I’m 19F and my boyfriend is 23M. We’ve been together for almost two years, and my dad has never really liked him. My dad is actually a sweet person, but he’s extremely overprotective because he raised me and my brother on his own, as like a teen dad so I know he just wants to protect us our whole lifen

When I first started dating my boyfriend my dad didn’t like him because he used to be kind of a jerk. Not necessarily to me, but because of his attitude, the way he dressed, and how he carried himself. My dad just didn’t like him at all. However, my boyfriend has changed a lot since then, matured, and become a genuinely good guy. We live together now and are having a baby, so this is a serious relationship and he in this phase of wanting to please my dad like he literally said he not marrying me until my dad says yes

But The only time they actually seemed to get along was during the World Cup, and I genuinely thought that would help them bond, but afterward, my dad went right back to barely tolerating him

I really want them to have a good relationship, especially because I want our baby to grow up with his dad and grandpa getting along. I'm not expecting them to become best friends, but like them to enjoy being around each other instead of things always feeling awkward a lot because they always do like my dad would come over check up on me be all nice say one word to my boyfriend and that's it

So, what can I do to help them get along and and start liking each other?

ALSO I know people might say on our age gap because I was 17 and he was 21 when we started dating, but nothing happened between us until I turned 18 years old literally not even a kiss, my boyfriend is not that type of guy we started being official November 2024 I would turn 18 January of 2025

My son is 3.5 years , it’s first time for him in preschool ( and bever attended daycare) , in the 4th day they send us email for early intervention because he is not sitting in circle time and he don’t listen to teachers all the times ,

we asked for patience and now after 10 days again they want to meet with us, at thise 10 days they said he onice try to climb something and the teacher stopped him so he pushed her .

i asked my friends too , the same they complain about everything. isn’t preschool to teach kids how to play together and how to sit on a circle ,

i’m wrong ? i’m not going to assess my kid because he don’t want to sit on a circle time . or he really need ? i’m pissed because they ruin the whole experience, i can’t wait until he is home !

As a parent, are you comfortable allowing a 14 year old teen take an Uber 20 minutes to school and back a couple times a week?

My kids are 8 and 11. I want to make sure they're actually learning and using a kidsafe tool. Do you have suggestions as to which ones are best? What do your kids use?

I am a (19f), and I remember something today from when I was around the ages 4-6. My mother works at a hospital and would sometimes have to work a double shift, so from 8-5 to 11-9am

And since she wasn't home it would be up to our dad to watch me and my sister; but all I keep thinking about when my dad was watching us is how I would freak out that my mom wasn't there, like my body would shut down my brain would shut down at the thought that this human being is my father and that he is supposed to keep me safe and fed for the night?

And I would ask him at the age of 4, "Do you know how to make us something to eat? are you sure you know how to put my little sister to bed?" Like, I was always questioning him on whether or not he was capable of doing normal parent stuff, and of course, I would ask the question,"When's mom gonna be home? is mom coming home? can we wait up for her?"

But, when my father would leave for the night, I had no worries. I didn't miss him like how I would miss my mom. Sometimes, I didn't even notice he was gone. But all of those times that she left and i would question my father, I want to know how he felt? Did it make him question his own parenting, because ik I questioned it.

This is just my example of how I felt as a child, and was wondering if parents have experienced this and how it made you feel??

I'm 17F, and I really want to get a job and start making my own money, but my parents are very traditional, and my dad doesn't believe I should work. But I already have a lot of responsibilities at home and have to help out a lot after school, so I knkws that's one of the biggest things they'd use against me. I want to work, but they'll say I already have too much to do at home. I have good grades and take care of my responsibilities all the time, I don't want to stop helping my family, but I also want to have something of my own and money and not live off people, even when i am adult i want my own money and not live off my husband and they don't get it really how can I concinve them, like my twin brothers allowed to work and everything but I am not

I want to work at either Walmart, target, or movie theater

I’m currently decluttering my household and a major source of clutter is my son’s toys. He has a lot of old stuffed animals that he used to like but doesn’t play with anymore, so fortunately, he’s eager to get rid of them to make space in his room for other things he wants. He’s also going through his garbage truck phase that a lot of young people go through, and is currently obsessed with trash collection, the garbage man, and anything related to that. His stuffed animals aren’t in good shape and cannot be given away/donated/repurposed/up cycled, so I told him they would have to go in the trash. He was excited about this and asked if we could hand them off to the garbage man himself so he could watch them get put in the garbage truck. We already watch garbage collection every week so we know the local garbage man who comes to our house, and he always says hi. Even though we know him, I don’t know if this would be a good idea or exactly how the logistics would work, so I’m here to look for input. Does anyone have advice for how to run this to make it go smoothly, and has anyone done something like this before while decluttering?

What about kids over 13?

IM NOT A CHILD SLAPPER, my mom was.

As a kid starting from 5 she started to slap me whenever i got too loud or said something rude, but i usually didnt understand what i did wrong and was confused but didnt wanna ask because, well slap lmao.

I remember thinking it wasnt right of her to do when i was that young but i honestly dont know if thats true.

Like if a child is being a bit of a dick, is it acceptable to slap them? Its not particularly painful and as long as it doesnt leave bruises?

Personally i think hell no, but how wrong is it? Ive seen some people online defend parents who slapped their kid because the kid was being rude.

Hello. Daughter just reached middle school. She is diagnosed dyslexic and mixed expressive/receptive language disorder. She struggles in the subject of ELA and math. No struggles in any other subject, but mabye need help/explain big words used.

I had to fight for 2 years, during covid and stupid online school, to the classroom. She finally got an IEP after outside testing towards the end of 2nd grade. Elementary school has been great in really helping her get to where is she today. Not to diminish how much work she has put in herself. She is at about a 4th grade reading level. Math seems to be a foreign language to her.

Anyways, her IEP followed her to middle school. It has been a tough transition to say the least. After talking to her about school, and looking at her grades in the subjects she struggles with. I can tell she isn't getting the individualized learning she needs.

Why would she have a spelling test with the word characteristic, or nuisance. Should the school have to cater to her actual learning pace. How would she ever learn to get grade level if they force it on her at their pace.

Im planning a meeting at the school for next week to discuss this issue. I just want to make sure im not asking for something crazy. To cater to her learning pace, so she can actually learn something.

My son is 5 and recently started kindergarten in general education after two years of special education due to a neurological condition. He’s had some ups and downs adjusting to a new school and new expectations.
He has now been sent to the office twice. The first time, he copied another student making a gun gesture and “aimed” at the classroom rug.
Today, after finishing his math work, he drew two stick figures on the back of his paper. One appeared to be holding a gun, and the other had red crayon marks. He allegedly told a friend, also 5, that he dreamed they were zombies and he was shooting at him. This seems understandable to me since Halloween themes are all over - including zombies.
I understand that schools must take these situations seriously, but I’m struggling with how to address this at home. At 5, should I be more concerned?
My biggest question is: How do I talk to my son about this? I want to understand his point of view and what he’s thinking, teach him appropriate boundaries, and help him understand why these drawings or gestures can upset others without shaming him or making him afraid to tell me things.
For parents who have navigated something similar, how did you approach these conversations? What worked, and what should I avoid saying or doing?

So I was preparing myself a snack, crackers with meat and cheese. I was planning on sharing with the younglings ofc, but my cousin was in the kitchen where he’s not allowed. My aunt was right there, so rather than get him out of the kitchen, I decided to let her handle it

Welp, he started asking for cheese, saying “cheese? Cheese?”. I told him “give me just a minute bud”

Well he grabbed a piece of cheese right off my plate, which I did NOT like because his hands weren’t clean. Thankfully he didn’t get any of the other food messy, but still

I told him “Hey! Don’t grab food off of ppl’s plates!”

He said “Lizzie’s upset” and my aunt responded “yeah, cuz you grabbed food off their plate”

However Idk if I should’ve taken the cheese away from him or not, so in the end he still got what he wanted, even tho he had misbehaved.

When I was ready to share, I made him ask properly, and he didn’t grab anything else from my plate. He behaved better when I was in my chair.

He came up to me expecting a piece of cheese, and I told him “Can you say ‘May I have a piece of cheese?’” And he said “May I have cheese?” I was like “good enough” and gave him a smaller piece, not a whole slice

EDIT: Ty all for answering, I feel like my question has been answered, so I’ll be locking this post now. Thank you

i wanted to ask u guys about a situation im in right now because idk what else to do. i cant emphatize with my parents but u probably can.
ok so first of all some context: i studied abroad and am graduating in october. i am also studying for a second time in a different country. i just dont want to go to my graduation. theres no big reason. its on a saturday, i have a project that counts as a midterm due the monday after and another one on the tuesday. it would be a total 13 hrs there and back on multiple planes + trains and i just dont have time for that right this moment. i have no good memories or friends in that country, and i made peace with not going. its just not that big of a deal. the issue is my parents. they have gone from pressuring me into it to yelling at me to convince me to now just well not even believing im graduating. like deadass i got 9 paragraphs from my mom saying im lying about graduating. idk what to do really. anyone has any advice or can explain why theyre doing this?

My dad has always said he likes to buy us things because " that's what he is supposed to do."

He says he likes doing it and it's "his job," but there's something about his tone that makes me feel awful. We are the lower end of middle class.

It makes me feel bad when he spends a lot of money on me. Do dad's feel good about being able to provide for their kids, or do they feel forced to? Iam 17 F.

kids sometimes say things so casually that you don't realize how funny they are until a few seconds later. i'm curious about those moments when your child came out with something completely unexpected and caught you off guard.

what's one thing your kid said that still makes you laugh when you remember it? did they understand why it was funny, or were they completely serious?

When i was in school cell phones existed, but neither they nor pagers were allowed on school property. Apparently they were only used by drug dealers. Keep in mind that I graduated high school nearly 30 years ago. How would you feel if your kid's school suddenly banned them?

I haven’t told anyone or even know if I’m having a boy or girl yet. We are gonna tell our parents tomorrow bc sil spilled the beans and we want to tell them before they find out from someone else. I know as soon as they find out they’re gonna start buying stuff, so I want to out together a little something bc i don’t want to get packed with a bunch of random stuff lol

My daughter is sweet, pretty, wants to be social but feels lonely a lot, loves music and is a recruited college lacrosse player. She has great, close camp friends and a couple of other random close friends. Her main problem is that she is always being left out whether it’s on her Club Lacrosse team and at the 2 high schools that she has attended. She has learning issues so maybe she doesn’t react as quickly. IDK what it is. She’s been going to therapy for years but she can’t break the cycle. Any thoughts?

for context when I was 5, my father passed away.

my mother remarried when I was 7, so I could have a father figure growing up, however my stepdad lied to her about moving in and ended up living overseas until I was 15 when he finally moved in.

In that time, my mother has always raised me as a single parent. she was never abusive, cooked and cleaned and attended all my school events, encouraged me and most importantly, constantly reassured me that she loved me most in the world, and if my stepdad ever laid a hand on me, she'd divorce him immediately.

when my stepdad moved in, the adjustment was a nightmare. I always hated him. He was a tough, serious, and hard man who expected nothing less from me than being the best at everything, particularly my grades. basicaally the opposite of my mother who was supportive no matter what.

I guess thats what made the adjustment hard. He said that im HIS daughter and he considers me his biological daughter (he has no kids) and thats why he expects what he expects from me.

in return, I was expected to obey him, not talk back, do everything he wanted me to do. Once I didn't get the best grade in math and he forced me to pull 3 all nighters studying just math, while he sat on my bed and watched me the whole night to make sure I didn't sleep.

if I talked back, all hell would break loose. I complained to my mother all the time and she never took me seriously. instead she got so giddy and excited around him like a teen girl, almost like she was blinded by love. and when she was gone, he'd force me to sit in front of him for hours, not allowed to leave as he interrogated me difficult questions like "what is your perception of human kind" or "who's a better dad, me or ur bio dad?"

when I was 16, the big fights started. whenever he felt his authority wasn't taken seriously, he'd explode on me. He's said things like "You ruined my happy marriage and a chance to live a normal life or "you're a devil. may god curse you". He'd push me around and if I tried to walk away he'd drag me back or push me to the floor. once, he choked me, which was the worst one.

every single time, my mom would watch. and she wouldn't do anything. she never defended me, even when I begged her to defend me in front of him she'd just sit frozen and not say anything.

since then, I felt like my love for her died. or at least my respect. I stopped talking to her, stopped eating with her, and stopped going out with her. our relationship was never the same.

I guess she started to grow resentment too, as everytime she saw me, she would criticise me or say something negative, telling me how I wasn't good enough, or I didn't do anything right. she never spoke to me like that before.

when my stepdad wasn't home, she was angry, depressed and never cooked. but when he came home, she was bright, cheerful, talkative and made her best meals. it hurt me. It sounds bad, but I hated seeing her with him like that, and flip a switch with me.

it was like this for a year. but today I finally broke. as soon as she came home, she caught me sitting on the couch on my phone. she started yelling on how fucking relaxed I look and how im never gonna get good in my final exams, and how she doubted id even pass. she's been saying these things everyday for the past month, and I ended up replying that I dont give a fuck, and I cant wait for the day she dies so I can finally live in peace. she was shocked, and didn't say anything and left. since then she's been completely shut off. we dont speak, im uncomfortable as fuck in the house and I try to leave whenever I can. I started smoking this year thinking id get a little bit of peace but now I have to smoke at least 5-10 cigs a day. Im not sure if im just a brat like they say I am, or they're really as unlikeable and insufferable as I think they are.

anyway, apologies for the long post.

I’ve been wondering about this situation in my family, and I genuinely want to understand how two children raised by the same parents can turn out so differently.

My uncle had two sons, whom I’ll call Akash (the elder son) and Aditya (the younger son).

Their parents treated both children equally. As far as I know, neither their father nor their mother showed favoritism. Their father was a quiet, intelligent, practical, and calculating man who didn’t talk unnecessarily and worked hard. The family was financially well-off.

The elder son, Akash:

Akash struggled academically and didn't seem interested in studying. He couldn't get into college on his own, so his father used the management quota to get him a seat at a college in Bangalore. Even then, Akash reportedly didn't take his studies seriously. His father worked overtime while trying to support his education, but Akash continued getting involved in fights and other troublesome activities.

As he grew older, he became increasingly distant from the family. He wouldn't tell relatives where he lived or what he was doing. I suspect he may have developed a gambling problem, although I'm not completely sure.

He's now in his 40s and has reportedly been involved in multiple police cases. Last year, he suddenly announced to the family that he was getting married. It was apparently a love marriage, and he claimed that the marriage had been registered at the registrar's office. However, we only knew about the reception, so I'm not entirely sure what actually happened.

This year, he allegedly took ₹5 lakh from the woman he claimed to be married to. She subsequently messaged relatives, accusing him of taking her money. At this point, some of us aren't even sure about the exact status of their relationship.

The younger son, Aditya:

Aditya, on the other hand, was academically bright and earned his college admission through his own merit. He is intelligent, hardworking, and quite similar to his father in terms of how he thinks, although he's much more extroverted and talkative.

He had an arranged marriage, followed his parents' advice, and now has a wife and a daughter. He seems to have built a relatively stable life for himself.

However, things became complicated when he got involved in his elder brother's problems. After some disagreements between the two brothers, Aditya told Akash not to come to his house because his wife and daughter live there. I assume he was trying to protect his family from whatever problems Akash might bring with him.

The sad part is that both their parents have passed away. Their father died around 10 years ago, and their mother around 6 years ago. Some relatives now say that if the parents were alive to see what happened to their elder son, they would be devastated.

What confuses me is that, from everything I've heard, their parents raised both sons equally. Their father worked hard for both of them, and neither child was deliberately treated as less important.

So, what went wrong?

- How can two children raised in the same household, with the same parents and similar opportunities, turn out so differently?

- Is parenting really enough to determine how a child turns out, or do personality, peer groups, personal choices, and other influences matter much more than we realize?

- Could the parents have unknowingly enabled the elder son's behaviour by continuing to help him financially and trying to secure his future despite his lack of effort?

- Is there a point where a parent can do everything right, but a child still makes destructive choices?

I'm not trying to label Akash as a bad person or claim that I know everything about his life and he is 26 years older than me. I'm genuinely trying to understand how such different outcomes can happen within the same family.

Can parents raise two children equally and do their best for both, yet still end up with one child who builds a stable life and another who seems to keep making destructive decisions? What factors could explain this?

Hello all, I am a 30(F) and a toddler mom. Child is 1.5years old and I’m constantly striving to learn how I can be a better mom. I want to be a good mom and build a close, lasting relationship with my daughter. More than anything, I want her to have the kind of relationship with me that I wish I’d had growing up. What are some things that people have done? Maybe even from the toddler stage?

I’m 17F, and I still call my parents Mom and Dad. But my whole life, I can remember my mom always calling her mom by her first name. I was never told why she did it, she just always has. I’ve also heard other adults call their parents by their first names, do parents not like their adult children call them mom and dad anymore

I firmly believe there was no reason or intent for me to attend a university as my parents neglected my education and emotional well-being while they focused on my eldest and younger siblings as I am the 2nd child. I later found out through my employer of 5 years my parents had made a request not to have me enrolled in a university which really caused me to fly off the handrails at work as I had wasted 5 years of my life for nothing.

Also, do you see anything that indicates my dad was determined to set me up for failure? Growing up, he would always berate me, boss me around and blame me for things I never did. This idiot also got me to lawn mow when I needed to use the toilet while still feeling very tired.

How angry should I be given how my type of thinking involves deep analytical skills as a child and dad just destroyed my childhood. I feel like If he hadn't abused me over the years, I would've made it into a prestigious school.

Hello! My cousin is having a baby and I’m so excitedddd!!! I don’t want to have kids but I really want to help everyone in my family that will eventually have babies. Since she is the first since I’ve become an adult (24F), I would appreciate tips and helpful books about helping out and being the village.

I have pretty much zero baby experience apart from my baby sister but I was 10 lol and didnt do much.

I don’t live in the same city as her but I offered to stay a month next year to help out (is the best I can do with my job for now) and she accepted! So yeah, anything would be helpful 🙏🏻

(also was already planning to move to her city bc I want better life opportunities but I’m still sending CV’s and learning the language - Portugal to germany)

I wonder if anyone has any info on this. I came across a post about how high achieving and straight A student are likely to grow up with more negative experiences of parenthood. The post was about motherhood specifically. The rough explanation before my feed updated and the post disappeared was that the brain is wired for deadlines and a result/ external validation to confirm performance or something along these lines. I have had struggles with motherhood ever since my child was born 13 years ago. I was awarded 4 scholarships and recently completed my PhD. I am wonder what the relationship between these two could be. I wonder if anyone has more info on this?

Shes been struggling and missing a lot of school. She's never been open to talking about her feelings at all. I tell her I'm there for her and have forced her into therapy because we found a knife in the bathroom and she is missing a ton of school. I went to check if she was doing okay before bed and before I left she kept trying to get something out. After maybe 5 minutes of her trying to talk to me she asked if I remembered anything that happened when she was younger. I told her I don't think so and we left it at that for years. But this conversation still sticks out to me and makes me feel sick. Like maybe she wanted to see if I knew something happened. I have no idea. I've tried to talk to her but she doesn't even speak with me or her therapist. Should I be worried?