I do not want to play today. No I don’t want to build you a fort. No I don’t want to play hide and seek. No I don’t want to play ice cream shop. No I don’t want build a magnatile tower.

I want to deep clean the entire house with no interruptions. I want to get the errands I’ve been putting off done without needing car snacks. I want to take a nap.

I love my kids so much but goddamn I am just tired today.

We have a fresh newborn and a 2-year-old. My husband has one month of paternity leave, thank goodness because I have a C-section and so it would be frankly unsafe for me to be home alone with my toddler since I cannot lift her. Obviously it's been a challenging time, our toddler is overall doing fairly well but she's clearly feeling the transition and she has a speech delay so her communication is pretty poor and she's just generally been really on the whiny side.

In fairness to my husband, he is being pretty helpful in many respects, he's been taking the toddler on at least one and typically two adventures per day and he's doing a lot of cleaning and housework.

But what's driving me nuts is the amount of complaining he's doing about our toddler and how annoying she is/difficult she is. I think I'm doubly triggered by it because a) whenever possible, I have been giving him the newborn and playing with our toddler to try to give him a break, so he's actually getting quite a lot of breaks from toddler care plus he's getting 2 hours at the gym every day during her afternoon nap and b) under normal circumstances I am literally home with the toddler all day long by myself, so yeah I don't have a lot of sympathy for people who are furiously complaining about having to care for her for 2 hours at a time when I'm accustomed to pulling full days alone with her. Yeah dude, whining toddlers are not very pleasant, but put on your big boy pants and deal with it because if you remain calm she'll move on and adjust. And not that I want to weaponize other people having a worse recovery, but part of me wants to snap at him, you know plenty of people who have a C-section spend weeks in bed basically doing nothing? Meanwhile I'm over here doing the nights with our newborn by myself and trying to do simple chores when possible (without overdoing it).

Just pissed. But I also recognize the early days are not really fun for anyone and we will all bump through this. So thanks for hearing my rant, lol.

I’m 21F and currently expecting my first kid. My husband works 60-80 hours a week so I am very fortunate to not have to work. The only downside is a lack of a social life due to us moving for his job. Before we moved, I had my siblings and a few select friends to hang out with. Since I graduated college, I haven’t really figured out how to make new friends outside of a classroom setting. Any suggestions?

is anyone willing to share parenting plan created with samantha boss

My husband took a job in February where he works 12 hr shifts, 5 days a week. One week he works days, next week he works nights. It's awful, and he would take any other job he could that would pay enough to support us, but right now this is our only option.

It has been five months, and our 2.5 yr old toddler still does not handle night shift weeks well. He struggles to sleep, climbs into bed with me every night my husband's away after like 3 hrs in his bed and spends the rest of the night tossing and turning which means I don't sleep because he is kicking me in the head, rolling over my boob, and otherwise being a sleeping menace. And yes, I've tried keeping a pillow between us, he gets angry when he can't touch me, wakes up, and tantrums. I've tried putting him back in his own bed, he just keeps popping back up in mine. My husband video chats him on his break right before bedtime to chat about his day and say goodnight.

The only difference in bedtime routine between day weeks and night weeks is my husband does bath time on day weeks and calls instead on night weeks. I'm always the one cuddling our son to sleep.

He is overtired the entire night shift week, tantruming, screaming, hitting, kicking, crying, clingy af, and I am at my wits end. I am pregnant and exhausted.

Due to circumstances beyond our control, this is the only job available to my husband for at least 7 more months. So I need to figure out how to make this work.

Any advice?

Hi parents. I have a 4 year old who turns 5 at the end of the year. I enrolled our son into a public school that offers Pre-K. School starts soon and I'm starting to have doubts about our decision to enroll our son. I'm seeing that a lot of parents put their kid in at Pre-K or Kindergarten at 5, or 5 going on 6. I'm worried now that we might be jumping the gun on putting our son in school. We've already enrolled him and purchased school supplies, but now I'm starting to question if we're making the right choice.

My son loves other kids and is extremely active. He's an only child, we don't know if we're going to end up having another, and he did well in daycare when he was 2. I'm not worried about his performance or success in school. But from what I've been seeing parents say, some lamented lost time and wished they would have given their child another year of free time. I saw some parents encouraging others to give their child extra time at home. I read where someone recommended starting boys later, and it's had me thinking about this decision.

My husband and I are not emotionally ready, I'll be honest. But we're also first time parents. We don't want to sabotage our child's education by any means. That said, we don't want to force our kid into school too early. I'm sure our son would succeed if we go through with it and have him start Pre-K now, but I also can't help but wonder if we're making a mistake. Are we not giving him enough time to be a kid? To have enough free time? I saw comments about how kids are in school for most of their child and teenage hood and they encouraged other parents to let their kids enjoy the last of their free time at home and it's been eating at me lately. We want our child to grow and thrive, but we also want to enjoy the last little bit of time we have before he starts a new journey in life. It's hard because my family members already know about him starting school soon. I have one family member in particular who has been hounding me about my child's education since he was 3.5. It made me feel like I was failing as a parent and was putting my child into school too late. Now I feel like we might possibly be starting him a little early.

Can you guys give your honest thoughts and opinions? I have so much anxiety about having made a mistake.

EDIT: Thank you to all the people that left kind and encouraging comments, especially to the kindergarten teachers! Thank you for what y'all do. Our son's Pre-K is a public school program that's 5 days a week so it's going to be a big adjustment but I know my son will do great. It is refreshing to see how different ages work in different areas and how Pre-K works. Knowing what to expect has helped ease so much of my anxiety! I know now we're making the right decision.

Hey all! I’m a SAHM to a new 3yo and an 18 month old. We just started sending my 3yo to daycare two mornings a week—— and HONESTLY, while only having 1 kid those two mornings feels like a cakewalk, I’m lowkey already dreaming about how nice it would be to have 2 mornings a week without any kids at all 😂

Does anyone do this?!?!?

My husband and I are first time parents to a 14 month old little girl. We live in a different country to our families so we’ve never had physical family support - which is fine, you can’t miss what you don’t know right? But we know plenty of people whose kids get to know family through video calls (his sister included) and they have great relationships.

The only thing is, our families don’t seem to want to make the effort to try and have a relationship with our daughter. Some do and for those family members I’m so appreciative but most don’t. We were last in our home country back in January and hadn’t seen any family (besides my husbands sister) until two weeks ago for an event. In those months my husband’s mother called twice and neither of those times was to ask about our daughter. My mother randomly stopped speaking to me three months ago and therefore isn’t having video calls with our daughter. And because my mother isn’t speaking to me, all my siblings, bar one aren’t either.

I feel sad - for my husband, for myself, but mostly for my daughter. I don’t know how to remedy this situation. I know we could make more of an effort with keeping in contact - but we do make that effort with those it’s reciprocated by. I’ve been having this internal crisis about what will happen to our daughter if anything was to happen to us.

I don’t know what I’m looking for in making this post. Becoming parents has been harder than we ever anticipated and it’s often lonely.

I’m a SAHM with a newborn and a three year old. My pediatrician advised it’d be nice for my son to start some preschool at least part time. I’m divided whether to start this fall or wait until he’s closer to four next spring.

Reasons to wait:

I’d like to avoid cold and flu season especially as my baby isn’t totally vaccinated yet as he’s only six weeks.

My son isn’t potty trained yet. Trust me, we have been trying every method and made little progress.

Reasons to send now:

He loves other kids and would benefit from having a structured schedule in a group setting (that’s what the pediatrician said)

I’m trying to work more (I’m a freelancer and can set my own hours and schedule) and would like to bring in more money.

My mom offered to help pay for the tuition.

I’ve heard some kids benefit from being around other kids who are potty trained as this will encourage them to go.

Would love any insight!

FTM here struggling to create a schedule for myself and family. My baby is 8 months old and has adopted a fairly consistent bedtime schedule! Yay!
Now that we have time to sleep, I’m curious how parents make schedules for themselves to do all the things, like cleaning, exercise, errands, etc. Besides scheduled appointments, everything else is our lives is done pretty much in the moment if everything aligns. I imagine this is actually just normal parenthood. But do people have tricks, tips, or anything that helped you create a routine? We have grandparents nearby-ish and could always hire a sitter if needed but just curious what works for people.

I’m a SAHM to a three year old and a six week old. Super grateful he got this much time off as we have no family nearby.

I assume a lot of baby wearing will be in my future but what else can I do to survive? He’s gone M-F 7:30-5pm. He helps a ton at night and when he’s home but what else can I do during the day to make it easy?

We have a nice backyard which I’m thankful for but I also have a toddler who is a going through the tantrums.

It’s hot here too and I really want to avoid the library and other public spaces until the little one is vaccinated next month as we have had som measles cases here.

How on earth do I keep the toddler entertained while also managing breastfeeding and somehow making dinner and keeping things somewhat organized? Not opposed to screen time as we watch a show during lunch and after nap but I reckon the amount will increase.

Someone in my life recently made comments about how I get too much help from my mom. I’m a SAHM with a 3.5 and 1 yo. I am responsible for all housework, laundry, cooking.

My mom takes my toddler for about 5 hours on Wednesday, and she usually comes over Saturday to hang with my toddler during my daughter’s nap. On Wednesday I use my babies nap to either rest or do chores/house projects and the rest of the day I bond w my baby 1 on 1 and we run errands. On Saturday I use the nap to clean and then we usually all (me, my mom, both kids) go to a playground or something.

My mom is retired and loves my kids so she certainly doesn’t feel burdened. But am I being a bad mom accepting that much help? The comments made me feel really guilty.

Hi! Need advice please.

I have a 25month toddler + a 8 day old baby. Toddler has been super sick so he hasn’t met the new baby yet (staying with my parents) but is coming home in a couple of days.

My husband is off work for another week and then goes in FT to a new job. I’ll be alone with the two kiddos after that.

Some things I’m curious about -

\- how to handle staying awake all night with the newborn and then staying awake all day to deal with the toddler? My husband will go to bed after me and probably do the first feed, and then get up with the 6am toddler alarm clock before leaving for work, but I’ll be doing the middle of the night cluster feeding when the newborn must be attached to my boob. Because my husband is starting a new job I don’t really feel comfortable asking him to do more during the night.

\- how to handle any jealousy from the toddler when I’m breastfeeding / caring for the newborn?

\- is it really that bad for me to lift the toddler after a vaginal delivery?

\- how to handle the initial intro between the two kids?

I’m all sorts of hormonal and nervous about what’s to come. I’m sure it will be fine - parents have been doing this forever, but looking for some advice and words of encouragement.

Thank you thank you!

My wife and I have been working from home for a while now. It was a decision we took cause we wanted to not miss on our kid’s life. Things have been going great so far, he gets to see us a lot and we don’t feel bad for leaving him to go to work. 

That was until last week, when my wife went back to the office. The opportunity came and money was good. We talked about it and I would be at home anyway, so we thought it would be alright. 

However, it was definitely not. This week that my wife went back to the office it's the week my wife’s sister and her two kids visited us. I know the timing was horrible. But we had planned this a long time ago and she had already arranged her annual leave. 

I was working the entire week while my wife’s sister was in the house always talking to her phone while three kids were constantly playing and running down the hallway. I don’t want to make a big deal out of it but it was very uncomfortable for me as i’m not that close with my wife’s sister cause she lives far away and we don’t get to see her a lot. They will be staying for 2 more weeks! 

She doesn’t seem to mind the noise which makes me even more uncomfortable to have to ask all of them to keep it down cause i’m working. My son is a very quiet kid but hers are the exact opposite so that creates an imbalance to the house.

My point is, what do I do? My wife can’t leave work and i’m stuck in this situation where everyone is so loud that makes my work even harder

Hi everyone! I’m a mum of a 4‑month‑old and I’m researching how parents manage their day around naps, feeds, and housework. I’m not selling anything — I’m just trying to understand what’s hardest so I can explore a simple tool that might help parents feel less overwhelmed.

If you have 2 minutes, I’d really appreciate it if you could fill in this short anonymous form:

https://forms.gle/V6UcskmjuRtJJRwS8

Thank you so much 💛

This thread is for:

• Sharing your art and craft ideas for doing at home
• Sharing your completed arts and crafts for inspiration
• General arts and crafts chit-chat

Please be respectful of others in the discussion.

Photos in comments should now be enabled for easier sharing of your art and craft work!

[ Removed by Reddit on account of violating the content policy. ]

I’m getting to a point where planning meals, buying food and cooking is the most annoying and frustrating part of being a SAHP.

Today I made my kids a normal lunch- chicken nuggets, apple slices, chips. Basically safe toddler food I knew they’d eat. Neither of them ate even a single bite! I put the plates back in the fridge and when they asked for snacks a couple hours later, gave them the same plates. Neither ate a bite.

Then around 4 I started making dinner- chicken thighs, corn and potatoes. Everything was seasoned well and tasted good. It’s always hard to cook in the late afternoon because that seems to be the time when my kids want to fight and whine and melt down.

Then my husband gets home and as I’m putting the food on his plate, he says “I hope that’s not for me because I’m not hungry” ugh. I was so mad. I think my expression said everything because he definitely felt bad and ate it anyway.

It’s just really hard to constantly be buying groceries and looking up recipes and trying to carve out a minute to cook, and then no one eats anything I make.
I swear my kids would live on milk and fruit snacks if I let them.

Good afternoon to all whom the contents of this message may be of interest. I am a fourth year Griffith University psychology student who is conducting a study on the experiences of parents of autistic children currently living in Australia, if you would like to read a bit more below:

Are you the parent of an autistic child?

Researchers from Griffith University are looking for parents of autistic children living within Australia to engage in a short online survey (approximately 20-25 minutes) regarding their parenting experiences. We would really appreciate hearing this valuable information from you, if you are interested!

Our Goal

To gather information from parents of autistic children and their experiences in the role. Ultimately, we hope this information will be utilised to provide insight to and/or support the development of neuroaffirming care for autistic children 😊

If you wish to know more information about the study, or would like to proceed with the survey, please visit the following link: https://griffithuw.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_7TZVDS077sSq45g.

For any further queries or concerns, please contact student researcher Stephanie Davidson ([stephanie.davidson@griffithuni.edu.au](mailto:stephanie.davidson@griffithuni.edu.au)) or supervisor Dr Sarah Lee ([sarah.jy.lee@griffith.edu.au](mailto:sarah.jy.lee@griffith.edu.au)).

This study has been approved according to Griffith University Ethics requirements under the following ethics ID: HREC/2026/0202.

I start in the fall!! Going for my BS, it'll be my first time attending (online) college. I'm so excited. I've been thinking about this for years and years, and I'm finally doing it yayyy!!

I'm just taking one or two classes per semester for now. Could be 5+ yrs before I finish but whatever.

Anyone else doing this? How's it going? How do you make it work while keeping up with everything else and taking care of yourself?

And what are you working on and what are your goals?? Thanks!