My MIL was over and my youngest needed a diaper change. I went to the baby's bedroom to change him and my other son (5m) came with me. He was spinning around and almost knocked the diaper pail over. I told him to watch out and not knock it over. He got close again and I told him the same thing.

Third time, he knocked it over and a few diapers fell out (they're wrapped up in a little bundle). I had him pick up the diaper pail and pick up the diapers and put them back in, and then wash his hands. It wasn't a huge deal, my son did it right away without complaints, except that he thinks he touched something wet.

My MIL kind of heard what happened from the other room and asked my son about it and she freaked out. Saying that it's disgusting and he shouldn't have to do that and to put him in time out instead, etc. (We don't do time outs, she has a big issue with it).

My husband told her to drop it but she has brought it up a few times now in phone calls. She hasn't been back over.

Now I'm unsure, was this really so bad? It's not like he was touching actual poop.

I work as a pharmacy technician at a local pharmacy and thus am bound by HIPAA privacy laws.

My tween has a friend around the corner who we have been giving rides to for the past month, to school and from, twice weekly at least. She's a lovely girl and I enjoy having her over, and do not mind giving the rides. The parents both work but they cannot currently afford a car. She takes taxis some days, when I am not giving rides.

I gave this girl a ride to school Friday. While I was at work ~6hrs later, I saw prescriptions come through for her and one of her two sisters for a lice treatment product. Of course I cannot say anything to her because of privacy laws. I am irritated that the mother did not message me to give me a heads up that her daughter had lice, so I could take appropriate precautions and check my own kids / clean the vehicle. Two days later she still has not messaged me. Of course, I am bound by privacy laws so I cannot tell her that I know this.

I would like to say that I realize lots of kids get lice who come from clean homes. I myself got it once as a kid, and we were very clean people. If you treat it properly, it can be a one and done thing. But I know how vigorously and thoroughly you have to clean not only the hair, but all the textiles in the home. Repeatedly and thoroughly. Bedding should be changed and washed daily for at least a week after treatment. They do not have an in-home laundry, the girl often smells unwashed. They have nine cats in a little apartment. I know that things are subpar already in the cleaning department. They do not have a vehicle that they can drive to the laundromat frequently. They take taxis everywhere. I'm not trying to speak unkindly of them, this is just the reality of the situation.

I'm just wondering how to handle this now without burning bridges or alienating this little girl. The thought of lice in my van straight up heebies my jeebies. If I could only let the mom know that I know about it, I could inquire as to whether the infection has been cleared. But I'm not supposed to know. But I do lol. And knowing the state of things over there, I don't really trust that the infestation will be controlled properly.

I just don't want to make this girl feel shut out or ashamed. At the same time, I've gotta protect my own home. And how do I explain why I'm not giving her rides suddenly? Or do I just trust that they treat her properly and risk infection?

I swear, every time I have volunteered to give rides to a kid, it ends up a mess. No good deed goes unpunished.

I was at an indoor playground type place with a huge enclosed area with climbing structures, slides and a big ball pit. It was awesome! My son is 4 and nonverbal so I follow him around mostly to make sure he's not rude to other kids or parents. While I was in the structure with him I bent over to take a picture of him and a kid like 11 years old pushed his hips into my butt. There was plenty of room to get around me, but I thought maybe he tripped. He said sorry. I bent down again to take the picture because I had jumped up when the kid touched me and he did it again! To get back to the space he just came from. I gave him a look about to say something and he was like "sorry sorry sorry!" I I took my son to a different area in the structure and the boy followed us there. I kept my butt to the wall this time. He asked me to "go ahead" of him and I said "no that's okay, you go" and he kept looping around to try and get behind me. My son started doing a ropes course and the kid was kind of across the room so I squatted to take a picture this time. He came over and put his hips right near my shoulder almost my face. I told "you need to back up, I need personal space" and then my son and I left.

I'm just so distraught because I feel violated but also he was a CHILD! I feel bad for him, how did he learn those things? Or am I totally overreacting? Or what if he did that to little kids that didn't know better who's parents don't follow them around like I do?

So now I'm terrified of play places for my kids, and also I just feel so yucky about the whole thing.

Long story short my (ex?) husband had an affair and we have split up. We are currently still living together until he moves over 12hrs away to be closer to this other woman in a couple weeks and her 4 kids (18, 15, 6 and 5). He will be leaving his own biological daughter behind. How do I tell her that we both love her very much but daddy has decided to move away and we can still call him to say goodnight etc (if he’s even interested. He’s shown multiple times he’d rather be with this other woman than call his daughter).

I refuse to follow him so he can be with his mistress so don’t even suggest that. I am NOT removing myself and our daughter who have friends in the area we are so he can f**k around and see our daughter only when it is convenient for him. It’s not happening.

Our daughter is 4 in May and deserves a much better dad than him.

Ok so my daughter is 10, i never thought I’d be here seeking advice for this but I believe my daughter is trying to become a furry? Now I’m asking advice because i guess it isn’t really a bad thing technically? Idk I’m just really lost. So my daughter has always had a love for animals since she was born. Her favorite place since she was 2 has been the zoo and we would go every single weekend, she’s a great artist and focuses mainly on animals, she has said since a young age that she wants to be a vet, park ranger, work at zoo ect. This kid really loves animals.

Last year for Halloween she wanted to be a fox and I got her a really cute outfit with purple fox ears and a purple fox tail. Super cute but problem is now she wants to wear it all the time, tries to bring it to school , even left for a sleepover last night and brought the damn ears and tail.

The last couple of months she’s been practicing running on all fours and leaping over objects like a horse in the back yard. I thought it all to be kinda cute and just a phase and thinking there’s no harm to this. Then I saw her backpack and it said “proud therion” on it and I saw she wrote that on my burn barrel outside, and in chalk on the back porch as well.

Well I just talked with my oldest daughter and she told me that her sister has started running like a horse at school, proclaiming she’s an animal , makes animal sounds and has become the laughing stock of the whole middle school building. Then my oldest told me the “therion” thing is just basically saying she’s a furry. She’s been completely outcasted by all her friends except one. Is being made fun of to her face and kids are making fun of my oldest as well.

My oldest is pissed that everyone is making fun of her sister and is worried for her sister. Upon hearing everything my oldest has said I’m super worried about this too. It’s not good for development to be outcasted. My youngest has never cared about what others think of her and is perfectly content to continue her furry behavior and be a loner. So she’s happy and doesn’t care of being made fun of. Which is a great mindset but not great for future endeavors.

Looking for advice on how to handle this? Do I ground her and basically tell her who and how she is bad when it’s really not hurting anyone? Like it’s not like she is committing any crimes, or doing mischievous things. She’s a straight A student, does her chores without asking, pretty well mannered and even good humored. I’d hate to punish her for who she is or thinks she is. Idk I’m just so lost as what to do because I don’t think this will be good for her mental health long term. Is it just a phase or does it even really matter as long as she’s happy? Any advice is appreciated thank you.

Edit: I’ve had pretty bad health issues the last two years and have been kinda just existing and absent minded. I’ve heard cutting off internet access mentioned several times. I kept thinking she really doesn’t have access to the internet besides her Roku. Then I realized her grandmother bought her a VR two Christmas’s ago. I believe this is where she’s learning the terms and such. I know nothing of VR but I’m assuming there’s chat rooms or furry games on it.

Update: So I had my daughter help me outside with a few things and talked with her. She was super excited I showed such on interest in the ”therion” thing and she believes therion is not a furry. It’s apparently her animal from a past life lol. Shes getting all the terms and stuff from her friend who has a phone and access to YouTube. Apparently she’s a “therion” as well. I checked the VR and it’s mainly gorilla tag she plays. Also it was one certain boy that was making fun of her and she told the teacher and he got in “serious“ trouble apparently. So no other kids are messing with her. So she’s happy and just loved I showed an interest in it all. I admit I was absent for a couple years because of medical reasons but I’m healthy now and realized I need to spend more time with my youngest because she doesn’t talk unless you ask.

Our son is in 9th grade and has been playing a travel sport since he was young, and now plays varsity for his high school (keeping things general here). He is obsessed with trying to “make it”, play Division 1 in college and try to go pro. He compares himself to “nationally ranked” high school players that are all over social media. His sense of self is based on this pursuit.

Problem is, these goals that he thinks he must achieve to be a success in life, well, it’s not at all clear they are realistic. His sports performance hasn’t been so exceptional and he is an emotional wreck about it. Of course people’s paths are never simple, there are late bloomers, anything could happen, and such. But I am worried this obsession is at an unhealthy level, psychologically. He says he would “do anything” to get “noticed by a scout”, which raises concerns about being okay with unethical ways to get ahead (like doping) or being an easy mark for predatory salespeople (of which there are many, many) pitching “the” thing you need to get ahead (new equipment, new camp, new private lesson, etc.). I want to work with him to regain some perspective, that sports are about fun and health, and whatever happens happens, but that it’s not the only thing in the world.

We have friends who tell us that they admire our kid for having a physically healthy pursuit, and that this is better than playing video games all day. Sure, I get that. But I also think kids can pursue sports with expectations that are overly obsessive, even disconnected from reality, reinforced by social media, and hurt mental health. This where we are at, and we are eager to hear if others have experiences or insights to share about helping a teen gain perspective.

For background, my oldest daughter is 18 and she is a phenomenal kid. Has always been polite, well-behaved, kind, well-rounded, great in school, motivated. We’ve honestly never had an ounce of trouble with her, and I love her infinitely.
We bought her a new car for her 17th birthday, and she loves/loved it. Payments are about $700/month, plus maybe $150/month added to our insurance. She deserves it, and we can afford it. BUT since getting her the car almost 2 years ago, she rarely drives it. It sits in our garage. She ended up going to a city school that’s only 30 minutes away by train, so she doesn’t have it at school. When she’s home for the weekend - every other week - she goes out with friends but they always pick her up. I think she’s put maybe 900 miles on it in almost 2 years.

I hinted around awhile ago that maybe we should sell the car (and save some money) and she seemed upset like she was in trouble for something.

It was a gift, and I don’t want to take it away, but should I be trying to convince her that given her current situation, it doesn’t make sense for us to keep dumping money into a car that she almost never uses? Or should I just keep it to myself, and let her decide how she is going to use or not use her gift? 🎁

• Mom, when you and Dad get really old… you’ll die, right?
• Yes, someday that will happen.
• But then I won’t have parents anymore... (starts to whimper)
• By then, you’ll have your own kids.
• My own kids? How? Where will they come from?
• One day, you’ll want kids, and you’ll have them.
• Mom… I want a dog. Can I just get a dog instead of kids?

...Fair enough.

Has anyone had experience with this? I want my kid to have a passport but his father doesn't want to give his permission (both parents need to give permission for passports in US). We have split custody.

Edit: he hasn't given a reason why he doesn't want his son to have a passport, just that he's "not comfortable" with Son traveling internationally. All 3 of us were born and raised in the US, no family ties in other countries, so no - I'm not trying to steal my kid away to another country. My husband and I want to take my son on an international trip soon, and I want to get the passport out of the way.

TLDR: Mom friend and I uses the same formula for our kids and I found out she's been using it wrong.

UPDATE: Thank you for everyone who commented. I went to my their house earlier and apologized. She said all eas good and even thanked me for pointing it out. They've scheduled a pedia consult tomorrow to check the daughter's weight progress and do some tests to check her recurring UTI.

PS: to that one mom who insisted that I advised to "underdose," pls reread the entire thing. I advised to do the right proportion and follow the instructions. Children - may they be infants, toddlers or what - are fragile little things. And they do not have the ability to say what hurts and what they feel. If this post came off to you as bad or what, then I'm sorry. I'm just a fellow mom looking out after another.

I have a mom friend who's kid's age was close to mine. Daily mini-playdates was a thing for us. Earlier today, around 9am, we went to their store to buy some food. I noticed a bottle of formula on top of their counter and she noticed I was looking at it.

She said, "It's her first bottle."

I was thinking what a small bottle, and then it hit me. That was nowhere near the water that formula needed, so I thought maybe she trimmed it down. We use the same formula, 1 scoop is to 30 ml of water. 2x a day. Maximum serving of 210ml/7scoops.

So I asked her, "that's all she gets?"

She said, "She gets bloated when she drinks too much water, so I put 7 scoops in 100ml."

I was shocked. I immediately told her off. I told her that no, that's not how it works. She then insisted that the can said 7 scoops. I insisted that, "No, it says max of 7 scoops, not 7 scoops on one go. And there's a water to formula ratio. That is overconcentrated."

Her husband then heard our conversation and said, "I told you to read the instructions carefully."

To my horror, she's been feeding her kid overconcentrated formula for the past 2 months.

My heart broke and told her, "Please have some mercy on your daughter's kidneys."

She kept saying and insisting that she gets bloated when they try to feed her the recommended 210ml.

I told her, "Then only prepare what you know she can finish. If that's 100ml, then just put in 3 scoops."

I apologized shortly, as I felt I came off a little harsh, but I was really concerned with the kid. Her daughter's been in and out of the hospital due to UTI and now I think I found out why.

Am I in the wrong?

I just got chased off of a TikTok Live of a team at a volleyball tournament because I commented on the way the coach was speaking to his team. The girls were 14-15 and he was a man, and every point he was berating, degrading, criticizing, insulting, or even screaming directly in their faces. I typed “coach needs to chill”, and five seconds later I had the man hosting the video and the (no joke) 1,000 viewers telling me the coach was doing nothing wrong, I was tripping, and they “don’t do feelings here”.

I’m a mom of two with a daughter just getting into competitive dance, and I’d pull her so fast if anyone talked crazy to her. Feedback and constructive criticism is perfectly fine. That man’s behavior? Absolutely not. I have also coached volleyball myself and work in education, and would absolutely never speak to a child that way or defend someone who was. Thoughts?

I don’t know if it’s my hormones or if I’m being unreasonable. I’ve been with my husband for 11 years. In those 11 years, we have not been close with his parents and there has been a lot of conflict.

He has a bad relationship with his mom specifically. She has “disowned” him multiple times, called him a horrible son, insulted him, talked bad about my family, and in general treated him terribly. They have never once visited us at our house. We mostly see them at holidays and for dinner a few times a year.

On top of how she treats him, she also is passive aggressive towards me. She’s never blatantly rude but makes subtle digs at me. She was a nightmare when we planned o her wedding and made everything about her. Didn’t even speak to me on the wedding day. She treats her other two kids poorly and has openly said she “hates” her only niece who is a perfectly nice 19 year old that’s never done anything to anyone in their family. I think she only hates her because she’s jealous of her or something.

She was very controlling of her kids when they were young and her relationship with them got worse as they got older and wanted to be independent.

Anyway, since our daughter was born 8 weeks ago they have been to our house every single weekend, sometimes twice a week. Which, first of all, is too much. Even if I liked them. But when she comes she doesn’t ask how we’re doing or offer to help with anything, she just shows up and expects to hold our baby the whole time. Makes subtle digs at our parenting. This past weekend she took the baby down to the nursery alone and sat in there for 30 min whispering to her. I have no clue what.

I’ve told my husband they need to stop coming every weekend. Maybe every two weeks at most. He has a hard time standing up to her and avoids conflict with her and often fights back with me on things like this even if he agrees.

Part of the reason I want her here less is because it’s wasting our Saturdays together as a family of 3, and partly because I really don’t want my baby to have a close connection with her. Am I wrong for feeling that way? I feel like she’s suddenly coming around because she sees our baby as a new family member she can control. She wants to build a strong bond with her but I don’t feel like she deserves a strong bond with her until she fixes her relationship with my husband first, and then me. If she can’t respect and treat us right as parents, why should she get access to my daughter? But then I partially feel guilty because if I keep her away from my daughter am I wrong for taking someone out of her life that wants to love and care for her?

My husband knows I don’t like his mom but I haven’t straight up told him I don’t want our daughter to be close with her because I feel like it’s a little harsh and I don’t know how he will take it. Although he doesn’t like her, I know he always wishes he had a better family dynamic and I feel like he might think I’m taking away from his family bonding if I say I want to keep her at a distance.

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?

Let me start off by saying, I love my daughter. She has the most infectious smile, absolutely loves her mama, and brings us joy.

She is 11 months old now and I feel like I've spent her entire life just waiting for the next phase hoping and praying it would get easier with each milestone reached. But nothing has changed and I'm starting to become increasingly depressed, irritable and resentful. She has been a fussy, high needs baby since birth. We took her to the chiropractor at 6 weeks because she would scream until she choked during car rides. She would never allow us to put her down without screaming. She has never tolerated a bouncer, swing, walker, jumper, carseat, stroller, highchair or anything that keeps her restrained or contained. The chiropractor did nothing and to this day she has made very little improvement.

I remember being told "just wait until 3 months, and can hold up her head, it'll get easier then!" Nope.

"Wait till she's sitting up, about 6 months, things will be so much easier!". Nope.

"Wait till she can crawl and get to where she wants to go by herself, that will definitely make her less fussy!" NOPE.

Now she just crawls around after me fussing and crying for me to pick her up. But she also won't let me sit down with her. We have to be walking around or she has to be climbing all over me to be somewhat content. She absolutely cannot sit still.

Now I feel hopeless thinking "maybe once she can walk it'll get easier!" Because I don't believe it will ever be easier at this point. I told my husband yesterday that there hasn't been a single easy day since she was born, every day has been hard. It breaks my heart to feel that way.

I have 2 other children, 6 and 4. I feel immense guilt for not giving them any of my time, for having outbursts of anger because I'm overstimulated from being grabbed all day, and hearing whining and crying 80% of the day.

I recently stopped breastfeeding, and I know part of this is hormonal for me, but how does ANYONE deal with a baby this needy? This fussy? I've had days where I feel like walking away from my entire life because of it. I'm miserable. It has me thinking there might be something actually wrong with her. I've been reading that high needs babies are prone to ADHD and autism. Is this accurate? I love my children regardless but those aren't easy diagnosis' and if things are hard now, I'm afraid of what they'd look like in the future.

Does anyone else have a high needs baby and did it get easier? If so, WHEN????

I don't have a village. My husband works SO much. I don't get breaks even though I desperately need one right now. I'm thinking about medication but scared of the initial side effects. Did medication help you handle a high needs baby with more grace? I've been crying most of the day because of how burnt out I am and it's not fair to my kids to see me like this.

Please tell me this will get easier and what are some things I can do to get through this phase? 😭😭😭😭😭

Hi,

My daughters depression has gotten significantly worse over the last month. She refuses to leave the house, she says shes 'too exhausted' or that shes 'too ugly to leave the house'.

I've tried taking her to therapy. She just sits there & doesn't talk for the entire session. She also refuses to talk to me about whats wrong. She won't talk to **anyone** about how shes feeling. I'm extremely, extremely worried for her.

Right now she doesn't do much except lay in her bed & scroll on her phone. Everytime I ask if she wants to go somewhere she says no, she doesn't seem excited for anything anymore. It breaks my heart.

I don't know what the right thing to do is. I'm a single mom and I don't have any family to ask for advice, so I thought i'd ask here.

Thank you in advance

I’m have an 8 month old boy that is very attached to me. It’s mom, mom, mom, needs to be held or breastfed what feels like 24/7.

This is my second child. My first is 2.5 year old boy and I guess my “easy” child.

I was sharing this with my mom, who had 4 kids. She provided some sympathy saying this was exactly how my little sister was. Which this scared me a little because my sister, even though she’s in her 30s, has had some interesting behavioral issues.

I need assurance on a) if there’s anything to help this constant need of me - because ya know, he’s not not my only kid, b) if you had a Velcro child, how are they now.

The other night my kid tripped while holding a cup of milk.
I didn’t catch her. I didn’t save the cup.
But somehow without thinking I slid my foot forward just enough so the milk spilled on me instead of the carpet.

No applause. No witnesses. Just me standing there like a milk-soaked idiot thinking
Yep. That's the job

Nobody claps when you catch a falling sippy cup with your foot.
Nobody cheers when you stop a door from slamming with your pinky.
Nobody notices when you pull out a rogue Lego mid-hug.

Not action-hero stuff.
Just tiny acts of damage control to keep the day moving.
But that's the job.
You're not saving the world.
You're just saving the moment.

Cheers!

Family vacations are awesome, I enjoy them. Every time I come home, I want to start planning the next, but it's not realistic nor reasonable. It costs a lot of money, pple need to take time off work, there's school, etc etc. What's a realistic amount per year? lol

It's not a long story so I won't make it one. He was at lunch, kid went under the table and grabbed him for like 2 seconds. My son tells him not to do that and he tells the lunch monitor. They tell... someone and they send us an email saying a kid was going around punching people in the nuts but that's not what happened according to Kyle. He said it only happened to him and he wasnt punched in the nuts.

Personal notes I think that kid has seen some stuff to be acting that way. Also, that kid doesn't speak any English or very little to the point they "couldn't give us any details about what he was thinking". My son's mother is a teacher and she said that in situations like this you call CPS. The problem is she works with middle school. Somehow that makes sense? You can only be sexualized if you got raging hormones. Otherwise, your just an innocent kid...

California for context

So my daughter is going to be 8 years old next month. She has a diagnoses of encopresis. However- i disagree with this diagnosis.

My daughter poops on herself, full fledged daily. Nasty poops that go through her clothes, and all over the place. It is not leakage, it is not her just simply not making it to the toilet. She just sits there and poops.

last year I finally had enough and said we’re done with pull ups and I forced her into underwear. She went 6 months after that with none of these “accidents”. We thought this poop nightmare was done finally, and she was doing so well. Always pooping in the toilet and then about a month ago decided she didn’t “feel like” using the toilet anymore and started pooping on herself again. The worst part of it for me is she sits in it, until somebody smells her and she SMELLS BAD. I’ve asked her if she knows when she has to poop and she says yes she does. She doesn’t care that she smells, doesn’t care if poop is all over her.

Back story to bio mom, bio mom is in her 30s still pooping herself and did this same thing growing up (per her mom), my daughters half bio brother is 13 and pops squats in the middle of the floor and poops himself and leaves poop all over his house (per his dad) and she is doing the same thing.

She got a full eval done, and she was diagnosed severe ADHD, and encopresis, along with other learning disabilities. However no autism spectrum. She does not hold her poop in, she is not constipated as she’s been to a GI, and her primary agreed it isn’t anything physical. Nobody can figure this out and it’s so upsetting.

SA has been ruled out of her history, and we have no explanation as to why this biological family does this. Starting with bio mom who was the same way. My adopted daughter even does certain things bio moms- mom told me she did like, for example: Bio mom would poop on herself, get out of the shower and put her poopy underwear back on. And she was still doing that at 16-18 years old too. At that age you know better.

The half brother hoards poop literally. I mean his father called me up crying because he found about 4 lbs of poop hidden in this kids closet. This is not encopresis from what I’ve researched. I haven’t seen anything about kids with encopresis willingly doing these things, and truly not caring about it at all.

We’ve tried everything at this point. Therapy, psych intervention, meds for ADHD, the list goes on. This is getting very hard.

My daughter is eight years old and has not developed much mental or emotional resilience over the years. If she falls and scrapes a knee she will limp around for days, if she gets a splinter we have to pin her down while she screams like a child possessed, my husband just spent half an hour coaxing her to take some Tylenol for a fever.

We’ve tried tough love, gentle parenting, forcing her out of her comfort zone, following her lead, nothing helps. I used to pray that she would fall and hurt herself, just a little bit, so that she could build some resilience. She’s always been super cautious, I never had to worry about her falling down the stairs or out of the crib because she was so careful, but the downside to that seems to be that she has never become accustomed to discomfort or pain.

What are some ways that I can develop this in her naturally… for lack of a better term “toughen her up”? I’m not embarrassed or annoyed with her, but I want her to have strength and resilience when she faces the world.

My MIL and I had a phenomenal relationship before I had my baby- then everything changed. She regularly guilts and gaslights me, has inappropriate boundaries towards me and my daughter (so much so my husband is often uncomfortable by her behavior as well, and that says a lot because he’s a huge mamas boy) The biggest problem her and I face is miscommunication. Everything I say she seems to take extremely personal. A few examples:

• we had a $300 medical bill on our fridge that needed to be adjusted because it was prior to our daughter being put on our insurance. We held off on paying it until we could get it adjusted, which would’ve made it a $50 copay. His mom went ahead and paid it. I told her how kind it was, and how thankful we were, but that the amount was incorrect and that I would see if she could be reimbursed for the difference. She responded with a long, bitter message about how “that will teach her to do a nice thing.” 🤦🏼‍♀️
• our daughter had a severe diaper rash, and I realized that while my MIL was babysitting her, she wasn’t using diaper cream. I made sure I was overly gentle when telling her that the cream was necessary to make the rash better. She left my house in tears.

And my personal favorite: When my daughter was only a week old, i was holding her, and my MIL sat in the kitchen silent sobbing, staring at me because i “was hogging the baby”

There’s SO many more instances that occur so often, it would all be too long to read. I’m just at the point where I can’t/wont speak to her about anything of importance. Only issue is my husband, like I said, is a mama’s boy. He won’t either. So I just feel a little defeated and like I have to accept this terrorism.

Advice is welcomed, but really just came here to vent :/

Please vent with me so I know I'm not alone.

I'm the default parent. My husband is very active and does his best to help me, but she just won't go to him, no matter how much he tries.

I was just in the shower; Dad was sitting on the couch. She wants to go outside. So who does she come to ask permission? Me.

Why do kids do this?

I have 2 boys, one six year old in kindergarten. We are blessed to live in a good neighborhood and he has friends from school and sports that show up to play and all that. My kids of course do stuff where I gotta set them straight but I'm never worried about them over someone's house breaking stuff or not listening to the parents. I've gotten no bad feedback about them this far, which I'm proud of. I feel like you need to teach your kids how to respect other people and their property.

But damn, these other kids do not listen. Zero discipline. I have to be "nice about it" a few times before I shut it all down when they don't listen. It's gotten to the point where I stop everything just after a half an hour in and walk the kids home because they aren't listening and to be Frank, just being straight disrespectful over someone else's house. And I get it , I used to wrestle/fight with my friends/cousins all the time. I did sports and I was in the military, boys especially are gonna rough house. But when crap in the house starts breaking , or they mess up and break the fence outside, you would think these kids would be worried about it. But no they really don't care at all. When I was young like that I was a wimp and scared shitless to make my friend's parents mad even though they were very good to me. Sometimes I'm the only parent out there watching 5 and 6 year olds, and some of these kids live farther down the way..no parent or older siblings in sight.

So my question is, is it just me or do a ton of other people feel this way. I knew when I had kids that other parents/kids would piss me off. And I'm not trying to be the psycho dad that's hates all my kids friends, especially as they grow up together. But some of these other parents just don't give a damn where their kids are at and they never follow through with punishment. This leads to the kids just breaking stuff, never saying please, trying to go anywhere in the house without permission, etc. and I already know I'm not gonna stop discipling them all, but I don't feel like parenting the whole damn street either.

P.s. if I'm nuts I'd rather you just be straight up, I can deal with that haha

I have a very long list, but I’m going to focus on one area right now. Since I decided to take my ex for child support due to reasons I believe were appropriate, his wife has began truly mentally abusing my children. Most things she does is what I consider silent abuse, it’s hard to prove, but recently she went in and threw everything my girls owned over there away. Their bedroom has nothing in it but a third grade math book, which both of them are out of third grade already. Her two children’s room is completely full of toys and fun things, yet for reasons she can not explain, my girls now have nothing. The things that were in there were mainly bought by their grandmother, and she will not tell my children where it is.

My daughter brought back photos this weekend, and she wasn’t exaggerating, and it hurt my heart way more than I thought it would.

If I contacted the state and got a guardian ad litem do you believe they would see this the way I am seeing this and how my children feel about this ?

It’s constant silent abuse, but this seems provable. Advice ?

I can not call and speak to her, my temper seems past that point so it’s best I stay silent and bring someone else in who doesn’t have emotions involved in the situation.

I’m just curious to know if it would be seen as how it is. My children are not messy, it wasn’t like oh you didn’t clean your room so I’m taking things out, It was their father set up a court date to try and get out of child support and lost and then this happened.