It was a hot summer when we went on vacation. That day we went to the beach to sunbathe a little and enjoy the warm water. My son as it is supposed to take with him the whole arsenal of toys and settled down near us.

After a while we heard a child crying, he was probably about four years old, a year or two younger than my child.

I noticed that my son stopped playing and began to stare at the child and how his mother was calming him down. Her actions were unsuccessful. At one point my child looked around at his toys picked up a car and went to this boy.

He came over and said: "Take this car, I'm giving it to you, and come and play with me." It worked instantly, the boy was surprised and then happy.

And that's when I realized we were doing the right thing. It's nice to see a kid who cares about strangers and is willing to sacrifice.

It's worth it.

I have a 5yo and 3yo. I’m a K-2 teacher and my wife is sn elementary school teacher. I know I’m damn good with kids this age. My wife is a champion as well.
But this is fucking killing me.
They will play together so nicely and then at the drop of a Lego they’ll snap at each other and start screaming. When we ask them to stop screaming, they scream at us, when we try to help they scream at us. When we do something fun like play Mario, they freak the fuck out when it’s over. Doesn’t matter if we give warnings, if we talk about it, or if we just pull the plug. They will find a reason to lose their shit.
We just can’t do anything fun or nice without a goddamned meltdown or negotiation. And EVERYTHING IS S FUCKING NEGOTIATION! Fucking everything.
Put your goddamned pants on if guests are coming over. Why do I need to fight with you about this. BRUSH YOUR FUCKKNG TEETH SND GO TO THE BATHROOM AT BEDTIME. We do this every night, they have literally never not done it, why do they keep trying to negotiate out of it??? It’s literally never worked in their whole lives.
For the past several months my older one has started doing raspberries at us when he’s mad. He knows we hate it. He will say truly awful things to us, his mom more than me. My blood instantly boils when he says mean things to my wife.
The both of us put in SO MUCH goddamned effort to make sure they have a nice house, fun toys, and do interesting things. We are doing chores past 9pm so that we can spend some amount of time together. Then that time inevitably ends in Fuxking screaming or whining. I’m so fucking over it.
And now I feel like a raging piece of shit for typing all this. Awesome.

I never thought anyone did it the "other" way until i watched my partner do it..... now I need to know. is there a "right" way and how many of you do it the same way as me?

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I peel from the handle thing on the left side

I'm probably not raising serial killers, right?

This morning I was awoken at 6:30am to my overexcited 7 year old begging me to play chess. He had been up since 5am and invented a new chess variant called "ninja chess". He worked out the rules in surprising detail and after 1.5 hours he couldn't contain his excitement anymore and had to wake me up to play.

Both sides start with one of their pawns replaced by Zane (white) and Cole (black). There is also a ninja sword placed on the board in the center of the central 4 squares. The ninjas move like a rook without the sword but if either ninja acquires it, they can then move like a rook, bishop, or knight. If the ninja with the sword ever returns to any of the 4 central squares, he must return the sword.

For the crime of waking me up so early, I smashed him mercilessly.

I was 10 years old at the time and I went out with my friends. My father warned me that at eight o'clock in the evening we were leaving for my grandmother's house. Don't be late, the car will leave the house at 8:00 sharp.

I was playing with the boys as usual. In summer it's not the latest time for a walk, especially in a big and friendly group. I saw that there were five minutes left and walked towards home. Our house was on a rather long street. At 19:58 I already saw my house, the car and my father, mother and my brother getting into it. I was walking towards it, thinking that everything was OK, now they would wait for me and we would go.

I had just a few minutes to go, but at exactly 20:00 the car started and drove off. I first thought it was a joke and that they would stop and wait for me. But what was my surprise when the car only picked up speed and then disappeared around the corner. I got home, still thinking it was a joke and they were coming back.

But I sat on the porch until 11:30.

When they came back, I asked my father in tears why he had done that.

He said: "We agreed that the car would leave the house at 20:00. You were late.

Maybe it was harsh, but since then I don't remember being late for anything. An experience I'll remember for the rest of my life. Did your parents have any unconventional parenting techniques?

Playing in the backyard with my 2.5 year old son. I let him play with the hose for a few because he wanted to water the plants. This little shit sprayed me no fewer than 5 times. Each time I told him he best knock it off. After the fifth spray I gave him a taste of his own medicine.

He was shocked. Tears. Needs a new shirt. Runs to mom. Mom is mad at me. I think he learned if you mess with the bull you’re gonna get the horns.

What say you, dads? Fair?

Ps- he sprayed me again as soon as he got back outside.

Edit: for all the dads/parents giving long, drawn out replies about how my parenting should be handled moving forward, this was just meant to be a fun/funny anecdote. My wife and I are not fighting. My son is outside playing with water. We’re all surviving and thriving and no traumatic life events occurred today

We moved last week and I had to promise we could make a “Moving Cake and also it’s a Kirby Car Cake” when we got settled in.

Diagnosis: Global developmental delay, microcephaly (small head size), esophoria/strabismus of both eyes (left more than right)

My son was born on time, very normal birth and generally very healthy. After months we thought how lucky we were that he was such an easy baby, but after comparing him to his big sister around 6-7 months, we noticed they weren’t hitting the same milestones at the same time. Our pediatrician kept telling us he was happy with the progress and to just keep at it with him. Maybe his lack of crawling was a because he wasn’t motivated.

After a year we voiced our concerns again, because he was only rolling and wasn’t babbling at all. He reluctantly suggested we reach out to our regional center for an assessment to see if he qualified for early intervention. As soon as they saw him, they labeled him as significantly delayed with gross motor development and speech development. Their assessment was that this was hypotonia.

We went back to the pediatrician and he referred us to a pediatric neurologist. She just gave us the follow diagnosis and my wife and I are just completely heartbroken for our son. We’re confused how his head fell so sharply from 40th percentile to under 1%. Two months ago he was at 45cm and now he’s measuring 44cm. I see pictures of microcephaly and my sons’s head doesn’t resemble anything like this.

We’re waiting on all the blood tests and genetic testing to come back, and per her recommendation, scheduling an MRI.

My baby boy is now crawling and even shows signs of wanting to walk. He pulls himself to stand which is something he couldn’t do a month ago. during that first assessment, he could barely sit without falling over. He’s even starting to babble dadada to me. There’s progress which is giving me hope.

I’m trying to process this all one day at a time, but I’m failing miserably. Please daddit, i need you guys so badly right now. I’m in Los Angeles and taking advantage of all services our county can offer and will be going through insurance as well.

I've been sleeping on the couch during the week because I sleep like a dead person and get up at 5 am. There is no setting on my alarm that would wake me up but not my wife and baby. Then on the weekends (and a day or two during the week) I sleep with the bassinet by me on the couch so I can do a bottle at night and let my wife get some sleep.

Our second recently started sleeping through the night so we figured it was a good time to sleep together again. I was so freaking pumped!

Que the baby waking up ever 1 to 2 hrs due to a tooth coming in. So neither of us got any sleep... Still felt wonderful to sleep next to my wife again.

Hey fellow dads! We have been going through the process of reducing screen time but it’s becoming apparent that YouTube kids is not a great app for our kid to be watching. We have tried restricting accounts but he still is addicted and behavior changes when he does watch it.

Are there any alternatives that are low stimulating you all have used to transition out of YouTube? We have pretty much all streaming platforms.

Also any tips for restricting what is on the iPad or what they could access would be great too!

This looks negative to me but there's the slightest bit of a blue line visible at the edge. It's negative right?

When you just find that perfect dad joke that floors them, it's just the best feeling in the world....

Last night the cat was running around having a mad 5 minutes, and my boy goes "he's doing Parkour"

Me: "Well he's a cat, so it's actually Purrkour"

This got him good, but I wasn't finished yet...

Me: "If the dog was doing it, it would be Barkour"

Oh my God, I've never seen this kid laugh so hard in all my life!

Dads, never give up on those awful dad jokes...one day you're going to land the perfect one for your kid's sense of humour and there's honestly no high like it!

Sure, plenty of page corners are dissolved from being used as teething comfort... that I expect. My concern is the binding separating from the core of the book. Eventually the cover falls off, or the guts fall out - whichever way you want to look at it.

I'm wondering if any dads have found some sort of flexible transparent tape to prevent the innards completely separating from the cover? Or any easy and cheap solution? Gluing down the binding makes the pages less easy to keep open, and the turning stiff.

The wife won't let me get a replacement book as we have a full library. But the kiddo and I both love "little blue truck" (and the Bruce series, and "shh, we have a plan" etc) and want to extend lifespan.

I've done packing tape, and it just splits at the crease after a few read throughs. What do other dads got?

I get tons of comments from other parents on this trike so wanted to share.

I’m not affiliated and won’t even share the brand name, but this Trike has been a game changer. Comes with a seatbelt too when the LO gets a little wobbly or reaches for stuff.

Tons of alternatives on Amazon for sub $80.

We rarely take the stroller anyway now. 10/10 highly recommend.

Swabbed the whole inside of the sink and it's coming up lead positive? Or is that just not how the swabs work?

How do you feel about your child either rolling/grappling, wrestling, or sparring with other students of the opposite sex?

[These are not my children in the photo]

My stance on the matter is IDGAF who my kids [8M and 10F] grapples or spars with as long as they show good sportsmanship, and respect to the other person. As long as they try their best, that's what matters most to me.

My 4year old started to wet his pants because he is too busy playing or watching tv. Previously it used to happen once in a while nowadays it happens almost everyday or sometimes twice in a day. He is completely potty trained previously. How to handle this?

My first child is 2.5 weeks old and has been clusterfeeding regularly. I try to do my part changing diapers and taking care of the house but unfortunately I can't help with the feeding. My wife is breastfeeding, unable to reliably pump, and refuses to introduce formula, so she's been waking up just about every hour or two to attend to our baby constantly. She has been mentally struggling and at this point cries just about every time during the night our child needs fed.

She's starting to get more erratic every time she gets up. She'll cry and pout and say "they just got fed!" And sometimes refuses to acknowledge that our baby is crying because they want fed even though its obvious.

She just had an appointment to discuss post partum depression but they said she's fine and normal. We're 2.5 weeks into having this baby and the escalation of her mental state is concerning.

I've suggested co-sleeping, introducing formula, anything I or we can do to improve the situation but she refuses anything.

Anyone else have experience like this? My concern is its only been 2.5 weeks and things aren't going to improve soon, but my wife is already doing really bad mentally, and I'm not sure what to think or do.

It’s kind of an odd question, and I don’t really ever see anyone talk about it. But I’m guessing we all feel it or think about it on some level?

My little boy is 2. He’s perfect. The smartest, sweetest little boy a dad could hope. He’s like me in so many ways: naturally strong and athletic, funny and outgoing, and very creative. But it’s pretty clear he got my hair. It’s thin and fine, and there’s not a lot of it. My mom says it’s exactly like mine when I was his age, and the pictures agree.

My hair has been a big insecurity my whole life. I’ve always wished I had thick, luxurious hair. I’m 42 now, and while I probably won’t go bald, my hairline started receding in my 20s, and it’s pretty far back there now - like almost halfway.

I know it doesn’t matter. Logically. I know we’re supposed to love ourselves no matter what, but realistically it’s hard not to notice these things, and even now as an adult whose done a lot of work on myself in counseling and in life, I still struggle with insecurities about my appearance.

I don’t want to bring them up with my son when he’s older, because I never want to draw attention to his physical appearance. But I also know one day it’s going to matter to him.

Just curious how you other dads are navigating these waters.

I'm checking to see how you're doing. I know you said you were going to go back that night. I hope you and family are well. I'm open to DM if you want.

I commented that I'm in a similar situation.

in laws are staying here with us. 4 months into a 6 month stay and im miserbale. . everyone is happy except me. i told my wife and she suggested they leave early. but I think then everyone else is sad, so why should everyone be sad to make me happy?

My 2.5 year old daughter is completely refusing to go #1 or #2 in the toilet. This is the 4th day of her just holding it in until she unleashes at nap time in a diaper or at bedtime in the bath. We’ve tried everything and are out of ideas. We also tried one other time, when she was 2, and after 3 days gave it up. She is naked from the waist down, we sit on the toilet every 30 minutes, and I’ve tried every kind of reinforcement I can think of. Please help

We’ve always tried to avoid mealtime battles with our picky eater. He’s not a fan of certain textures, heat, or strong flavors, so introducing new foods has always been tricky. After lots of trial and error and frustration, we decided to try something totally different: offering him a small allowance every time he tried a new food. No pressure, no strings attached—just a simple reward for his effort.

To make it a family affair, we gave his sibling the same amount whenever this happened. This created a really fun dynamic where his brother became his biggest cheerleader, encouraging him to explore new foods. To our surprise, it worked better than we could’ve imagined.

In just two months, our picky eater has tried more new foods than he had in the previous two years. Even more exciting, he’s actually started enjoying the process! He comes home from school eager to tell us about new foods he’s tasted, and he’s proud of himself. It’s a huge turnaround from where we started.

I know this approach might not be for everyone, and I get that there are different opinions on the topic of “rewards.” But for us, it’s turned mealtime into something positive and fun instead of stressful. If you’ve tried everything else, maybe this could be something to consider. Parenting is one big experiment anyway, right?