Parent Thread

a c i d.f l y · Dec 17, 2018

Khane said:
Alright friends I need help. My niece is 8 months old and it's her first Christmas and when I asked her parents what I should get her they said "learning materials". I assume that just means learning toys and there are a plethora of those that come up via google search but I was hoping you parents had experience with which are the better ones. I figured I could get her stuff that ranged all the way to 1.5 years since she'll have them til next Christmas anyway.

Are there any brands that are better than others? More dependable not as cheap etc?

If you get anything digital, make sure it's Fisher Price. The Vtech stuff has the most annoying recorded voice. We have basically every toy from both lines (thanks to the upheaval of donations), so I can say this with honest experience. No experience with Leapfrog other than its more expensive than the other two options.

At 8 months, the Laugh and Learn if they don't already have one. Something the kid can use to assist with standing, too.

Alkorin · Dec 17, 2018

Gavinmad said:
If you want her parents to be pleased with the gift, you should prioritize finding something that doesn't make much noise. Beyond that it's pretty hard to go wrong if you're following the recommended age ranges.

THIS. OH MY GOD THIS.

At that age, repetitive behaviour is almost certainly going to be a thing, especially if it gets a reaction from the parents/siblings/whatever. Nothing is more annoying than hearing the same sound from the same toy ad nauseum for days or weeks on end.

Khane · Dec 17, 2018

It seems pretty tough to find learning toys that don't make noises. Almost impossible in fact.

Gavinmad · Dec 17, 2018

Khane said:
It seems pretty tough to find learning toys that don't make noises. Almost impossible in fact.

At that age anything that involves sorting or fine motor control is a 'learning' toy. Baby's First Blocks, Rock A Stack, Bead Mazes, etc.

iannis · Dec 17, 2018

It's hard to go wrong with colored blocks.

not Lego or mega. You remember the wooden ones? Letters, numbers, colors.

No noise, and in four months you can teach her how to sidearm them at her dad.

Khane · Dec 17, 2018

Alright, got the mega blocks, a laugh and learn puppy (gotta have at least one thing that makes noise to annoy my brother), a crawl and learn bus and a weird lookin turtle you can put shit in. I also think I'm gonna get that Fischer Price "the farmer says" thing. I loved that as a kid and I think the one I had actually still works.

When she's a little older I'm gonna get her some lincoln logs. Goddamn those things were the best. I got many, many hours of entertainment from those.

wilkxus · Dec 17, 2018

Gavinmad said:
If you want her parents to be pleased with the gift, you should prioritize finding something that doesn't make much noise.

This this this this. But if you have a good one and it makes any noise provide a roll of duct tape to shut the damn thing up. For some reason they make these toys as if kids were deaf, with one, perhaps two volume settings: too loud and extremely fucking loud.

(1) For the parents and kids learning with em....

Wooden block alphabet and number puzzles (where the kids have to shove the block through a shaped slot) are great too, and are keepers for many years. They can chew on and goober on the wood, and parents can still use em as props to say letters and numbers.

Also. especially for girls even at little age: kid tea sets, or musical tea pots that make pouring sounds and a lil music (Im a little tea pot, short and stout etc) when tip em over. Classic songs they can hear and learn to sing with parents.

(2) For the kid......
Get some (1) balloons and (2) colourfull crinkly/plastic wrapping paper too which are actually better gifts in and of themselves with most small kids.

Quineloe · Dec 17, 2018

TFW when the "race you to the X" mind game works for the first fucking time.

a c i d.f l y · Dec 17, 2018

I will say this one toy that sings the alphabet has fucked up my understanding of the alphabet song, and that shit along with the counting one gets stuck in my head all day. My kid makes enough noise on her own, so things that make noise to interrupt her singing, screeching, babbling, yelling, isn't so bad, lol. She's also started dancing/"shimmying" to some of the tunes, which is good exercise.

One key thing, use cheap RadioShack-like brand batteries. They don't push as much juice and seems to dampen how loud the toy actually is. A half drained Energizer/Duracell is similar.

a c i d.f l y · Dec 17, 2018

Question for those with children under a year old, where have you successfully taken them for dinner with your significant other? I've basically been cooking at home or gotten a sitter for "date night". I've been told pretty much anywhere you'd go otherwise, but some places are definitively better as far as seating being able to fit a carseat/carrier.

Quineloe · Dec 17, 2018

a c i d.f l y said:
Question for those with children under a year old, where have you successfully taken them for dinner with your significant other? I've basically been cooking at home or gotten a sitter for "date night". I've been told pretty much anywhere you'd go otherwise, but some places are definitively better as far as seating being able to fit a carseat/carrier.

Horror story from our then 1.5 year old

on the way home from Vienna we stopped at one of the larger Truck stops on the BAB 3, probably Donautal West so we had a good 300km behind us at that point, including a completely pointess 45 minute delay on the border, so it was dinner time. First time we visited a restaurant together

Since the menu had pictures, she pointed out pasta and my wife had something that came with access to the salad bar.

I of course had something manly, some double meat trucker burger with extra bacon. Not important to the story, but needs to be shared nonetheless.

So after a few minutes, my wife gets up and gets her salad bar salad. She comes back with a small bowl - obviously our daughter expects this being hers, filled with pasta. When she realized it was filled with salad, she went in full rage crying mode and it was impossible to calm her down. Not even her spaghetti arriving a few minutes calmed her down. We actually had to take her back the car and gave her a muffin to calm her down.

From this day I've noticed that restaurant waiters take great care to serve small children first. Whatever the children get, that arrives first. So avoid any entrees your child may not like. There'll be hell to pay.

a c i d.f l y · Dec 17, 2018

Always feed the kid first. Got it.

Tarrant · Dec 17, 2018

My daughter has expressed a desire to come live with me, so I'm going to be researching some stuff for that. She's 12, will be 13 this April. I live in a different state than she does and with us buying a house this spring I'm going to need to readjust my finances for the upcomig battle thats going to end up taking place with my ex. Not looking forward to that but I'm happy to know that shes finally made the decision.

Bandwagon · Dec 17, 2018

We've been doing "dance parties" at home when I strap her into the chest harness, and she flips out as soon as she hears music. Starts laughing and flailing around like the kraken. Favorite songs so far are "Surfin' bird", "Scat Man" and the guitar solo in "Free Bird", which my dad loves.

We were walking around downtown this past weekend, doing some Christmas shopping, and walked by some street musicians. Little monster started flailing around and hollering so loud that the guy singing fucked up and laughed so hard he had to start over, then played "Brown-eyed girl" for her, substituting blue for brown.

That made our weekend, and I've been smiling about it for the past 3 days.

Also, first bite of carrots

Quineloe · Dec 17, 2018

a c i d.f l y said:
Always feed the kid first. Got it.

There's also the possibility she thought that salad was for her, and we got her a salad when she clearly asked for spaghetti. In which case this would have actually been an appropriate reaction on her part.

But given none of us are literally Satan, I doubt anyone here would actually do something so horrible to their own child.

Arative · Dec 17, 2018

Tarrant said:
My daughter has expressed a desire to come live with me, so I'm going to be researching some stuff for that. She's 12, will be 13 this April. I live in a different state than she does and with us buying a house this spring I'm going to need to readjust my finances for the upcomig battle thats going to end up taking place with my ex. Not looking forward to that but I'm happy to know that shes finally made the decision.

Will it be that hard of a battle if your daughter wants to come live with you or is your ex just that much of a bitch?

iannis · Dec 17, 2018

Impulse control at that age. She saw food, she saw mommy get food and not her, she got pissed.

She's a fighter!

lurkingdirk · Dec 17, 2018

Tarrant said:
My daughter has expressed a desire to come live with me, so I'm going to be researching some stuff for that. She's 12, will be 13 this April. I live in a different state than she does and with us buying a house this spring I'm going to need to readjust my finances for the upcomig battle thats going to end up taking place with my ex. Not looking forward to that but I'm happy to know that shes finally made the decision.

Dude, I'm so bloody happy for you that she made that decision. Regardless of the outcome, your daughter loves you, and I think you're adult enough to foster that relationship, regardless of where she ends up. Spend every second you can with her, and let her know you love her. You're awesome, and she's loving on you. What on earth could be better than that?

Tarrant · Dec 17, 2018

Arative said:
Will it be that hard of a battle if your daughter wants to come live with you or is your ex just that much of a bitch?

My ex won’t want it to happen. That would cut her child support In half effectively canceling each other out. With my sons ending in two years and my daughter having another 5 to go, she’ll fight it all she can.

That’s not to say she doesn’t love her daughter, she does. But her b/f and her have weird priorities when it comes to the kids and my daughter has lived with him for 10 1/2 years and still doesn’t like him. The relationship her and I have should be the one he and she have...but don’t. I talk to both her and her brother multiple times a week and have for years, get them whenever I can and have a great overall relationship with them. My daughter has zero memories living with me, I’m lucky (though I worked hard at it) that we are as close as we are.

Tarrant · Dec 17, 2018

lurkingdirk said:
Dude, I'm so bloody happy for you that she made that decision. Regardless of the outcome, your daughter loves you, and I think you're adult enough to foster that relationship, regardless of where she ends up. Spend every second you can with her, and let her know you love her. You're awesome, and she's loving on you. What on earth could be better than that?

Thanks man, I appreciate that.

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