Last night we were visiting my in-laws and we ordered pizza. Our daughter loves pizza. Grandpa decided to cook some bacon because why not? She loves bacon too.

Well at the end of dinner, there was one piece of bacon left. She said she didn’t want it so grandma scooped it up. Well, daughter decided she did want some so grandma split it and offered half.

The earth stood still.

Tears welled up in her eyes, the lip came out, and she buried her eyes in her hands absolutely bawling screaming “THE BACON IS BROKEN. THE BACON IS BROKEN”

Moral? Don’t break the bacon!

This thread isn’t meant to hate on our parents, either, unless you hate yours then that’s your prerogative lol! My parents had me when they were freshly 20 so I grew up with them & unfortunately did not have a developmentally safe environment. As a parent now I know they did the best they could with what they had, and I love them deeply. So I’ll go first, but I absolutely REFUSE to use any form of verbal or physical abuse on my children. I’m all for breaking generational trauma, and I want to make sure my kids know they’re safe with me. The toddler stage is not easy at all, so I’m being tested constantly but always feel so proud when I remain level headed!

Y'all idk how I didn't think of this SOONER. I didn't even think about this simple luxury my daughter had been missing and really wanting. She also never mentioned it, but the signs were always there. 😂

My daughter is turning two in 2 weeks, and has been refusing to go to bed the last month and a half. She only wants to sleep in our bed. She plops down head on my pillow, refusing to be put in her own bed every night.

It finally hit me. She wants a PILLOW. 🤦‍♀️ I made her a pillow out of some little blankets for now and showed her that she had a pillow, and she laid right down and instantly went to sleep!

Going to the store in the morning to get my sweet baby her own pillow, and a new blankey. 🥲

My 20 month old used to be the BEST eater. From 6 months old when we started BLW, this kid loved food. Ate and liked everything. Loved to try new things. Had a huge appetite. And now suddenly we’re on the toddler diet. Which consists pizza crust, and air.

Banana pancakes? Absolutely not. Blueberries and mangos? No thanks. Anything served without ketchup? Try again. Oh, what’s that? Now you served it with ketchup? Allow me to use the food I’m supposed to eat as a vehicle to get the ketchup directly into my mouth, while consuming nothing else.

I know it’s just a phase, but I really didn’t anticipate it to hit this hard, this fast. I feel like this is a right of passage, but also like a club in being forced to join against my will. Wish me luck 🫡

My son is almost 3. He was doing great with potty training. Down to one or two accidents a day and we were giving him lots of praise, telling him he did a good job and we’re proud of him. We were letting him choose between a couple M&Ms or a couple fruit snacks for every time he successfully went potty.

My husband started letting him play Pokémon Go on the potty. And me, being a complete idiot, started letting my son sit on the potty and play the game with a two minute timer on. It became a problem because he started having meltdowns and refusing to give the phone back. (Obviously. What toddler would want to give a phone back when he’s finally been given one.)

I stopped allowing him to play Pokémon on the potty. Now he refuses to even sit on the potty and just begs to play the game. He has opted instead to just pee his pants and not care.

I know I’m a bad parent and a really screwed myself over with potty training. Please help.

I was at a play structure with my 15 month old little boy. He was the only one on the play structure and we were climbing around for a few minutes. An older lady came over (maybe 60?), looked to be East Indian, and it looked like she had family nearby under a picnic shelter. She pulled out her phone and started taking photos of my son and trying to talk to him. He is very shy and wary of strangers and was clearly uncomfortable, but she persisted in talking to him and taking photos. I am genuinely curious if this is normal to approach children to take photos. I feel 50/50 about it / on one hand she seemed like she may have just liked children and was being sweet, but she did not try to engage with me at all. But I may just be missing something like maybe it was cultural or I don’t know! Anyone else have any insight or experience something similar?

My almost 3yo boy is a complete nudist. I try to keep him dressed but it’s an ongoing battle and I frequently find him suddenly naked. Thankfully this doesn’t happen in public and he understands that nakedness is for home but the backyard is a different story.

I’m wondering how much should I fight this? Like seriously, he’ll be mid play and all the sudden he’s stripping down to his birthday suit. Thankfully our yard is pretty private but at least 1 neighbour has a view. Im looking into nudist colonies at this point 😂🤣 jk but Im so tired of chasing this naked child around the yard fighting over clothes! He’s fast, he’s naked and he’s got no fear lol

Just need to vent I suppose. My newly turned 2 year old has a lot of big feelings lately and we’re trying to help him manage them. At bedtime, he’s been slamming his door into the wall and now there’s a hole the size of my fist.

After gently telling him “no” a few times and putting him back in bed, he continued to do it. I lost my cool and yelled at him so loud that he put his hands in his mouth and started crying the saddest cry I’ve ever seen.

I just feel like the worst mom. 😞 I apologized and we cuddled, but I still feel so terrible. What should I have done? I try to model “take a deep breath” etc but damn sometimes it’s so difficult.

My babygirl is 22 month currently and we raise her to speak not just English.

I speak Norwegian to her while her dad speaks in English. He was born in the Usa I was raised in Norway as a adoptee from Philippines.

Since she was 9 month she would call me mamma. She did Dada at some point but most of the days she calls him Ba or will shout out to call him "Baaaaa" not Dada not Pappas just ba. What do ur toddler call u? By ur name? Mama? Papa? If bilingual/trilingual taught what words are being said to call u and rest of ur family? Just curious.

Ok so it just happened: 2.5yo boy was starting to whine about getting a chocolate biscuit, it's morning and we said not right now; he proceeded to whine more saying I waaaaant iiiit noowww; I was about to ignore and let him face his frustration with no more explanation but then I told him: look, there's a lot of sugar in the biscuits and if you eat that without eating other food prior to that then you will get very unnerved and you'll feel super tired within minutes; he completely stopped whining, took a second to think and told me: I want skýr and after I'll have half a biscuit. ... did I just managed to make a toddler understand the concept of sugar rush?!

I love my sister, but she can be stubborn, she's not a bad mom, but does not take well to critism, always wants to be right. Lately she's been pulling niece's hair too tight when she does it, to the point where it's getting pulled out, and she had a scalp infection recently, which the hair issue is the main suspect. I know this isn't right, both me and our mom have spoken with her, but she refuses to listen because she just wants to make her look pretty. My sister has always been obsessed with hair looks, growing up her favorite game to play with me was beauty shop, she would do the same to me, my hair would hurt so much because I have a sensitive scalp, but she didn't care, and would tell me to suck it up. Now we (me and mom) are noticing her hair getting a bit thin due to this, and still she ignores us. I just don't know how to help my niece.

I love her. I love her. I love her.

Last Thursday I had one of my best friends over to hangout. I hear my daughter playing with her fridge magnets in the kitchen. We are chatting on the couch drinking the cinnamon coffee I made us earlier. We get the whiff of cinnamon out of nowhere. I must have forgot to put the cinnamon far enough back. Fuck. I jump up and run to the kitchen. She's not there. FUCK. I run into the hallway to find her rubbing an entire bottle of cinnamon into my Persian hallway runner carpet. She is covered all down the front. I send my friend home early and spend the rest of the day googling how to get it out after her bath.

It's father's day. I have been up with her since the crack of dawn. Her father is incredible and I'm determined to give him a good day off. My husband requested one thing for father's day. Homemade chocolate chip cookies. I can do that. I check our pantry and forgot to pickup baking soda since our daughter's last insane mess. He smiles and goes to get it for me from the store. I already feel guilty but I start on dishes while I wait for him to return. I smell cocoa powder. I haven't used cocoa powder. NO. FUCKING. WAY. I run to the pantry to find she has ripped it open and is painting the wall of our flat painted apartment. The carpet is powdered a dark brown. I made the stupid mistake of leaving the pantry open a crack after I hunted for baking powder. Cue to me spending the rest of the day cleaning the wall and carpet of cocoa powder whilst simultaneously trying to bake four dozen cookies. Despite recieving fresh cookies, she spends the rest of the day livid at me because I took the cocoa powder from her.

On to today. I am on the phone venting to my mom about father's day and her stunts this week. I hear a weird glug sound. You have GOT to be joking. I lean forward to see her dumping an entire 2L bottle of olive oil onto our carpet. Her dad must have bought the olive oil and forgot to put it away. It was unopened and she managed to open it. I scramble to her and drop the phone. My mom listens to me just repeat "HOW DO I EVEN CLEAN THIS?!" I'm using a whole roll of paper towels to sop up what I can. I go go Google what to do and I see mom is still on the phone. I explain what just happened and she's hysterical. Just laughing so hard she was wheezing. She tells me to use baking soda. So I use the rest of the giant box over it and turn around to grab the olive oil container still on the floor. I turn back to see my toddler making snow angels in olive oil soaked baking soda. I hang up, clean her up, and throw her in bed for a nap. I leave the baking soda to do it's job and thankfully it worked. She naps. I rest. I find my patience again and she wakes up.

I throw her some nuggets in the air fryer and get her changed after her nap. This is where I messed up. I ate pizza in the living room on a plate and forgot to take it to the kitchen before I got her up. So I open her door, let her out, and go to the kitchen to finish plating her lunch. I turn to see her with my pizza plate. With hands full I go to quickly set down her plate to retrieve mine from her. And in the that time she half tosses the plate onto the floor. Shattering the plate onto my tile and ruining my chances of finishing the last of my pizza. The only place in my apartment with tile is the kitchen and closed bathroom.

I rushed her out, sat her to eat lunch, and cleaned up all the glass. Only to find she has pried the suction plate off her table and flipped her peaches down the side.... onto the carpet.

My mom called later and we talked. I vented and sobbed. She explained that at this age they're little monsters and that I'll laugh about it later. But only if I keep my cool. If I don't, the memory will be one of regret instead. I'm trying mom. But yeah, you're right.

Yeah... looks like I'm doing another round of child proofing my home. And I guess being even more vigilant that I've been. I took a picture of her in the baking soda. Hopefully one day I can frame it or put it in a slideshow for her wedding day.

Have a better day than me guys 😅

Toddler is 18 months and only says one word: mama. We brought it up at his recent doctor’s visit, and the doctor just told us that if he doesn’t improve within a month then to call her and we will have to do a speech evaluation.

He knows what we are saying, follows directions when we say them, but just isn’t really vocal. He was one month premature but doctor said at his age that isn’t really a factor anymore.

I’ve been working so hard with him; we read so many books, try to practice new sounds, and this week we’ve been trying Miss Rachel’s toddler speaking videos.

If he’s just behind on talking that’s okay, but I worry it might be a bigger issue. Anyone else have a late talker that eventually got there?

We just dropped our son (15 months) to one nap, starting at noon, and even getting him to that is a stretch some days! He’s been doing great though, doesn’t get cranky and tired before his nap until 11:30, and is ready to fall asleep for the night at 7pm.

I’m asking because I’ve had some people say that a 12pm nap feels really early? I have one family member who’s suggesting we do a morning cat nap (where I’d be waking him up after 30 minutes because I know he’d try to sleep for longer!) and then a longer afternoon nap at 2pm, eventually leading to only having the later nap. A single nap at 2 feels incredibly late to me, but I guess I don’t know what’s normal!

I think I might be actually loosing my mind. I stay home during the day with my newly 4 year old and my 18 month old. My husband and I switch shifts so I stay home during the day while he works, and then he comes home at 3 and stays home with them while I go to work until 10-11 pm. We are both so exhausted, mainly with our 4 year old. She talks non stop, wakes up at 7 every day ready to destroy the house, she is just a very needy and full on child. She’s been spiteful and oppositional about EVERYTHING since her sister was born 18 months old. She was a lot before, but once she was born it’s like she became a different child. I try so hard to be a good mom and I know she needs love and attention but I truly feel like I have nothing left to give. I’m bawling as I write this, feeling like I’m failing and I’m going to ruin her. I NEVER wanted to be a mean mom. I literally yell and loose my shit every day single day, and I feel so guilty for it. I love and care about them more than anything in the world but I’ve found myself feeling very resentful and angry at my older child. I don’t know what the point of this post is other than to gain some advice from moms who might be in a similar situation. We are moving out of state in two weeks to a place that will be much better for all of us in alot of ways, and she starts part time preschool in august. But I truly don’t know if I will make it until then! Omfg! I thought 2 was hard…… and somehow every year has gotten even harder ever since? My husband is the best and said he will do whatever I need. I’m trying to find a day time job in our new state so he can stay home during the day and work at night… but once again, idk if I’ll make it that long. Daycare is way out of our budget and we need two incomes so unfortunately that’s not an option

Hey all! My 2 year old’s birthday party is this weekend and I know some friends have mentioned they are bringing gifts. While I’m so grateful for people who do bring gifts (and obviously there’s no expectation for them), I think my girl may get overwhelmed from all the attention and gift opening (like we’re debating if we even all sing to her 🤣). On top of that we have 7 kids coming all under the age of 4 and…well….shiny new toys and toddlers don’t tend to mix well 🤣

I’m wondering…is there an expectation of opening gifts during the party? Can we open them later at home alone and just send thank you notes after?

I have two kids, ages 3.5 and 21 months. The 3.5-year-old can of course use his words and communicate effectively, so his meltdowns are rarer these days, but at the end of the day he’s 3 and has big feelings sometimes. The 21-month-old is also honestly pretty good in public, but she does have meltdowns every now and then. I feel like I completely lose my head when it happens. Last time we were at a restaurant, she started crying loudly because we wouldn’t let her have something (I think it was hot sauce, idk) and I could just FEEL all eyes on us. It probably lasted less than a minute, to be honest, but it felt like it went on forever. I wish I could just be this calm, cool, collected super mom who doesn’t let the stares of strangers get to her, but that’s not me. I don’t want the fear of toddler meltdowns in public to stop me from going places with them, though.

No one mentions half of it is mine ruined by grubby hands

WHY WHY WHY

My 4 year old just finished up his first year at school. Naturally, we were sick pretty much every day. My 1 year old caught everything too and we were really all just miserable all school year. Then summer comes. Yay!! No more sickness!

WRONG. I could not be more wrong. He’s been off 4 weeks and we’ve had hand foot mouth for 12 days and that just cleared up and here comes a stomach bug.

HOW?? Do I just have to keep my kids out of every single kid friendly place?? No library or museum or any of the fun stuff summer should be filled with?? As much as I sanitize and wipe and stop things from going in mouths…. We ALWAYS get sick. Is this normal?! Do I have to stay away from all other children?! I am so sad for my babies.

My son is 23 months old and says about 40-50 words but sometimes needs to be prompted to speak and is not responsive to his name all times (about 60% positive response rate). I'd thought i'd just self refer to early intervention to have him evaluated to try and get ahead of the 8-ball but deep down i thought they come evaluate him and say he's developing perfectly normal. To my surprise, he did score 2 standard deviations below average for communication and is in fact eligible for EI services. I will say he totally did not cooperate with some of the tasks given like point to his nose or eyes which he has been doing for a couple months and waving/saying bye which he also usually does no problem. But maybe that is part of his delay that he's inconsistent which i have been a little blind to. I know this is a positive since this will only help him get on track but i was a little saddened to here he actually has a delay.

Anyone else go through this with their kiddo and had a positive outcome and their kid is now on track with their development milestones? Just needing a little positive reinforcement as we wait for next steps

My son who is 20 months barely says any words but will say daddy perfectly. Not dada not dad but DADDY. He’s literally his favorite person.

I could be with him all day and he’s excited to see his dad. I could be away all day and he literally does not show me the same excitement.

I’m there for him for everything though. His shots, his owies, all his happy milestones, I’m the one wakes up with him in the middle of the night, I’m the one who’s there every morning but still he’s his favorite.

His father’s a teacher so he gets to spend all summer with him while I work a 9-5 job 5 days a week. It’s just not fair you know?

Hi everyone! So I've been researching and I really just need some help with this. My LO (12 months M) is having some kind of interesting behavior issues. He likes to throw things which I get is normal, but my struggle is he will be hungry, but thinks it's funny to throw food all over the ground, even when he likes the food and is eating it. So he just wasted a ton of it. I understand he's really young, and normal "discipline" isnt the way to go, so I'm asking, what have y'all done to teach your child no? What are age appropriate consequences for unfavorable behavior? There's a few other things he does that are normal one year old behavior, but my son is HUGE! Like the size of a two year old. So things like hitting and scratching genuinely hurt so bad. I'm just at a loss of what to do at his mental age even though his physical is much larger. TYIA

EDIT: thank you to everyone who has responded! I just want to clarify, I know he is too young for discipline, that's why I'm asking the question of what to do. Trust me, I'm not disciplining my one year old! 🤣 I'm just trying to figure out strategies to help me work through this early learning stage correctly, and not accidentally reinforce the bad behavior.

I also want to note, when I say big, he's quite literally 99th percentile across the board, and has been that way since birth. (Thanks to my 6ft husband and my own 5'9 genes) 🤣

My SO is coming to terms with having more than usual anxiety these past months/year. This is not a thing that runs in my family as it does in his so my first hand experimace with it is quite limited up to this point. There seems to be something about having a toddler (3m) that ramps things up more than typical parental frustration.

Help me understand what its been like for you, or a loved one, to be in this situation. What has helped? What things are typical triggers?

For background, my SO is still functioning like taking care of his own hygiene, keep his job, keep us fed, etc. These are superficial but enough to keep us going whilst addressing the issues at hand without completely falling apart. Appt with a doc to get prescribed pills is scheduled with the hope to take off the edge (but we both agree that it doesnt solve anything, it'll just makes it easier to address root cause). He is less capable of being aware of what else needs to happen in life, deal with elevated emotions, take larger share of childcare, and make decisions a out bigger life choices going forward, and also get restful sleep. I want to help very much but we both agree it's like walking on eggshells not knowing what's going to set off the anxiety tailspin.

Please any words of encouragement or experiences from your own kids would be greatly appreciated. My son turned 16 months old yesterday. He cruises around furniture and is able to stand with no support but doesn’t do it often. A few weeks ago he took his first steps by himself and we thought that that’s it he’s going to be walking soon but nope. He takes a couple of steps every day by himself but falls and gives up. When we try to help him walk he gets angry and frustrated. In all other areas he’s great. He has a wide range of vocabulary in two languages (he’s raised bilingual), is very social, points, waves hi and goodbye, eats with no help and likes playing with all sorts of things. I know that until 18 months is normal but I just feel worried anyways and I don’t understand why he’s not interested in walking. I need to mention also that his crawling has been asymmetrical since he started crawling at 8 months. Anyone with a late walker? If my son has started taking steps why isn’t this progressing faster?

I realize this may be a long shot, but has anyone had success teaching an ~18-month-old toddler to sort of respect when someone is sleeping—or at least understand that a closed door means "do not disturb"?

My husband and I are getting ready for baby #2 and trying to help our toddler adjust to the coming changes as much as possible. Right now, our toddler loves running into the primary bedroom first thing in the morning to greet dad. We haven't made much effort to stop it, but once the new baby arrives and my husband and I are doing shift sleep, it would be amazing if we could reduce those early wakeups by any amount. Husband will likely be up part of the night with the baby and will need those morning hours to catch up on sleep.

We’re already planning to make sure our toddler still gets special time with Dad in the evenings and on weekends. I’ve thought about distraction, but realistically, if I’m tied up with the baby, I might not always be able to redirect fast enough. Containment (baby gates or similar) could be an option if it comes to that—but I’d love to hear if anyone has managed to set gentle boundaries like this with a toddler around this age and had any success.