Articles & Expert Guides on Parenting

Medically-reviewed expert guides, tips, real-life stories, and articles on Parenting

How moms are thinking about sharing their kids online

Jessica Payne

Blended Family Life: What Works, What Doesn’t, and Why

Tassia O'Callaghan

109 Grandma Names That’ll Stick for Life

Tassia O'Callaghan

16 Books for Mums That Will Make You Laugh, Cry, and Feel Seen

Tassia O'Callaghan

Raising a Capricorn Baby: What It’s Like Parenting a Tiny Grown-Up

Tassia O'Callaghan

Raising a Pisces Baby: What to Expect From the Dreamiest Sign

Tassia O'Callaghan

Raising a Virgo Baby: What to Expect from Your Little Earth Sign

Tassia O'Callaghan

Raising a Libra Baby: How to Support Your Little Peacemaker

Tassia O'Callaghan

Raising a Taurus Baby: How to Parent the Most Chill (and Most Stubborn) Sign

Tassia O'Callaghan

Raising a Gemini Baby: Get Ready for a Whole Lot of Talking

Tassia O'Callaghan

Raising a Cancer Baby: Big Feelings in a Tiny Package

Tassia O'Callaghan

Raising a Leo Baby: What to Expect From Your Fiery Lion

Tassia O'Callaghan

Raising an Aquarius Baby: Parenting the Future-Minded Free Spirit

Tassia O'Callaghan

Raising a Scorpio Baby: The Good, The Intense, and The Nap Refusals

Tassia O'Callaghan

Raising an Aries Baby: The Boldest Sign in the Nursery

Tassia O'Callaghan

Raising a Sagittarius Baby: Traits, Tips, and What No One Tells You

Tassia O'Callaghan

Parallel Parenting Made Simple: Apps, Schedules & Survival Tips

Tassia O'Callaghan

One and Done Family: Why Having a Single Child Is on the Rise

Tassia O'Callaghan

What Is an Almond Mom? Why It’s a Problem & How to Break the Cycle

Tassia O'Callaghan

150 Quotes About Family That Hit Different

Tassia O'Callaghan

From the community

Did I come at him sideways

I will add the rest of the screen shots in the comments. But my husband started some laundry right before he went to work. We live in an apartment and you need a special key to get in. Well he took that key with him.

He has been on my butt about leaving the baby alone. He even expects me to bring the baby into the bathroom with me when he is at work. This has caused me to fall behind on laundry instead of me doing it twice a week I'm only finding time to do it on his days off.

Advice

Hi everyone,

I’m just looking for some advice or to hear from other parents who have been through something similar.

My little boy has just turned 2. He babbles a lot but isn’t saying any words yet. He responds to his name most of the time at home, gives good eye contact with me, and can follow some simple instructions. However, he doesn’t really play with toys in the typical way and often just carries one around.

I really struggle taking him out to places like the park, the farm or soft play. He doesn’t seem interested in the activities like other children are and would much rather push his pram around. Today I noticed he didn’t really seem interested in the other children either. They were running around and playing together, but he just wanted to do his own thing. I often come home feeling upset because I see other children enjoying everything while he doesn’t seem interested. Lately I’ve been feeling really overwhelmed, and sometimes I wonder if there’s any point in taking him out because he never seems to enjoy it.

He gets frustrated quite easily, especially with toys like shape sorters, even though I’ve shown him lots of times how to use them. Recently he’s also started putting his fingers in his ears even when there’s no loud noise.

We’re already under Speech and Language Therapy and are waiting for our next appointment, but I’d really appreciate hearing from parents who’ve experienced something similar. Did your child go on to talk? Did they become more interested in other children and activities as they got older? What helped?

Thank you ❤️

Would you trust your 3 year old to wake up, go downstairs and play with his toys alone before you wake up?

He either has figured out his stair gate or my partner forgot to fully shut it after him so the last couple of mornings he has been going downstairs to his favourite toys and playing with them for a short time before coming to wake one of us up for his breakfast.

This is at like 545am and our alarms don’t start going off till 6/630am so it’s not the longest of times that he’s unsupervised, but I don’t know how I feel about it. He is trusted to be alone and play downstairs during the day if I need to tidy upstairs, as he isn’t the type to climb or jump of stuff.

Don’t enjoy sitting with my kids

I love my kids, but I feel guilty af when I say I hate sitting with them. They climb on me, toys get dashed across the room. Like overtime I will find any reason to not sit on the sofa with them. I will sit on the floor and play with them but I don’t see it as a relaxing time with my kids. My son threw a toy across the room this morning, split my lip so that went in the bin. Then they’re fighting to sit in my lap. My coffee cup is going cold in the kitchen because I know for a fact if I bring it in it’ll get knocked out my hands.

My daughter’s already been in tears that I ‘don’t care about her’ because I won’t let her sit on me, for reference she’s nearly 6. I don’t understand why she can’t lay next to me and cuddle me that way, why do I have to become a pin cushion for knees and elbows. My partner practically refuses to sit in here cause they do the same to her and she feels like the living room has become the kids room because we can’t sit in here without there being fights on who gets to sit next to who. By the time the evening rolls around we’ve climbed into bed exhausted

Ungrateful husband or frigid wife

I work in a school and I'm off for the 6 weeks so majority of childcare is on me, my husband does shift work and this week he was on a course up city so wasn't getting home until 8/9pm.

So bare in mind he's sat in a nice air conditioned board room with regular breaks and lunch and drinks paid for by the company he comes home and keeps poking at me saying he's not got his leg over In weeks, he's never nasty about but it's everyday its "oh it would be nice to have something else" or just makes some sort of sexual induendo.

My reply to that is I'm tired, Ive entertained our son, fed him his breakfasts, lunches & dinners, taken him to nice places, walked the dog, cleaned up the house each evening and done the bath and bedtime routines...by the time our son is asleep I'm ready for bed myself.

And I've told him! I said I feel like you just overlook everything I do, he normally says sorry and backs off and says he's joking etc...but its everydayyyy 🫠.

Just needed a rant. 🤣👍🏻

Ladies help…

I feel so broken & confused… I have been told by a few people that my fiancé had an outside child on me, while we are together. I have not mentioned it to him as of yet because I don’t know how. Then what it’s not true but what if it is… We have a child together and this would crush me if it’s true. Especially with us talking about having another child after we get married next summer. I can’t see myself marrying him if he cheated. To make it even worse it suppose to be from his baby momma who he say he despise and always bad mouthing. But sitting here thinking I don’t feel that he really does, it’s starting to look like a show to put on so it doesn’t look so suspicious. How do I bring this topic up? What if it’s true? I really have to walk away from a man I built and poured into, the family we’ve created and memories that was made.

Urge to do DIY

Anyone else in this phase?

I have wanted to do the hallways for the longest time. I paid a man £600 to do it, he ran away with the money and didn't do nothing 🤣 lesson learnt.

I've always had the mentality if I want something done I just need to do it myself. So this morning I just said fu* it and started to paint.

Don't know what possessed me to do this at 32 weeks pregnant 😅

I just really wanted a change before baby arrived.

After this I'm tempted to strip the wallpaper in the sitting room.

Then I have this random mirror sitting around thebhouse. Think I will turn it into a grid mirror or something vintage looking.

Any one else working on home projects?

Feel like im drowning

I know it is just a phase and things will get better but I honestly am struggling so much! My baby is 3 months old. I always wanted to be a mum but I have been finding it so much more challenging than I thought it would be. I love my baby so much and when he smiles, I forget how hard things have been but whenever he is crying or I finally get him to sleep and have a moment to think, I can honestly say I am not enjoying motherhood.

Baby is having problems with feeding and I have had to go private to get the support I need as I was not gwtting any help from the NHS. He is bottle fed but has a tongue tie (recently diagnosed). This has caused alot of colic symptoms which have been a real struggle. Going private now is also an unforseen expense which is going to be a challenge to work around but for my baby to feel better, I will make it work.

I dont have family in the country and have very few friends. I have struggled to make mum friends through antenatal classes or baby groups so I feel very alone. Also, everyone around me with babies dont seem to be having the same experience.

I feel so isolated and alone and just dont know if it will get better.

I dont really know why I am posting this.. probably just to get it off my chest.

So it turns out men CAN listen 😅

Thought it was losing my mind earlier this week…
I’ve been overstimulated with my children and packing for a holiday whilst hubbys been busy working and squeezing in as much exercise as he can. I felt like I was repeatedly saying I needed a break but it was falling on deaf ears.
- I sat in the garden and said I needed 5 mins peace. He sat next to me and spoke about mortgages 🙃
- I had a bath and said “I’m overstimulated, I just need a little peace”… he sat down on toilet and started chatting and even invited our 5 year old in to join 😒

We had to cancel our holiday last minute as my kid literally got chickenpox 12hrs before flight. So now we’re all stuck at home. I said “I’ll be heading out by myself a few times over the weekend I need a break. Don’t know what I’ll do as I have no hobbies but I need to get out.”

Girls… he literally sat there and booked me a night away with a spa break and treatments!

Like WHHHAAATTT 🥳🥳🥰

Misbehaving

Our two year old daughter nearly three is misbehaving and I don't know what to do.

I have been pregnant, just had a baby a couple of days ago, so there is a lot change going on with her however it is not an excuse.

Our daughter has started hitting, kicking, not listening to us and refusing to go on her potty. As well as having massive trantrums when we say no to stuff.

She does have her moments where she's good but recently she has been getting worse.

Any advise, suggestions on how to discipline or manage a child when they misbehave?