We are doing gymnastics once a week with my 3.5 year old but I’m about to pull her because even though she loves it, it’s too much with full time daycare and she meltdowns at bedtime on gymnastics nights (she loves it though).
Every few months I debate quitting or going part time to give her a break from all day in care but the reality is that we aren’t ready to go down to a one-income life.
I think this is key.
For us having school during the day requires that any activities be scheduled in the afternoons/evenings. Bedtime is 7pm because we have to be up and moving by 6am to get to school on time with minimal chaos. Add in dinner prep/eating and there’s not nearly as much time in the evenings as I would’ve thought. And even when I was working, I was WFH was on a shifted schedule so I was off by 4pm and no commute.
During my mat leave, my hospital had a weekly moms lunch and that was key to keeping my sanity on top of community building and having a weekly resource to check in with other moms and the NPs/LCs that ran the event. Staying home 24/7 with baby was not gonna be great even for my super introvert self.
Has anyone frozen their child’s credit? I just saw something on NPR about how hackers are targeting public school kids–they’re easy targets for SSN/financial fraud.
I have it on my to do list but it involved steps that were going to be more work than the grownup steps. I don’t remember what they were but it stalled me out indefinitely.
Last time I tried Kiddo was an infant and he didn’t exist/his file didn’t exist so the credit bureau was just confused about who I was even looking for.
Same, it’s been in my to-do list for 3 years. It really should be easier. I think it requires like a notary or something.
Scripts, books or video recs for explaining Juneteenth to 3-4 year olds? I didn’t do a great job this morning and need to figure it out.
There’s a Harriet Tubman episode of Xavier Riddle from PBS Kids, then use it as a stepping stone for explaining how Juneteenth is about remembering that part of our history.
Britt Hawthorne has done multiple posts on this/
Did anyone else’s kid just REFUSE to sit/eat in their high chair?
She’ll eat in the car seat. Or sitting on my lap, or crawling on the floor.
But high chair is 2 bites, then screaming.
Latte has had phases. We got a small Montessori style weaning table that got a lot of play between 1 and 2. We did a lot of choice on where to sit. Also do the high chair check list/ foot support, right height, make sure no weird light shining in her face there, etc to rule out issues
I think it’s probably uncomfortable because of how she squirms and her posture is not good in it and also boredom, because she’ll make rounds back to where her food is but want to play in between.
Based on what I’ve seen in our toddler friend groups, this happens and I think it’s a mix of kid personality, eating setup, and family values.
There are families (like mine) that have a strong culture of eating dinner together and prioritize that. We invested in a tripp trapp high chair for good posture and adaptability and eat dinner together 5-7 nights a week. We don’t offer dinner food if she gets up and leaves the table, there’s not option to play and graze during dinner. It works for my kid’s personality and our family culture. Fwiw any other snacks or meals at home are offered in a location of her choice and usually take place on the kitchen floor or at the counter with the kitchen helper. So she’s not at the table eating multiple times a day.
I know friends with kids who refuse to sit at the table for more than 40 seconds. The friends either don’t care that much and roll with a grazing eating style, or do care and try to employ strategies to get longer table sitting times.
Yeah this might be caused by months of mostly just holding her on my lap while we have lunch and dinner? Like I expect at some point she’ll probably migrate from on me to next to me. But meals where I’m only trying to get food in her and she’s in her high chair don’t go well.
Haha maybe! Now that Pipsqueak is 3.5 we have an expectation that she’ll stay at the dinner table until everyone is “done” (obviously we eat fast or come back for more food later if needed, but frequently we ask her to hang out for 2-5 more minutes after she’s finished). She can sit in her chair or on a lap and usually chooses a lap at which point she’ll end up eating more food off my plate 
Yeah, that’s why we do other meals whenever she wants…it really only works for us when multiple people are eating at the table.
We have been very consistent from day 1 that eating only happens at the table and the parents follow that as well. For all meals and snacks we only sit at the table as a family, and if it’s a snack that kids are eating but not parents, at least one parent sits at the table too. We also put music of their choice on when we are at the table, or stories, to help them sit longer and thus eat more. If they get up from the table the food goes away. It takes tons of consistency to get it through to them.
What age did you start this at? I know you said day 1 but was it after solids?
We only introduced solids in the high chair at the table, and we just did it alongside our meals, starting at 6 months. So as soon as D1 started solids we switched from eating meals in front of the tv to eating all meals at the table as a family. That’s also around the age when she started looking at the tv if it was on, so that’s when we started the “no tv on if the child is awake” rule
This was obviously very important to us, and I do think it has made some things easier. We struggle to keep the seated at the table long enough to eat sometimes, but they never even consider that food can be eaten somewhere else.
Are you open to just keeping her on your lap?
Around 18 months my kids preferred standing on an adult height chair to the high chair. Earlier for B2. The seatbelt has various success. Because of cultural stuff we try and teach table manners in various settings with various results. Grazing on breakfast/lunch leftovers or snacks is okay with us but the food stays at either the big or small table. Usually.
Usually if G isn’t around we do breakfast at the dining table and other meals at the kid’s table. The little chairs are their friends or they can stand if they prefer. We eat our meals together generally, but if I’m not hungry I’ll have a drink and often some fruit or something.
There’s also nothing wrong with having her on your lap to eat. B1 did a lot of that and still does. I grew out of it before him because it is hard to eat around him. He’s allowed to get up and run and come back, but he’s bigger now obviously.
High chair fit has helped us with B1. He does better if either the junior chair is pushed all the way in squishing him, or if we roll a towel and put it behind his back. B2 needed a prop in the high chair for the same reason.