1st birthday gifts!

My boy’s first birthday is coming up and family are starting to ask what to get him. We don’t have a lot of storage space so I don’t want him to end up with loads of stuff lying around that he won’t use again after a couple of months. What toys etc did your kids get the most use out of at 1-2yrs?

in our community

What do you think about giving the unemployed 30 hours free childcare?

I'm personally annoyed at this. If they are unemployed, at home, claiming benefits then they can look after their own children.
My husband and I work our arses off, paying taxes and others can just sit at home and get everything given on a plate! Paid by me, us working people! What are your thoughts?

Is he right? ...

My boyfriend and I clean together for a company I got him into. I recently lost a friend and there was a memorial for it that I was meant to go to but I had an apartment I was meant to clean. There'd be drinking at the memorial, so I called my boyfriend to ask him to go to the apartment and organize the cleaning bag and if he wants to clean it too he can. He was heading home, complaining that he needs to eat and doesn't feel well and that he has 3 hours to get our daughter from camp.

I'm depleted physically and emotional so I ended up missing the memorial because I fell asleep. He took our daughter to work with him so I could go back to sleep, but then suddenly he calls me absolutely raging down the phone at me about how I should have asked him properly to do this job, that I just take advantage of him and that I just wanted the bed to myself when I should have been taking care of our daughter ...

Feeling unsupported about my 19-month-old starting Early Intervention. How do you “mom up” when everyone disagrees with you?

I’m feeling really overwhelmed and could use some advice from other parents.

My daughter is 19 months old. She isn’t walking yet and doesn’t say many words. During her 18-month well-child visit, I brought up my concerns to her pediatrician, who referred us to Early Intervention. After her evaluation, they recommended speech therapy, physical therapy, and developmental services. They felt she would benefit from getting extra support now instead of waiting.

When I told my husband she would be evaluated by a speech therapist, physical therapist, and teacher, his first question was whether it was free. Then he told me I should just teach her those things myself. I explained that there’s nothing wrong with getting professional help, but he said “that’s not real life” and that he never had therapy when he was growing up.

I decided to move forward with Early Intervention anyway because I’d rather get help early than wait and regret it later.

To make things worse, later that day my husband’s parents mentioned that I had talked to the pediatrician about my concerns and acted like it was a non-issue. It made me feel like I was overreacting, even though both the pediatrician and the Early Intervention team recommended services. I told my husband about her physical therapy appointment, but I still haven’t told him about the in-home Early Intervention visit because I’m honestly nervous about how he’ll react.

It feels like every parenting decision turns into a debate.

For example, my cousin invited my daughter and me to the zoo with her two young boys. My mom immediately started telling me it was too hot, that my daughter wouldn’t remember it anyway, and even said that because she throws her stuffed animals around, there’s no point in taking her to see real animals. Then she brought up how she took me to Disneyland, Hawaii, and Las Vegas when I was 6 months old and I don’t remember any of it. I’m 34 years old now, so of course I don’t remember being a baby. That doesn’t mean those experiences weren’t worthwhile.

My daughter doesn’t get out much besides doctor appointments, grocery shopping, the occasional park, and birthday parties. I want her to experience new things.

Then there are other disagreements like apple juice, bottles, and so many other parenting decisions. It feels like I’m constantly defending choices that I believe are in my daughter’s best interest.

I’m just exhausted. How do you become more confident as a mom when it feels like everyone around you questions your decisions? How do you stop second-guessing yourself when your spouse and family seem to think you’re doing too much? Has anyone else dealt with this?

My husband is really struggling…

Since our son arrived 4wks ago, I can tell he’s just been miserable. He huffs and puffs, and moans how tired he is- even though I’m breastfeeding and doing all the nights. He lacks any compassion towards me. I cried yesterday and he just said ‘I told you it would be hard’. This morning, he hasn’t asked how I am or how I slept. He’s in a bad mood and is banging, thrashing and swearing about the house. We have a toddler too so it’s not our first rodeo but him being like this is upsetting me so much 🥺

Good morning

Moms I’m a bit frustrated, my partner works constantly, he gets up goes to work comes home and goes back outside to do his own stuff, I honesty feel like a single parent in a relationship 😞 no matter what I say he creates a big argument 😞

Do you think it’s reasonable for me to go ?

My husband lives somewhere else due to some issues atm.
He comes to see the children and it’s an hour each way with public transport.
But I deal with the rest of the things, caring for them doing school drop offs etc.

Today he wants me to drive the kids 40 mins to where he lives after school so he can show this new toy he got. Problem is, it’s too hot and I’m knackered.

I don’t really want to go, but I feel bad. Would you have went?

Plus we will go tomorrow anyway as it’s the weekend. He did say he wants to go yesterday but it was late anyway and my son already had an afterschool club and it will be me doing bed time, changing them etc so I felt pressured and said we will go Friday instead ( but now I’m thinking it’s not ideal esp. with this heat and they will be tired and it’s on me again to drive back and put them
To bed etc). And then again go tomorrow