved it.
 
Falstaff

Falstaff

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our 6 month old is, and has been for awhile, obsessed with Wheel. She just stares at it. Its definitely the colors and flashing lights.
 
Joeboo

Joeboo

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Baby Einstein videos are the best things ever. For some reason our 8mo old LOVES puppets. Doesn't really care much about videos with people, or animation, but if it's a puppet/muppet he goes nuts. He'll sit and watch the entire 30 minute Baby Einstein sign language video. We show it to him once a day, he loves it. Hoping it pays off soon and he can start signing. We obviously sign to him as well, and I think he knows a lot of the signs, he just doesn't have the motor skills to do them himself yet. He gets super excited if you make the food or milk sign, to the point that he gets really pissed if he isn't eating or drinking within minutes of telling him that sign.

Pretty much all of the Baby Einstein videos are on Youtube as well(which I found out after going to the trouble of downloading them all first). The Chromecast device works great for this, throw the sign langage on the TV in the living room while the kiddo is playing on the floor, and he'll drop what he's doing to watch it.
 
Eomer

Eomer

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Baby Einstein DVDs: Good for infant development? - Mayo Clinic


Baby Einstein DVDs might catch your baby's attention, but screen time isn't likely to promote his or her development. In fact, an infant can learn just as much - if not more - by interacting with you or other caregivers.

Research examining the specific effects of baby DVDs and other infant programming is limited. In a 2007 study, children ages 8 months to 16 months who were exposed to baby DVDs scored lower on a language development test than did babies who had no screen time. A 2009 study of children ages 2 months to 4 years showed that turning on the television reduced verbal interaction between parents and children - which may delay language development. In addition, a 2010 study found no evidence that children ages 1 to 2 learned words highlighted in a Baby Einstein DVD. In contrast, research has shown that regularly reading to young children boosts language ability for both babies and toddlers.

Many pediatricians discourage screen time for children younger than age 2. Instead of relying on Baby Einstein DVDs, concentrate on proven ways to promote infant development - such as talking, playing, singing and reading to your baby. Even if your baby doesn't understand what you're saying or grasp the plot of a story, he or she will soak in your words and revel in your attention. These simple activities form the foundation for speech and thought.

Still, Baby Einstein DVDs aren't necessarily off-limits. If your family enjoys this kind of programming, make conscious decisions about how to use it. Turn it on only occasionally - and encourage interaction by watching the programming together.
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They're not necessarily bad, but they're certainly not any better than your kid watching anything else on TV.
 
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