Parent Thread

We kind of mix carrot and stick on eating. Although my 4 year old is a pretty good eater. It's take it or leave it but we also encourage him. So for instance we'd say eat the chicken it makes your muscles grow and then we have him eat a bit and show us his muscles. We also let him have a small piece of chocolate or a cookie for desert if he does a good job on dinner.

I would say dont give in and make kids something special. Dinner is what it is, you eat it or you dont eat. Only exceptions are if he doesnt like the sauce on something we'll leave some plain for him. That's fine.

So what activities do your kids do and at what age? My son isnt even 5 yet and he's done soccer, swimming, gym class, italian lessons... now we're finally not doing anything other than school and the wife wants him enrolled in something new. I personally want to give it a rest til he's in kindergarten. We have a 7 month old and I get nearly 0 downtime. I'm a guy who needs his space and I get very little lately, one more thing to do is not high on my list.

My 3 year old does ballet. Well, as much as any 3 year old can reallydoballet. She loves it though, she dresses up and dances. Not sure if it is worth the monthly fee but meh, whatever. She is learning and if it continues then good for her. I do want to get her into Spanish classes, or maybe we'll just do that at home.

We are thinking about soccer for my 2 year old next year. I'm really not sure how well she will do with the issues she has had, but that is probably more just me projecting my fears than anything.

My wife used to watch Supernanny, and I watched it with her because that's what you do. It is actually not entirely horrible. But one of the things she stressed to these families was not to overschedule the kids. There was some Chinese family from San Francisco on there, they had 4 kids and between school and their activities they weren't even getting home until 10 PM every night and sometimes still had homework to do and stuff. I just don't see how it is possible to do that. My wife and I figure one physical and one intellectual activity is pretty much the limit, and even that is stretching it if we want each of these kids to have unique activities. With 3 kids, the more likely scenario is they'll end up all in the same stuff.

We're hoping that our kids both end up in some form of martial arts or sport activity, as well as a music or other form of "learning" for after school times. My wife is a musician, and I'm a welder, by trade. Obviously I'd like them to grow up and learn as much as they can, but not by overloading them.

Christmas update: 1 year old had an ear infection, as well as a cold to start the vacation. Then she started walking on her own. Then she got a ton of new clothes. 3 year old got a ton of Thomas the train stuff as well as puzzle-toys. Kids made out like bandits. Had so much stuff in the car, I couldn't see out the back window, at all, driving home from my parents' house.

My 5 year old does swimming and soccer. She LOVES afterschool activities and would do them every day if I wanted to play taxi even more.

What to do with a child that wont listen?

Beat them with a cane.

Amendar_sl said:

What to do with a child that wont listen?

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We immediately stop what we are doing. If we are playing we stop all together and remove him from the situation. If we are at the park we leave. If we are out to eat we get up from the table and go to the bathroom or go outside.

No matter the situation I do my best not to raise my voice. That's easier said than done (I have a temper) but he seems to listen when I'm calm rather than when I'm trying not to lose my mind.

My kid is 2. So far it's been nothing but learning from my mistakes. Louis CK has some sound advice too...as odd as that may seem.

Dashel_sl said:

My 4 year old watched these and was signing before he could talk. Just a few things, more was a big one. Milk, water, eat... stuff like that. They get really good at it:

http://www.babysigningtime.com/

Couldnt hurt to try them too.

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BTW thank you for the link - I stuck this in my amazon cart.

chaos_sl said:

Beat them with a cane.

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no trolling. lucky i didnt infract you bro

Kid roll call. My son is 3 and my daughter will be 2 in April. Someone earlier was asking about shows for kids. Netflix has really improved a lot over the last year or so with their kid section of programing. It even goes as far as to put it into age groups.

My son just turned 3 and absolutely loves GI Joe: Renegades and Ultimate Spiderman on Netflix.

One thing as a family that we have always enforced is eating at the dinner table as a family. When it is dinner time, every electrical device is switched off. No TV's blaring in the background, no background noise, just the sounds of knifes and forks on plates. It really one of the few times we are together as a family at home as Wife & I raid after 8.30pm, the kids have homework, or are involved with XBox or TV or 3rd computer, ect. Conversation drifts from one subject to another, but I am so glad we have made this a family tradition. You catch up on what the kids have been up to, what is important in thier lives and most times there is a a lot of laughs at the table.

My boy (10) is king of the one liners. He comes out with some beauties sometimes. For example I was talking the other night about how I had been all over New Zealand when I was 21 hiking around. he comes back, "What Dad, did you forgot the way out?"..Priceless. Last night we had curry and I was trying to explain why the Indians used curry and the conversation got onto a tangent why the American Indians were named "Indians"...I was explaining how when they landed in the Americas in 1492, they thought they had landed in India, and hence why the natives were named "Indians". Boy pipes back with, "How did they get lost in the first place? Did they take the wrong plane at the airport when they left Spain?". Little gems like that are something I have been in the habit of writting down over the ages, just so I don't forget them. At the time you think you won't forget them, but you do. Make a little diary about your kids. Doesn't have to be a day to day thing. Just when they do something they you feel deserves the entry in the book. It really is a nice walk down memory lane reading back though the years.

My 9 month old just had her checkup yesterday and her gross motor skills are not up to par, so the pediatrician wants her to get evaluated to see if she needs therapy or could be at risk for autism. That just crushed me. I knew she was a little behind in some ways, she's not crawling or pulling up to stand yet, but cognitively she is right on the mark with a 9 month old. She is sociable and happy all the time and so affectionate that I don't believe she could possibly be at risk for autism. Actually it kind of pisses me off that the doctor was even talking about that with a 9 month old when they can't gauge that in kids that young. My wife was at the appointment and this is the first checkup for any of my kids that I haven't gone to. I'm really frustrated with that right now, after all the problems with my two year old and we feel like we're getting a handle on that and now this.

I hope it is just our fault, like we haven't been working enough with her on these skills. She's the youngest of three and my oldest turns 4 in march, so it does fee like she sometimes gets the short end of the stick. So we're going to do the evaluation and in the meantime we'll step up working with her. She is already starting to crawl and be more mobile and work on her pincher grasp so that is a big part of it. Feels bad man.

chaos_sl said:

My 9 month old just had her checkup yesterday and her gross motor skills are not up to par, so the pediatrician wants her to get evaluated to see if she needs therapy or could be at risk for autism. That just crushed me. I knew she was a little behind in some ways, she's not crawling or pulling up to stand yet, but cognitively she is right on the mark with a 9 month old. She is sociable and happy all the time and so affectionate that I don't believe she could possibly be at risk for autism. Actually it kind of pisses me off that the doctor was even talking about that with a 9 month old when they can't gauge that in kids that young. My wife was at the appointment and this is the first checkup for any of my kids that I haven't gone to. I'm really frustrated with that right now, after all the problems with my two year old and we feel like we're getting a handle on that and now this.

I hope it is just our fault, like we haven't been working enough with her on these skills. She's the youngest of three and my oldest turns 4 in march, so it does fee like she sometimes gets the short end of the stick. So we're going to do the evaluation and in the meantime we'll step up working with her. She is already starting to crawl and be more mobile and work on her pincher grasp so that is a big part of it. Feels bad man.

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My son has developmental delays. He is 2 1/3 years old, but we've been told hes only advanced as an 18 month old. Its clearly visible he isnt as advanced as he should be, but we long ago stopped listening to what the doctors we're telling us, as otherwise he was always fit and healthy and listening to them just worried us more. We do take him to all the classes/therapy they recommend, but to be honest none of it really seems to make that much of a difference, his progress we believe is him coming along naturally. We see development in him, but at a slower rate than other children. Other family members had developmental delays when they were children, and they have all turned out fine in adulthood.

Dont go letting them worry you too much. It's highly unlikely you are doing anything wrong, or her development progress is hindered by things you are not doing, every child is different. Give her time and she will no doubt catch up and grow up to be fine.

At the moment he's been unwell though, having fits 5-10 times a day, which the doctors put down to a virus... All other checks they did in hospital came back negative, nothing detected on MRI, blood tests etc, so they have discharged him and told us he could be like it for about six weeks. No fun at all watching a 2 year old have fits all day long... It didnt help either when he was admitted to hospital, that week I was in bed with Shingles, and powerless to goto the hospital with him, or even look after my 5 year old girl, had to have family to help my partner at hospital, and look after the daughter and me as I couldnt move out of bed.

chaos_sl said:

My 9 month old just had her checkup yesterday and her gross motor skills are not up to par, so the pediatrician wants her to get evaluated to see if she needs therapy or could be at risk for autism. That just crushed me. I knew she was a little behind in some ways, she's not crawling or pulling up to stand yet, but cognitively she is right on the mark with a 9 month old. She is sociable and happy all the time and so affectionate that I don't believe she could possibly be at risk for autism. Actually it kind of pisses me off that the doctor was even talking about that with a 9 month old when they can't gauge that in kids that young. My wife was at the appointment and this is the first checkup for any of my kids that I haven't gone to. I'm really frustrated with that right now, after all the problems with my two year old and we feel like we're getting a handle on that and now this.

I hope it is just our fault, like we haven't been working enough with her on these skills. She's the youngest of three and my oldest turns 4 in march, so it does fee like she sometimes gets the short end of the stick. So we're going to do the evaluation and in the meantime we'll step up working with her. She is already starting to crawl and be more mobile and work on her pincher grasp so that is a big part of it. Feels bad man.

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. Sorry you're going through this - truly hope that things turn out ok!

I'm done being a girl about it. Basically it just really wasn't what I wanted to hear, but after thinking about it for a couple of days I realize that it isn't such a big deal. She's fine, she's progressing, and she is literally the most awesome baby in existence, so whatever. I think my wife and I have this kind of egotistical desire for our kids to be at the top when it comes to milestones and stuff that we have read enough to know doesn't matter.