I’m not sure I can do this

Today was so hard. I’m 36+3 with baby #2, and my daughter is 2 years, 7 months old. She is normally the most energetic, sweet, fun loving, smart, magnetic kid, but she is going through such a difficult stage right now. She will not play independently, whines for everything and throws a tantrum when she doesn’t get her way. She is bossy and doesn’t listen, and tacks on 10 extra steps to every process throughout the day. She refuses to nap or eat when she is home with us on the weekends, but is an angel with her nanny. She is in a mommy phase and won’t let my husband do anything to help, so I’m stuck doing 90% of the childcare or else we have an epic tantrum to deal with. She is super physical and doesn’t respect that she can’t dive bomb my stomach, so I’m always playing defense. She wakes up before 6 am most days and the bedtime routine is taking longer and longer each night (up to two hours). I’m starting to react with such anger toward her, and am feeling horrible about myself as a parent as a result. I don’t want to be the kind of parent that is constantly reprimanding and threatening time outs and offering TV just to get an hour of peace. I’m devastated and feel insanely guilty that we have just a few short weeks left where she’ll be an only child, and that we’re spending them so miserable around one another. I’m so exhausted and my patience is wearing so thin, and I have literally no idea how I am going to manage her with an infant. I’m not necessarily asking for advice but needed to get it off my chest. Parenting is so hard. via /r/Parenting https://ift.tt/2Ni08sr

Feel guilty about so much daycare

My older son is often one of the first kids to be dropped off and one of the last to be picked up from daycare. He's 3.5 years old and is there longer than his teachers...about 50 hours a week. He's a highly sensitive kid so a class of 20 rowdy kids is tough for him, but he's a trooper.My husband says our son watches him drive away while wiping away tears everyday. I know some people would say he stops crying and is fine in 5 min. But I also know he's never loved it and other kids play too rough for him and the teachers don't deal with it. He was recently bitten and they didn't notice because he tends not to speak up and other kids are just louder. Once he comes home, he sometimes takes out his stress on his younger brother.Now my younger son is about to start daycare. He's only one year old. We had a nanny for him to start off, but it was a huge financial strain and she basically took my whole salary. I've considered an after school nanny, but the daycare doesn't offer half days so it would cost about the same as a third daycare tuition.Am I worrying too much? I don't know how other families deal with the stress and ramifications of these decisions. I just can't help but feel so guilty. We don't have family around so there's no one available to pick up or drop off at other times. I've visited so many other daycares and this is our best option. Not sure if I'm looking for advice, support or commiseration, but thanks for reading. via /r/Parenting https://ift.tt/2tV93Yc

“Why is that baby crying?”

My 4 yr old son likes to point out when other kids and babies (aka anyone smaller than him) are having a hard time. I think he recognizes his own feelings and wants to understand when it happens to another kid. On one hand, this is cool because he is generalizing emotions (he is autistic). On the other, it can be really rude to the other family. I am positive that if my son was having a tantrum in a public place, I’d be annoyed to see a slightly bigger kid asking “why is that baby crying like that?”What is a good way to acknowledge his question in a teachable way without being rude to the other family? Thanks. via /r/Parenting https://ift.tt/2IJgYgj

Parenting with cold sore disease

I just found out that i have the cold sore virus. I cant remember ever having one, but i guess that is kinda normal. I read even if you don't get cold sores the virus is in you and you can still shred it at times, meaning you would be contagious. I am absolutely terrified of passing it to my 3 year old and 6 month old. They tend to grab and such and dont want to risk it. I can live with having this, but i cant live with passing it to my children. Does anyone on here have the same problem? What do you do to avoid it? And does it work? Anyone able to keep their kids from getting it? Id like to be able to kiss my kids good night but cant risk it... via /r/Parenting https://ift.tt/2tXEFwh

Perspective on Kids has changed - Potential Relationship disaster - seeking advice

Hello parents of reddit! First I apologize if this is more suited to relationship advice but I think you guys may be of better help. I will try to keep this as short as possible. My high school sweetheart and I got married in our early 20s, graduated college debt free, have good jobs, and have started our married life quite strong. We get along well, we are by no means rich but we make enough money to basically do whatever we want and whenever we want within reason. We are both healthy and are arguably as ready as we will ever be to have kids. We talked of kids prior to marriage and we both agreed we wanted kids but also agreed it would be 5+ years later. Well here we are in our late 20s and now my wife's parental instinct seems to be kicking in strong because she is dropping hints of babies left and right. While I always honestly thought I wanted kids now that the time is knocking on the door the thought absolutely terrifies me and I feel like kids would ruin our comfortable, fun, and relaxing way of life. Over the past few months I have been researching and observing parents with kids everywhere we go and from the outside looking in it appears quite miserable. I even sparked conversation with 2 long time sets of friend parents about children on 2 separate occasions and both of them said they love their kids, but wish they didn't have them. (this was quite deflating for me to hear considering my current anxiety of this issue). One of the mothers even started crying and telling me how jealous of my life she is. (awkward!)I have been researching hospitals, day cares, pre schools, baby equipment, etc. and it completely freaks me out and makes me feel like having a child would basically be the end of our lives. I called one day care acting like I had a baby to see what the process was like and they told me I would basically have to start paying for my spot several months in advance just to reserve it. WOW. I could go on and on and I guess I'm not sure what kind of advice I'm really looking for, but I am terrified to tell me wife I don't think I want kids. Am I being over dramatic? Am I missing an amazing part of life that having children will bring me? Thanks for your time.EDIT: After reading through some of these replies and trying to envision my life with kids. The biggest fear I can currently think of is child care. My wife and I both have well paying jobs so it would be a very poor financial choice for one of us to stay at home. I called 3 local child care facilities to inquire and they all basically laughed me off the phone for thinking they would have an opening and said they would put me on the mile long list. Is everywhere like this? How do you guys find child care? Both of our parents are close enough to visit regulary but too far out for consistent care (2-3 Hours). via /r/Parenting https://ift.tt/2IHK1kC

Scientifically backed studies around parenting ideas

Want your children to not only be better about doing chores but also to do so of their own accord? Take a look at this article: https://ift.tt/2KB6ZyI I'm asking about is, what resources have you parents bookmarked that contains a study on just about any parenting topic that has this kind of journalism to back it up? This was a great article and eye opening for me and I'd love to find more! Also, I'm sure there are dozens if not hundreds of books on what I'm looking for but I really genuinely don't have time to read one more book right now (I work full time and go to school as well and so does my wife). I'm looking for easy to digest information that I can knock out in 15 minutes or so. Thanks! via /r/Parenting https://ift.tt/2II3BNB

How old are your kids and what are their chores?

Just curious to hear what happens in other people's families. Ours are 14, 16, and 19. They have to keep their rooms neat, clean the bathroom once a week (they share one), and each of them has an assigned day of the week to cook and clean up afterwards. It used to be they each did their own laundry, but after looking at how much water we were using, we switched to rotating off laundry duty for the whole family every Saturday. The 19yo pays us a small amount of "rent" every month (we're hoping to instill a habit of saving more, not necessarily aiming for a significant contribution). What about your kids? via /r/Parenting https://ift.tt/2IFY6yY