|
My son was staying with his mom at age ~3 and walked out the door at about 5 am while she was sleeping. A stranger found him and brought him home. They called child services... nothing happened, but I freaked out at her. Then about 5 or 6 months later he walked out of my house while I was getting his lunch ready for school. It takes so little, but the odds really are that they'll be fine, and you can't protect them every second of their life. Related: I was talking to a buddy about this yesterday, but when my son was a baby I think he fell off the changing table under my watch. I'm not sure though. I feel like it happened, but I don't actually remember it happening. Maybe he was just going to fall but I got him in time, or maybe he did fall and was ok. That first year was such a blur...
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2015 16:21
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 14, 2024 08:36 |
|
|
BonoMan posted:Two years ago (about a year before my baby was born), I was at a family vacation in the mountains of North Carolina. The whole fam was there including my 2 year old niece. I was outside building a rocking chair when my brother asked me to watch her for a second (it had just rained and she was walking on the hillside jumping into wet stuff). I watched her for a second and my mind had just spaced. I was in the midst of building this rocking chair and, I wish I had a better excuse, but I just immediately forgot to keep track of her. My wife has recurring nightmares about this sort of thing. Not so much because of the danger to the kid. But absolutely about someone seeing it, reporting it, and getting a visit from the DCF (replace your state agency here). At times, I think she worries more about that than anything else. Update on eating... This thing has been a winner:  http://www.amazon.com/Fred-Friends-DINNER-WINNER-Plate/dp/B00I0VUMBI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1430408875&sr=8-1&keywords=game+plate
|
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2015 16:49
|
|
|
My co-worker is a grandmother to four children and she relayed this story that happened just last month. Their youngest grandchild is about 2.5 years old. They live right next to a large field with a park in view across it. Now, they have a fence that would prevent someone from easily accessing the field but....the youngest grandchild got through the fence, crossed the field (about two soccer fields in size) and started playing in the park. A neighbor brought him back over after noticing he was there by himself. The grandfather, who had all four of them in their front yard and supposedly had a handle on all their locations, went white, thanked the neighbor repeatedly, and then brought them all inside. The second youngest grandchild (3.5 years old) immediately proceeds to tell all the other grown ups, "Ben went all the way to the park BY HIMSELF" because of course he does. So yeah, kids.
|
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2015 16:57
|
|
|
I was loading groceries into the trunk, and turned around to get more bags and there was baby Liam, in the cart, cruising down the parking lot. I thought I had the wheels jammed to the side; whoops. A kind man grabbed the cart and started pushing him back to me; we met in the middle, as I had started running. The look on my face must have been something, and he said "Aww, it's okay Mom--don't get sick. He's fine; he just went for a ride! [Liam was just smiling and being happy and cute.] Just wait till he's older...mine are all grown." Then he just Dad-smiles, and goes on his way. My insides were instantly gripped in a primal sort of panic when I saw my baby heading down the parking lot like that. That expression about ice in your veins, or blood running cold with fear? Yeah. It feels like that. It was horrifying, and I was The Worst Mother Ever. We're all in this together; and the kids will be fine (we will all have ulcers and [more] grey hair, but the kids are alright.)  In other news, tonight, we get to have a relatively intimate conversation about death. My cat just died.  I'd had him for 17 years--longer than my marriage, my car, my house, my kids. Liam won't stop petting him...sigh. At least he died peacefully in his spot--in the sunbeam, with the window open, sleeping.
|
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2015 19:23
|
|
|
One of the worst things about my experience was I didn't even thank the person that found my niece down by the road. My face was just frozen in the anguish of realization as I gripped her and turned and walked inside to immediately deliver her to her mother. I think my mom was all "oh kids will be kids! thanks!" but she basically saved her life and I just took her and bolted. Ugh. God that still makes me feel bad to this day.
|
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2015 19:31
|
|
|
If my daughter makes it to her third birthday (in a month), it's going to be a goddamn miracle. Last Friday, some time after being quiet in her room, my wife found that she had been poop-painting on the carpet, furniture, door, and other things. I don't remember what consequences we chose, but we very much expressed our displeasure (though with little yelling; just stern words). Then again today, she had been put to bed for a while, then there was some knocking from her room, and when I investigated, it was the exact same thing. This time around, we've taken away her ability to choose what clothes to wear and her dress-up clothes for a week (because if she doesn't care about her clothes enough to not get poop on them, then she doesn't care enough to choose them out). I don't want to just turn this into rant-o-matic from me (though it's nice to actually vent to other parents about shared problems), but we really could use some advice: how can we stop this poo poo? (Pun intended) My wife is worried that it's because of some failing on her part, and I've tried to assuage her feelings that our daughter makes her own choices. But it gnaws at me a little, too, that it feels like we're bad parents if our kid does things like this. The little questions like: is this because we don't play outside with her enough? Do we spend enough time with her? Should we do different activities to avoid this sort of problem? There are a lot of things with parenting that are frustration-inducing, but at a certain point, it's like "okay, you got food all over the floor, but we'll clean that up" is one thing, but when it comes to poop, it's just disgusting to clean up on a whole new level. We can take messier foods away from her and just feed her sandwiches or something, but we can't take her butt away from her (and since we're trying to potty train her, we don't have clothes that are overly restrictive on that count). Other parents who have undoubtedly had to deal with the same thing: how? Is there something we're doing wrong? What can we do better?
|
|
#
?
May 1, 2015 05:45
|
|
|
Thankfully we've not had too many 'ohshit' moments after that first time loading the kiddo in the car & leaving the hospital. During his cruising the furniture stage he fell and twomped his face on the side of our rather solid coffee table, biting straight through his lip giving himself a good gash inside and out. It required glueing - the screams he made at the doctors when they applied glue to his face was 10x worse than when he had actually hurt himself. He still has a fine scar almost1cm long that runs along his lip line. Not long ago I was out at shopping centre with a playground in the middle of it with seating & coin operated rides surrounding it . Soren was inside, playing away and I was standing by a ride that had various vehicles on it. I was watching him and out of the corner of my eye saw a toddler standing on the windshield of a car, then stepping over to stand on the dash of the the motorbike that was in front of it - only noticed because all of a sudden a small head was in my line of sight. I looked at her & she was balanced precariously and started to fall. I grabbed her by the waist and lifted her over to the motorbike and said 'Woops! That was close'. Her mother, that was standing on the other side of the ride, sort of rolled her eyes at me and said 'thanks' in an annoyed tone. Did I overstep the mark? Should I have let the kid fall? She was busy chatting with another woman on the other side of the ride and the little girl was right in front of me, like a footstep away. In Toileting news, we have been putting him in underpants overnight for the last 2 weeks and he's only had 2 accidents and they were more of an overflow leak, just getting damp enough to wake up then we would pop him on the toilet and he'd finish up, then go back to sleep. I was expecting heaps more damage & midnight sheet changes but he's not even wet the bed at all, just his underpants. It seems to have coincided with when he'd had a lot to drink leading up to bedtime so that's something I'll have to keep an eye on. Not counting chickens yet though, we could travel along this same path for a very long while, but I'm considering it an awesome start. Re: Poop Chat - I've heard of people putting onesies on backwards during naps to stop the kid from being able to get at any poop. Not sure how well that works with toilet training though, especially if you have a potty in her room to use if she needs to. My dogs will try to make a snack of poop - sometimes taking it right out of the potty if Soren doesn't close the lid when he's done and I'm not close by to do it straightaway.
|
|
#
?
May 1, 2015 06:34
|
|
|
Axiem posted:If my daughter makes it to her third birthday (in a month), it's going to be a goddamn miracle. My mother in law loves to tell the story of how my husband did this at that age. Now he's a professional artist!
|
|
#
?
May 1, 2015 15:10
|
|
|
Alex spent this afternoon telling me about his special abilities, including 'super slam' which does '251 damage'. He only uses it 'on the bosses'. I'm trying to decide if it's awesome or not. E: for context, he spends maybe 3 hours a week playing video games with me vs >15 doing sports and stuff, much of which I coach. He never talks to me about soccer practice although he does ask about baseball / hockey sometimes.
|
|
#
?
May 3, 2015 00:17
|
|
|
Axiem posted:The little questions like: is this because we don't play outside with her enough? Do we spend enough time with her? Should we do different activities to avoid this sort of problem? I'm no expert (my kid isn't even 2 yet, so you actually know more than me), but my first thought was that it might have something to do with the new baby? As in "any attention is good attention", and she's found out that this poop-painting thing brings about lots of that! Maybe more one on one-time with you guys will help? And since potty regression is normal when new siblings arrive, maybe you can dial back on that a little so that at least her poop isn't that accessible to her while this phase is going on? The other thing I can offer is the meager comfort that at least you don't have poop-flinging twins battling it out. Edit: Here is lots of brilliant advice about tackling challenging behaviour in an older toddler when a new baby arrives. Sockmuppet fucked around with this message at 07:43 on May 3, 2015 |
|
#
?
May 3, 2015 07:27
|
|
|
Axiem posted:If my daughter makes it to her third birthday (in a month), it's going to be a goddamn miracle. In all honesty, it sounds like you are really overthinking things. Don't blame yourself for it, because failing like you've failed can ultimately lead to resentment. Sometimes things like this will burn themselves out after a couple of weeks, and other times, you just need to find the reason why she is doing it. I think as parents, we have a tendency to forget that because we can very easily cope with small changes in our lives, our children aren't as resilient, and they do regress a little bit when things change. Even though she's not yet three, try asking her why she did it, because you may find it's something relatively simple that she can explain. For reference, I have a 3 and a half year old girl, who has had night terrors for roughly 9 months. They come and go, but generally follow on a day of over-stimulation and no morning nap, too much sugar, or on more than one occassion, one of the kids at her pre-school being mean to her (biting was his favourite thing to do). Thankfully we've now got dealing with them down to a fine art, but it took us a good couple of months to figure things out. Throw potty training into your mix (which is a big change anyway) and there's going to be some issues. Don't worry too much, but what about pullup style pants for on a night?
|
|
#
?
May 5, 2015 09:52
|
|
|
What is everyone's favorite non-electronic toy for a ~1 year old?
|
|
#
?
May 5, 2015 21:43
|
|
|
Apogee15 posted:What is everyone's favorite non-electronic toy for a ~1 year old? Anything with this is a winner for Connor. http://www.amazon.com/The-Original-Rollercoaster-by-Anatex/dp/B00000IRKL Bonus points if it's on top of a busy/play cube http://www.amazon.com/Anatex-Deluxe...-mini-play-cube
|
|
#
?
May 5, 2015 21:50
|
|
|
Apogee15 posted:What is everyone's favorite non-electronic toy for a ~1 year old? The box the last toy came in.
|
|
#
?
May 5, 2015 21:54
|
|
|
Sophie giraffe? http://www.amazon.com/Vulli-Sophie-Giraffe-Teether-Brown/dp/B000IDSLOG
|
|
#
?
May 5, 2015 22:11
|
|
|
Her socks. Otherwise I find wooden toys that make noise/rattle are her favourite cause she likes wood for teething and smacking mom in the face with it as well. Seconding the box the toy came in. Not related: my 11 month old is talking sooo much. Words and babble alike. She's gonna be a talker and repeat literally everything that's said. Sigh. Today's thing is 'Good baby!' Perfectly enunciated. Pretty sure she's a parrot
|
|
#
?
May 6, 2015 00:48
|
|
|
Blocks, cars & ride on toys are the 1-2 year old staples. My son is 2.5 & still playing with all of those basic toys he got for his 1st birthday.
|
|
#
?
May 6, 2015 02:55
|
|
|
Board books with pictures. Like this: http://www.amazon.com/First-100-Words-Roger-Priddy/dp/0312510780/ref=sr_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1430879286&sr=1-8&keywords=board+book So they can point to things and learn words.
|
|
#
?
May 6, 2015 03:29
|
|
|
Before having kids: something I never thought I'd have to say once, let alone 3 times - "Get your hand out of your butt!"
|
|
#
?
May 6, 2015 05:19
|
|
|
Volmarias posted:The box the last toy came in. Hehe, this. Random things around the house become toys. We had a million books, too. On another subject, tips for getting a 2.5 year old to brush her teeth? It's a battle every night.
|
|
#
?
May 7, 2015 01:49
|
|
|
frenchnewwave posted:Hehe, this. Random things around the house become toys. We had a million books, too. I'd go for A) an electric toothbrush, does a better job in the limited time allotted (plus has a timer to say when is enough) B) let the kid pick out their own toothpaste/toothbrush. Any time you let a kid pick out their own -whatever- they are more likely to buy into it. The downside to this is that now there is going to be bubblegum-sparkle flavored toothpaste in your bathroom, just waiting for an inattentive or still-sleepy parent to apply to their own toothbrush. I would rather brush my teeth with diaper cream than bubblegum toothpaste. 3) maybe look for a toothpaste that doesn't have SLS or other foaming agents in them? Doesn't make a different to how clean things get, and the foamy-mouth thing might be putting her off as well.
|
|
#
?
May 7, 2015 02:26
|
|
|
frenchnewwave posted:On another subject, tips for getting a 2.5 year old to brush her teeth? It's a battle every night. Daniel Tiger has a catchy song. Thankfully, with all the problems we've had with our daughter as of late, getting her to brush her teeth has not been one of them. But she loves singing the bedtime routine song, and we can use it to help with the bedtime routine in general, in case we need to move her along. ...She also loves the Morning Routine song, and that helps us, too.
|
|
#
?
May 7, 2015 02:44
|
|
|
There are some toothbrushes that play a song through the bristles while brushing, and you can only really hear it while one is brushing with the brush. I've seen them at target and the grocery store? But you can pick through a few different popular songs. That might be enough to help out.
|
|
#
?
May 7, 2015 03:20
|
|
|
By the way, I want to thank everyone for their parenting nightmare stories. It really does make me feel better to know I'm not alone in those moments of terror. I don't feel like such a failure, though I'm still being hard on myself about it. I'm just trying to keep everyone alive.
|
|
#
?
May 7, 2015 03:41
|
|
|
Nora is 8.5 months and has a couple of bottom teeth (with top teeth just about to break through) and we're just now realizing we should have been brushing them. Oops. Hope we didn't do any damage, but poo poo you'd think our ped would have made sure new parents are doing that!
|
|
#
?
May 7, 2015 04:46
|
|
|
frenchnewwave posted:On another subject, tips for getting a 2.5 year old to brush her teeth? It's a battle every night. "OK Alexandra, time to brush your teeth. Tell you what, you brush your teeth and I'll brush mine. Then, you brush my teeth and I'll brush yours!" Gets her to brush her teeth, AND lets me get her teeth actually brushed all while she thinks she's getting the better deal by getting to do the horrible toothbrush to daddy.
|
|
#
?
May 7, 2015 12:57
|
|
|
Volmarias posted:"OK Alexandra, time to brush your teeth. Tell you what, you brush your teeth and I'll brush mine. Then, you brush my teeth and I'll brush yours!" This works with hairbrushing as well by the way
|
|
#
?
May 7, 2015 14:43
|
|
|
frenchnewwave posted:On another subject, tips for getting a 2.5 year old to brush her teeth? It's a battle every night. Playing Raffi's 'Brush Your Teeth' and letting her brush the teeth of every drat bath toy in the bathroom after she's brushed her own seems to work for us. e: Slo-Tek posted:
This too - we have some Thomas The Tank Engine toothpaste that is not only appealing to her, but also fairly impossible to confuse with real toothpaste. flashy_mcflash fucked around with this message at 15:49 on May 7, 2015 |
|
#
?
May 7, 2015 15:46
|
|
|
Apparently the key to getting my daughter to sleep through the night is to feed her an entire banana an hour before she goes to bed. Other food doesn't work - just bananas. Whatever works I suppose.
|
|
#
?
May 7, 2015 16:08
|
|
|
Last night after struggling with dinner and bath and bedtime and everything in between, I get my daughter to bed and say goodnight. As I leave the room she says "I don't love you!" with a poo poo eating grin on her face. Her birthday may have been in February, but I feel like she's now officially 2.
|
|
#
?
May 7, 2015 17:19
|
|
|
Axiem posted:Daniel Tiger has a catchy song. We just got into Daniel Tiger and as much as I love it, I really don't love singing his little 'lesson' earworms to myself in the elevator and getting caught doing so. When you feel so mad that you wanna roar, take a deep breath, and count to four
|
|
#
?
May 7, 2015 17:55
|
|
|
You gotta try new food 'cause it might taste gooooood~
|
|
#
?
May 7, 2015 20:16
|
|
|
When you have to go potty, stop, and go right away... It's a favorite in our house because little man waits until the last second to go.
|
|
#
?
May 7, 2015 21:11
|
|
|
Alterian posted:You gotta try new food 'cause it might taste gooooood~ everyone's job is impor-tant
|
|
#
?
May 7, 2015 21:26
|
|
|
You can be a big helper in your family~
|
|
#
?
May 7, 2015 22:00
|
|
|
Gravitee posted:When you have to go potty, stop, and go right away... This. And on top of that, our 3.5 year old son has been potty trained for over a year; however, for a few weeks now, he decided that he will not go poo anywhere but home. He will hold it all day and when I get to daycare he'll be doing his I-really-gotta-poo dance, telling me to please please hurry up and get him home. On weekends, if he doesn't go before we leave home, he's a ticking time bomb. I really hope he can get rid of this newfound foreign-toilet fear soon.
|
|
#
?
May 8, 2015 01:56
|
|
|
flashy_mcflash posted:We just got into Daniel Tiger and as much as I love it, I really don't love singing his little 'lesson' earworms to myself in the elevator and getting caught doing so. I find it helpful dealing with irate customers. Calms them down or throws them off. Either way.
|
|
#
?
May 8, 2015 03:14
|
|
|
Our 4 month old is happy to play in front of the mirror or tummy time by herself for a limited amount of time. Great! However, we had this for her http://www.amazon.com/Arms-Reach-Concepts-Beautiful-Dreamer/dp/B0088CO3J6/ - and it was a great place for her to hang out and be happy. She's clearly getting too big for it, and those jumpers seem to be extremely not-recommended from a development perspective. What is the next toy/baby furniture that's a: worthwhile for a baby that can't quite sit on her own yet but is happy on her back/tummy and b: can handle a 13-15lb + baby? IS there a bigger equivalent swing? We have a rock and play and she loves to sleep in it but hates to be in it awake. notwithoutmyanus fucked around with this message at 03:24 on May 8, 2015 |
|
#
?
May 8, 2015 03:21
|
|
|
Jumpers are fine for short periods of time. Just don't park the kiddo in there for hours a day.
|
|
#
?
May 8, 2015 03:49
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 14, 2024 08:36 |
|
|
drat, we may be dealing with a seriously smart three-year-old. Big brother, age 6 and three quarters, is smart enough but not exceptionally so and not (as of yet) especially adventurous, intellectually speaking. By which I mean that he gets most homework stuff quite easily when he can be convinced to try, but often takes some convincing. He's approaching the end of his first year of school, learned to read unfamiliar words within three weeks of starting school last fall, can now read kids' books by himself (silently or out loud) and does enjoy that. Middle brother, age 3 and 8 months, is in the process of learning to read more or less by himself (i.e. we haven't especially prodded him towards it, but he's been interested in letters for a long time and has picked up a lot simply by being near his brother. Has not quite cracked the code of reading unfamiliar words but I feel he's pretty close; he has a rapidly-increasing number of familiar words which he can read and he's started correcting me if I read something wrong to him. Also the other day he argued in favour of getting an extra sandwich since he claimed he didn't start with sandwich number one, but with sandwich number zero. How many three-year-olds even have a concept of zero as a number? I suspect this dude is going to need some special attention when he enters school. (Youngest brother, age 16 months, is still in the monkey stage of personal evolution. Time will tell.)
|
|
#
?
May 8, 2015 12:32
|
|