It took me until Duckling was 2? 2.5? To leave him with others at night, even my own house. Pumpkin is about that and recently had her first sleepover at Nanna’s with her big bro. My MIL stays in the room with them. Asking for extra stuff to be attached to the wall is definitely not unreasonable at all. My husband is attaching some stuff for his mum that we didnt realise wasnt already anchored later this month.
Using the time to organise some therapy for yourself is a great idea. A lot of my worry about Duckling was my poorly treated anxiety (and a lot of the rest was his personality. Pumpkin is a very different kid.) Tiny Sunflower will have an excellent time!
You don’t “need” to just get over anything. I waited forever to let kid 1 stay anywhere, and even then was uber cautious and barely let her out of my sight. She talked pretty late too so I felt strongly that she wouldn’t be able to tell me if she was uncomfortable or if something happened that upset her, however minor or major to her. Turns out, she’s an anxious kid. She’s 5 now, and would still really rather not stay anywhere without us. She will, but she won’t choose to. I might be woo, but I kind of feel like a bit of my own hesitance to leave her was my gut knowing that she needed me even when she couldn’t say it.
Kid 2 (age 2.5ish) is on her first solo sleepover at my mom’s tonight. She talked full sentences before the age of one and has been asking me to sleepover for at least 6 months now. She barely glanced my way as she sauntered down the driveway with her backpack. So…things are just very different, and looking back now I think, ohhhh maybe it wasn’t all me. Maybe it was a little bit them telling me when they were ready.
Idk if any of that resonates but I don’t think you have to push yourself if you’re not comfortable.
And FWIW I know some might say I made her anxious by being an overattached first time mom or something but I dont think I was. She went to daycare, we traveled some, I think I was pretty chill overall. You know, till Covid.
Safety wise it seems fine to me. The only reason I can see to “get over it” is in making sure you have a backup plan for if things go really wrong and you need her to stay there for a night or two (which seems more likely if there is a sibling).
The deadline for my first sleeping at my parents house was us having another baby. So we stayed there together he and I (which we’d done but not recently) and my parents did a lot of the bedtime and morning stuff. Then he did a solo night and we got a very fancy hotel room. Then I had a baby and he went again. I think he’s doing sleepovers every 4-6 months which suits him. His cousins did monthly at this age. His little brother is very eager to do his first sleepover and will probably go monthly. My dad sleeps in the room with my son (2 twin beds).
My SIL doesn’t have enough family support, and had to leave her son with us this week. It was almost a sleepover. So we need to do a practice run with her kids so they ate ready if there is another emergency.
My mom brought up the sleepover yesterday and Pipsqueak seemed conditionally excited but had some questions like “But, how will I get to Grandma’s house without mommy? I can’t drive.” And “Will we be camping?”. So… we’ll talk about it a bit more without my mom around to make sure she understands what will happen and make sure she knows she can choose not to.
Siblings (or lack thereof)
There probably wouldn’t have been siblings anyway, since my spouse is pretty firmly one and done, but I’m officially into menopause at 37 so…that probably closes the window on a random oops
Thanks! Generally Pipsqueak is cautious but brave in new situations. I think Grandma’s house is familiar enough at this point, and her relationship with them is good enough, that it won’t feel scary to her. She’s super verbal and able to talk about complex subjects/feelings so we’re going to talk with her more about it over the next week and see how she responds.
We have a family friend, with young kids who
received a sudden terminal diagnosis and has been in and out of hospital since. The grandparents have been invaluable
I enjoy making some of my baby’s purees on my own, but I was wondering if there are specific foods that are more contamination-prone where the extra quality checks from mass production would be useful? Where would I even find such info?
My understanding (somewhat informed- nursing, took an intro to food sciences course in college and micro, worked in food micro QA for a year out of college) is that as long as basic safe food handling and storage is met at home, pathogen exposure is far more likely from industrial processes and restaurant foods. Especially the really nasty ones.
Now if you’re talking home canning, it gets a little trickier (too many people still hot water bath can what they should pressure can), but yeah for like food you just eat or freeze for later? Way lower risks for like listeria and the mega bad E. coli strains.
Way safer than restaurant food or lunch meats or anything like that. Wash your hands after the bathroom, know cooking temps for meats, wash cutting boards between raw meat and stuff you’ll eat raw, don’t eat raw flour, you’re golden
The Space Gal (a mum of 2, I think) has helped write a bit of legislation they’re trying to get through for working mothers in USA to have options to feed their baby while working
Pls watch & call your reps about it. I cant because wrong country
Random question, how many of you did a huge show and tell of the plastic and other doodads your child was gifted while wearing the inevitable heart glasses EVERY kid seems to receive? How many of your kids played with whatever ACTIVITY they had found on the floor that was not even a toy while only giving you the merest of glances for the real interesting bits like MAGNETS (hats off to Elliots mom) and glow sticks (What up Anthoy’s mom!).
Haha we have a full drawer of “plastic sh*t from daycare friends”.
Although my kid loved everything yesterday - a glow stick, two bath bombs with toys inside of them, a finger skateboard, spaceship tattoos, several squishy creature things, a ribbon on a wand, and bubbles. Oh! And a token for a free ice cream cone at jenni’s!
For the record, we are “those parents” who barely participate and brought a standard valentine double sided cards that you write your name on the back and the front is a sticker.
We made appreciative noises about Kiddo’s loot and helped open stuff that was in twist ties. This was also a good chance for me to separate out the candy (into the designated candy bowl) from the non-candy treats (currently living on the kitchen counter where mail and random school papers end up) from the actual valentines (trashed five minutes after the appreciative noises phase was done).
Our valentines to the class had sea animals with googley eyes and I taped a pencil to each one. Unsharpened. I was going to sharpen them but I couldn’t find a good sharpener on the night of the 13th and said screw it, they can do it themselves. The pencils were from Target’s dollar area and had positive sayings on them, I got them like a month ago.
