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jassi007 posted:That is the dream. When they're teenagers, to whip them out of bed at 7am to do chores reminding them constantly of all the days they got me up at 5 or 6am for no good reason. :P This. This will be living the goddamn dream when it happens. That, and when someone gets old enough to cut the grass.  In my experience, kids wake up when they wake up, irrespective of bedtime. Mine are up by 7 now that they're a bit older (which is sleeping in compared to the years we were up at 5). They will wake up at 7 whether they went to bed at 8, 9, or 10. What time they went to bed just determines how sleepy and pissed off they are the next morning, and how much time we have to ourselves in the evening. And as far as getting from a 5 am to 7 am wake time, that just sort of crept over time on their own.
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May 29, 2014 19:21
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AlistairCookie posted:This. This will be living the goddamn dream when it happens. That, and when someone gets old enough to cut the grass. I am going to take a nap to the sound of angry teens cutting grass and love every god drat minute of it. I'm just biding my time.
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May 29, 2014 19:28
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Speaking of bedtime routines, do you all give your child a bath every night? My 7 month old just started crawling, and before that it was just 2 or 3 times a week. Now that she's getting into stuff, I'm thinking about giving her one every night. I want to get her into a longer routine, too. Usually it's just a diaper change, pajamas, and a bottle, and I'll hold her till she falls asleep. I'd like to get to the point where I can put her in the crib awake with no crying.
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May 29, 2014 20:25
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Chicken Biscuits posted:Speaking of bedtime routines, do you all give your child a bath every night? My 7 month old just started crawling, and before that it was just 2 or 3 times a week. Now that she's getting into stuff, I'm thinking about giving her one every night. I want to get her into a longer routine, too. Usually it's just a diaper change, pajamas, and a bottle, and I'll hold her till she falls asleep. I'd like to get to the point where I can put her in the crib awake with no crying. Yes, every night as part of her bedtime routine. It's a good transition between playtime and 'calm the gently caress down' time. Our routine is this, and we don't deviate from it much: - 6:15pm Start running the bath, play with baby while tub's filling up - 6:30pm Bathtime - 7:00pm Dry off, Coconut oil rubdown (this is great for calming her down), diaper, sleeper - 7:15pm Nursing - 7:30pm Book/storytime until she starts showing signs of being tired like rubbing eyes, stretching etc. Room is darkened, bedtime music and white noise playing - 7:45-8pm put down. This length of routine is pretty much the sweet spot for Sydney, after a few months of tweaking. We started around 6 months.
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May 29, 2014 20:37
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Chicken Biscuits posted:Speaking of bedtime routines, do you all give your child a bath every night? My 7 month old just started crawling, and before that it was just 2 or 3 times a week. Now that she's getting into stuff, I'm thinking about giving her one every night. I want to get her into a longer routine, too. Usually it's just a diaper change, pajamas, and a bottle, and I'll hold her till she falls asleep. I'd like to get to the point where I can put her in the crib awake with no crying. Every other day, and we usually skip a day on weekends. So like Sun, Tue, Thurs, and Fri/Sat depending on what we get into over the weekend. Obviously if they're filthy or whatever or have been outside running and sweating but if we're having a quiet daycare/dinner/play/bed they don't need a bath every night.
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May 29, 2014 20:39
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flashy_mcflash posted:Yes, every night as part of her bedtime routine. It's a good transition between playtime and 'calm the gently caress down' time. Our routine is this, and we don't deviate from it much: This is pretty much exactly what we do/did. It was immensely helpful for improving our kid's bedtime when he was still in the "screaming if you put me in the crib awake" stage. The bath isn't really about getting clean, it's about a nice relaxing transition from play mode to sleep mode. I draw the bath around 6:20, wife gives him a bath while I get the nursery ready, she gets him dressed, we all brush our teeth, then I read him books until he's ready to get in the crib. We tried all sorts of things when he was younger to make bedtime easier, but I feel like establishing this super solid routine that included the bath was pretty much the most effective thing we did.
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May 29, 2014 21:00
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I tried the nightly bath thing with my first but it backfired. He loves the water and gets all pumped up, so I do it earlier in the day. I figure I'll try it again with the new baby once he's older.
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May 29, 2014 21:05
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Papercut posted:This is pretty much exactly what we do/did. It was immensely helpful for improving our kid's bedtime when he was still in the "screaming if you put me in the crib awake" stage. The bath isn't really about getting clean, it's about a nice relaxing transition from play mode to sleep mode. I draw the bath around 6:20, wife gives him a bath while I get the nursery ready, she gets him dressed, we all brush our teeth, then I read him books until he's ready to get in the crib. We tried all sorts of things when he was younger to make bedtime easier, but I feel like establishing this super solid routine that included the bath was pretty much the most effective thing we did. This should pretty much be in the OP, in my experience. Transitions in general are hard. Routines make them easier.
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May 29, 2014 21:34
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flashy_mcflash posted:Yes, every night as part of her bedtime routine. It's a good transition between playtime and 'calm the gently caress down' time. Our routine is this, and we don't deviate from it much: That's a long time. We go upstairs for bed / bath at 830 and the kids are out by 900. Bath time is 5 minutes for the baby 10 minutes to put lotion and stuff, and 10-15 to nurse. Maaaaybe 10 for the older one for bath and then a story. We've never read until he's sleepy, he knows he gets one book then head on the pillow. They're 4 and almost 1 and we're usually playing / doing stuff together until just before that. 30 minutes is lots of time to transition. Whatever works for you I guess, but that just seems like a huge ordeal for no reason.
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May 29, 2014 23:41
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Speaking of routines, we incorporated brushing teeth as early as possible. They make rubber gum massager things for infants, so you can start practically from birth. We started with our kids really early and now they have no problems going to the dentist and having toothbrushes in their mouths. I know a dozen kids who despise brushing their teeth, partially because their parents didn't think it needed to be part of a routine until they were toddlers. We also sing a silly song every time. Same with clipping nails, we make it a twice monthly thing, singing songs and giving heaps of praise for not squirming. Our nighttime routine starting from dog walk to lights out is about an hour. My oldest (3 1/2) is now obsessed with taking showers instead of baths, and it cuts his bathing time in half. And I bathe my son and daughter separately, so she gets a bath and he takes a shower after.
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May 30, 2014 01:44
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I am currently struggling with toddler teeth brushing. She is 18 months and thinks the toothbrush is snacktime because the only toddler toothpaste I can find is fruity flavored. So she'll suck on the brush but won't let me actually clean her teeth without a struggle.
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May 30, 2014 02:11
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My 19 month old says your girl knows what's up! First thing he does is suck the toothpaste off.
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May 30, 2014 02:16
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When I spoke with my dentist about getting my daughter (2 years old) brushing her teeth, the recommendation was to not use toothpaste. Instead, at her age, it's more about being comfortable having something in the mouth doing the toothbrush thing, and getting it incorporated into a routine. Once they're a little older, they can get the whole shebang.
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May 30, 2014 02:26
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Kalenn Istarion posted:That's a long time. We go upstairs for bed / bath at 830 and the kids are out by 900. Bath time is 5 minutes for the baby 10 minutes to put lotion and stuff, and 10-15 to nurse. Maaaaybe 10 for the older one for bath and then a story. We've never read until he's sleepy, he knows he gets one book then head on the pillow. They're 4 and almost 1 and we're usually playing / doing stuff together until just before that. 30 minutes is lots of time to transition. Whatever works for you I guess, but that just seems like a huge ordeal for no reason. It's almost as if different children are distinct creatures from each other with disparate personalities and needs. frenchnewwave posted:I am currently struggling with toddler teeth brushing. She is 18 months and thinks the toothbrush is snacktime because the only toddler toothpaste I can find is fruity flavored. So she'll suck on the brush but won't let me actually clean her teeth without a struggle. I thought you weren't even supposed to use toothpaste with kids that young? We don't with our 18 month old. He still does a lot more chewing than brushing. We also find it helps a lot to let him use our toothbrushes. He tends to rotate between them and his own.
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May 30, 2014 02:27
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They make 'training' toothpaste for really young kids, but I don't think you really 'need' it. We had a hard time with our second on the toothbrushing but if we do it while her big sister does it at the same time she is much less fighty.
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May 30, 2014 02:59
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Our ped dentist said those training toothpastes are worthless, and as long as you have flouridated water just using tap water was fine. It's more about setting up routines and having them understand why they are doing it. Once kids understand the concept of spitting into the sink, then you can use regular toothpaste in tiny tiny amounts, but it's not really necessary for these first few years.
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May 30, 2014 03:21
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Papercut posted:It's almost as if different I think this is more accurate and a larger contributor to the differences in parenting style. We're all guessing and everything we do is going to be coloured by our perception of what we like or would have liked when we were that age. My perspective specifically is coloured by my personal belief that kids are far tougher than most adults are willing to give them credit for, and they need much less from is than modern sensibilities say we should provide.
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May 30, 2014 08:34
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VorpalBunny posted:Our ped dentist said those training toothpastes are worthless, and as long as you have flouridated water just using tap water was fine. It's more about setting up routines and having them understand why they are doing it. Once kids understand the concept of spitting into the sink, then you can use regular toothpaste in tiny tiny amounts, but it's not really necessary for these first few years. We moved between our kids and did not know our new city had voted to NOT fluoridate the water and brushing with water yielded two cavities by age 2.5. Goddamn anti-sciencers! If you're in a non-fluoridated area, our dentist says don't use the training ones, use the fluoridated toothpastes but just a barely-there smear of it on the brush.
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May 30, 2014 16:18
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Kalenn Istarion posted:I think this is more accurate and a larger contributor to the differences in parenting style. We're all guessing and everything we do is going to be coloured by our perception of what we like or would have liked when we were that age. My perspective specifically is coloured by my personal belief that kids are far tougher than most adults are willing to give them credit for, and they need much less from is than modern sensibilities say we should provide. I'm sure the OP just jumped straight into a 2-hour bedtime routine without trying anything else first. My 18-month-old is speaking in sentences and started saying multiple 3-syllable words at 15 months. I guess all those parents out there whose kids are seeing speech therapists are just too weak to give their kids the credit they deserve.
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May 30, 2014 16:29
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Kalenn Istarion posted:That's a long time. We go upstairs for bed / bath at 830 and the kids are out by 900. Bath time is 5 minutes for the baby 10 minutes to put lotion and stuff, and 10-15 to nurse. Maaaaybe 10 for the older one for bath and then a story. We've never read until he's sleepy, he knows he gets one book then head on the pillow. They're 4 and almost 1 and we're usually playing / doing stuff together until just before that. 30 minutes is lots of time to transition. Whatever works for you I guess, but that just seems like a huge ordeal for no reason. Well I'm hoping that the routine will be greatly reduced over time like when she weans and is in a real bed rather than the crib. Sydney's only 14 months and a lot of that stuff is us spending time with her rather than an obligation. If something is going on in the evening we can and do compress things a little (the length of the bath actually varies somewhat and that means the whole bedtime routine is shorter and earlier, plus sometimes she's ready to go out right after nursing so storytime gets axed). The times I posted are pretty much the maximum time things take. Papercut posted:This is pretty much exactly what we do/did. It was immensely helpful for improving our kid's bedtime when he was still in the "screaming if you put me in the crib awake" stage. The bath isn't really about getting clean, it's about a nice relaxing transition from play mode to sleep mode. I draw the bath around 6:20, wife gives him a bath while I get the nursery ready, she gets him dressed, we all brush our teeth, then I read him books until he's ready to get in the crib. We tried all sorts of things when he was younger to make bedtime easier, but I feel like establishing this super solid routine that included the bath was pretty much the most effective thing we did. We never did much in the way of sleep training outside of setting this routine, and I'm amazed at how effective just this part of it is. To the point where I can pull out certain books or play certain songs and she starts rubbing her eyes because they're such strong sleep cues. flashy_mcflash fucked around with this message at 16:46 on May 30, 2014 |
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May 30, 2014 16:41
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Papercut posted:I'm sure the OP just jumped straight into a 2-hour bedtime routine without trying anything else first. Comparing speech therapy and cognitive development to bath time is silly and you know it. So does the OP, judging by the response below yours. I was just surprised by the amount of time.
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May 30, 2014 16:57
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I think the larger point is that kids are different and some may need a couple hours to wind down and some may only need a few minutes.
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May 30, 2014 17:19
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Kalenn Istarion posted:Comparing speech therapy and cognitive development to bath time is silly and you know it. Sleep and speech are both developmental issues. They are different for every kid. Telling someone they're wasting their time on their kid is both incorrect and unnecessarily rude. My friend's 2-week-old already sleeps for 6 hours at a stretch, following the same pattern as her older sister. If they had acted like I was doing something wrong when my 3-month-old still didn't sleep for longer than a 90-minute stretch, I would've told them to gently caress off and been justified doing so.
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May 30, 2014 18:22
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sheri posted:I think the larger point is that kids are different and some may need a couple hours to wind down and some may only need a few minutes. Hell, the same kid can and probably does need varying amounts of time depending on what they did that day. There are definitely days when Sydney is so tired that she's ready to go out before 7. I can't say we've ever gone later than 8 though, outside of teething periods. Question for parents, and I know this is going to vary widely as well, but how old were your kids when you took them to their first movie in a theatre? Or maybe a better question is how early were they amenable to sitting through a whole movie either at home or at a theatre?
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May 30, 2014 19:21
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We took our first kid to the movies at like 2 and a half but it was the recent Winnie the Pooh movie and she loves that and it's super short. I don't think she would have been ready for a different movie at that point.
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May 30, 2014 19:24
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We took Arthur to Lego movie at 9 months because its a Sunday matinee everyone is in church anyway it'll be fine. It was fine, he just needed to be held in the back aisle.
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May 30, 2014 19:39
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I took my daughter to see Finding Nemo when she was 3.5 and we didn't make it through the previews. The biggest part of it was just how loud it was. With my second kid I didn't try a movie theater until he was 5. I think we're on the long end, though. Both my kids are very sensitive to loud noises like vacuums and flushing public toilets.
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May 30, 2014 20:47
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Papercut posted:Sleep and speech are both developmental issues. They are different for every kid. Telling someone they're wasting their time on their kid is both incorrect and unnecessarily rude. Indirectly telling me to gently caress off on behalf of someone else isn't really helping you look like the rational one here. I didn't say it was wrong, just a surprising amount of time. I'm clearly touching on a sensitive topic for you so perhaps we should both take a break from talking about it  flashy_mcflash posted:Hell, the same kid can and probably does need varying amounts of time depending on what they did that day. There are definitely days when Sydney is so tired that she's ready to go out before 7. I can't say we've ever gone later than 8 though, outside of teething periods. 6 weeks or so  He just slept in his chair. After that, probably not until he was 4 or older. We don't watch a lot of TV / movies in general though.
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May 30, 2014 21:22
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It is kosher to take your two year olds to R movies, right? Those little monsters have cost me months and months of missed mediocre films 
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May 30, 2014 21:31
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Hot Dog Day #82 posted:It is kosher to take your two year olds to R movies, right? Those little monsters have cost me months and months of missed mediocre films Only if they are rated R for violence/gore and not nudity. 2 year olds don't need to be seeing nipples!
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May 30, 2014 21:36
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FishBulb posted:Only if they are rated R for violence/gore and not nudity. 2 year olds don't need to be seeing nipples! Absolutely, we need to keep a sense of proprietary after all! Plus I feel I am doing a public good whenever I go out into the world with screaming twins, there is no better advertisement for wrapping it up than that!
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May 30, 2014 22:37
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flashy_mcflash posted:Question for parents, and I know this is going to vary widely as well, but how old were your kids when you took them to their first movie in a theatre? Or maybe a better question is how early were they amenable to sitting through a whole movie either at home or at a theatre? My kids are 4 and 2 1/2 and I still haven't tried to take them to a movie. We've taken them to live events like the Fresh Beat Band, Sesame Street Live, and several Disney on Ice shows and they do pretty well there. The next big Kids movie we might try... just to see if they can handle it. To be honest though I really don't want to take them to the movies. It'll set me back a minimum of 50 bucks to do so and I've got a killer A/V setup at home. Movies are coming out on Blu-Ray in record time. Hell Frozen was released to Blu-Ray in less than 4 months after it first hit the theater. I pop a big bowl of popcorn with the air popper and get their plush animal chairs out and they're good to go for an entire movie. They have no issues sitting through Frozen, Wreck It Ralph, or any other kids movie. Right now they've been watching the last Shrek film. The Alamo Drafthouse where I live has special screenings on Tuesdays before 2:05 PM where they keep the lights a little brighter and the sound is turned down a little and babies are allowed in the theater.
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May 30, 2014 22:47
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Regal Cinemas does a summer movie program that's a good cheap way to see how your kid will handle a movie. http://www.regmovies.com/Movies/Summer-Movie-Express We tried last summer when my son was 2.5. We gave it a shot 3 different times and at most made it 45 minutes in, including previews. My kid is sensitive to "scary" scenes, so any hint of a mood change (darker mood, music, characters), and he high-tailed it right out. We're talking movies like Rio and Ice Age sequels. But it was super cheap, so no harm, no foul. I had friends come with us and some of their kids stuck it out, and some were in the lobby with us pretty quickly. Age wasn't a factor that I could see. It was totally dependent on the kid's personality and tolerance for loud noise and "scary" stuff and just sitting in one place for a couple hours.
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May 30, 2014 23:19
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For younger kids who might not be able to sit quietly through a whole movie, if you have an AMC theater near you, they do a program called Sensory Friendly Films that are in quite a few of their theaters across the US. It's specifically geared towards special needs kids (especially autism), but I could see it working well for younger kids too. It's usually once a month with one movie, on a Saturday, at the 10 AM your local time showing. There are generally no previews before the movie, and they're not turned up as loud and the lights aren't turned down as low. You're allowed to bring your own snacks in, and the Silence is Golden rule is waived during that showing. So kids can make some noise, get up, dance, walk around, whatever. Our local AMC also keeps the next door room empty, for kids that need a bit of cool down time. Here's a list of the participating theaters, by city.
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May 31, 2014 00:45
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Tooth talk: my town actually does not have fluoride in the water. Weird, huh? So I've been using the training toothpaste on my toddler but if that's essentially useless, maybe I should use a teeeeeny amount of regular toothpaste? I mean, she will 100% swallow it because she's too young to understand "rinse and spit" so... not sure.
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May 31, 2014 14:27
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My kids were both pretty young on their first movie excursion, about 2.5 for Sofia and not much more than 2 for Juliana. Going to the movies is A Big Deal for my dad, so much so I will often tell my friends that his religion is movies. (Seriously, he hardly ever goes to church but he's at the theater once a week like clockwork. At home all he watches is AMC and TCM.) So he was all about getting them to the movies ASAP. Neither of my kids are sensitive to loud noises and dark places, so they both were OK. Sofia fell asleep about halfway through her first movie. I think it took her until about the age of 4 that she could stay up the whole way through. Juliana on the other hand had a blast the whole time- not only did she stay up for the whole movie but she ate almost the whole bag of popcorn. However this is the same kid who we brought to the Light Motors Action stunt show at Disney when she was just shy of two and she laughed her rear end off at every explosion and burst of gunfire. 
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May 31, 2014 14:42
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My pediatrician and pediatric dentist both recommended using a rice grain sized amount of children's fluoride toothpaste for my 16 month old, since we don't get it in our water system. The dentist was even happy when I mentioned that she just wants to suck on the brush afterwards. Not having fluoride outside of occasional dental trays at the office as a kid really did a number on my teeth, so I don't understand why a town that's already treating the public water would decide to skip on something so helpful.
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May 31, 2014 15:17
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TheRustyMachete posted:My pediatrician and pediatric dentist both recommended using a rice grain sized amount of children's fluoride toothpaste for my 16 month old, since we don't get it in our water system. The dentist was even happy when I mentioned that she just wants to suck on the brush afterwards. Not having fluoride outside of occasional dental trays at the office as a kid really did a number on my teeth, so I don't understand why a town that's already treating the public water would decide to skip on something so helpful. Our city's been going through a lot of water-related bullshit lately, and although the anti-science crowd is certainly the public face of it, a lot of industrial water users probably don't want to add a couple bucks to their water bills just for something as mundane as improving the dental health of poor children. Our pediatrician gave us some fluoride/vitamin drops for our oldest kid. Our youngest... well, who has time for that? I should probably give him some as well during the time until he can suck on a toothbrush.
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May 31, 2014 16:24
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My daughter is 2.5 years old and we signed her up for soccer. She's in it with her friend and their first session was Saturday. My daughter and her friend seemed to be the only kids not into it at all. The other kids really took to it and followed instructions very well (one part had them touching their noses to the ball). My girl was happier to run around the field and kick the ball (which, to be fair, is soccer). But I'd like to encourage her to follow the coach's instructions. At the same time I don't want to make it unpleasant for her or punish her. Any advice to keep her on point, or should I just not worry about it at her age?
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Jun 2, 2014 20:12
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Part of sending your kids to coached activities is that they get to be somebody elses problem, and your kids get to see how other adults not parents or teachers try to run the show. I'd hang back and not worry about it. If she were an absolute superstar at ladybug soccer, it wouldn't be a big deal. So not being into it this week isn't much of a cause for concern either.
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Jun 2, 2014 20:22
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