I can’t stand bananas. Taste or texture. I can do artificial banana flavor but anything with real bananas is gross. I wish I liked them because they’re inexpensive and generally nutritious.

We had an allergy kit with mix-ins for our baby. We mixed a little of powdered egg, peanuts, almonds, soy, etc. into her baby food when she started solids. Only introduced like one a week and a little at a time for a few days.

When the child throws a tantrum for the toy and you try the strategies and they don’t work, the solution is not to buy the toy. That shows the child that if they tantrum, they get their way. When your child throws a combination lock at you that’s not a “don’t do it again” moment. That’s a hard stop. Sometimes it’s best to just completely remove the situation. Leave the store. Leave the pool. Get emotions settled, then discuss. My three year old doesn’t get “time-outs” but if her behavior is unacceptable because she’s unable to manage her emotions she goes to her bed for a reset. She stays as long as she needs to and then she comes out to talk when she’s ready. Sometimes when kids are too hungry or tired or something else is off the strategies are not going to work. Because they literally can’t function on that level without their other needs being met. It doesn’t mean your approach is failing. Nothing a parent does is going to work 100% of the time.

There was a spin-off show called Sam and Kat (Cat?) with these two characters. But it was right around when Ariana Grande’s music took off I think so it didn’t last long

Anxiety. I can’t get out of my head. Thoughts spiral. And when I’m lying in bed with everything quiet it’s hard to shut it all up. Sometimes I can’t fall asleep. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night. I’ll try to thirty minutes to an hour before giving up. Then I’ll sit on my phone or go downstairs and watch tv. Eventually if I get tired enough I’ll go back to sleep. Otherwise I’ll wait until it’s time to get ready for the day.

When I was young we had our kitten pass away because he ate Halloween decoration webs and they got wrapped around his intestines.

I do not think that turf should replace grass anywhere. Outside surfaces should be natural. But I did play on turf for indoor sports. For that I had specific shoes.

Getting places on time

Our elementary school has a “share cart” that’s always in the counselors office. Kids can drop off any part of their school breakfast or lunch they didn’t open and kids can grab something at any time. I think they move it to the cafeteria at lunch so kids can drop off easier.

The directions I saw recently were no arousal for two weeks, then ejaculate 20 times over 2 months, then send in the sample. If the sample doesn’t come back clear, then repeat after 2 more months. Insurance does not cover the testing kit.

This happened at a restaurant with a door dash driver. I was breastfeeding in the backseat and she got in my drivers seat. Was super apologetic when she realized. The kicker is that her car, which was next to mine, was a completely different make and model. Just a similar color. I always locked the doors when breastfeeding after that.

We live in Virginia but the museum passport is everywhere (there’s also a separate zoo/aquarium one too). The passport does not work for museums within an hour or so drive of the home museum but it works when we go out of town.

While not free, I find a membership or two to be advantageous. There’s usually member swaps where you can get in another local location for free for a month. When we go on vacations our first stop is always a grocery store, and I usually try to get an extended stay hotel with a kitchen. Saves on eating out because we’ll pack for lunch and make dinner. We have an amusement park pass that works with other locations so parking and admission is included. Our museum membership works for hundreds of other out of state museums so we visit science and children’s museums included. Vacations are still expensive of course but this reduces costs significantly.

Other than that things like parks, beaches, library events. Meet up with friends at someone’s house.

The seatbelts are more so that the non-verbal autistic kids don’t start running down the aisles and pushing buttons while the bus is moving. Also, kids aren’t “regular” or “irregular”….

Our school uses them for pretty much all students with special needs not just mobility issues. It gives them a shorter route, less kids, more adult supervision, and the option for seatbelts.

That’s the worst. Have you spoken up about it? I think they try to be the most convenient and to be “with the times” without realizing that one way does not fit for everyone.

I’m thankful that a lot of early childhood places are really beginning to focus on emotional awareness. There are so many resources for social-emotional learning for kids now. My child’s preschool is SEED certified (https://www.nmececd.org/seed/) and she’s been working on a feelings journal. At our elementary school we have social skills groups where we explicitly teach kids about emotions and also teach them life skills (we have small groups of kids playing board games to handle taking turns, losing, etc). At home and school we have these little “spot” of emotion stuffies and an accompanying book that explain what an emotion is, what it feels like, and what we can do about it. Our school also uses the zones of regulation (pic) to not only help kids understand but to also help the staff understand how our students are feeling.

I was concerned when my kid started soccer and they wanted parents to get an app to get updates on cancellations and to see the game and practice schedule. Fortunately there is a browser version and the app is not necessary. They just don’t advertise this.

Out daycare costs were between $205-305 a week, so between $820-1,225 a month. Once she’s 5, school is free.

Being a new mom can definitely be isolating and I’m not a person who does well at being home. I like being active and doing things. I don’t regret having my kid in daycare. I do think the United States needs to do better at giving mothers the choice though. It’s almost impossible to be a single income family, especially with multiple children. But then daycare is so expensive too.

In the US our child started going at 6 weeks old. Daycare (and now preschool) is just as normal to her as being at home. Especially since in her three years she’s probably had over a dozen different teachers. She’s learned to warm up to new people and situations quickly.

I also work in an elementary school. (5 to 11 years old). I see kids that didn’t go to school at all before coming to us. Even some are homeschooled for a few years before starting school. I can usually tell the difference between kids who went to some kind of preschool (3-4 year old program, even part time) and who hasn’t. It’s not always a bad thing but it’s a harder adjustment for those kids.