13yo son joined Reddit last week and is busy conforming to stereotypes

Anyone else have a child also on Reddit? He was muttering "You are doing that too much, urgh" at the breakfast table and I knew what his username would be, and there he is being an annoying, uniformed, and kinda sweary, teenage boy on the internet.​Given that I explained what the message means before thinking about it anymore, he knows i know he's around, but past that I don't really know what to do about it. He's wrong, he's rude but... so what? I could totally ignore him, let him do his thing as he grows or I can look at everything he says, everything he posts, create a new {hisaccountname}'s_dad account and reply to him...​After thinking about it for a while, I think I need to err on the side of not caring. However it's probably the totally-missing-the-point fact that he's partially busy being wrong about NFL, which I love (he just repeats the typical UK drivel that his step father says about it to wind me up) that makes me want to have a long, serious chat about it! via /r/Parenting https://ift.tt/2EWhon6

Does anyone else just let their kids have all their Halloween candy?

I keep seeing all of these strategies for dealing with candy - switch witch, dentist cash in, sending it to the military, saying the dog ate it, one piece after dinner until Easter...What about just letting them have their candy? I’m talking about just letting them have their bag, no restrictions. Most kids would probably end up eating a lot of candy for a few weeks, at inappropriate times, until there is nothing left in their bags but empty wrappers and those pastel tootsie rolls. They will also have hours of fun dumping it out again and again counting, sorting, and trading it.I have a lot more thoughts on my reasoning behind this but I’m curious if there’s anyone else out there. It seems like it’s a more old school way of handling candy that isn’t so common anymore. via /r/Parenting https://ift.tt/2AFpmgn

Bi-Monthly Surveys and studies - November 2018

This is a thread for researchers to publish their surveys, polls or studies that they'd like parent's to participate.Moderators from /r/parenting are not verifying the sources of these surveys, so answer at your own will and don't hesitate to ask for more information from the original poster.If you want to publish a survey that isn't relevant to a parenting subreddit, please try /r/SampleSize. via /r/Parenting https://ift.tt/2ESFzD2

Reality check: baby monitors/stairs/4 yo

I want a reality check from other parents: we have two separate baby monitors— one for the 1 yo and one for the 4 yo. They both sleep with noise machines so it could be difficult to tell if something is wrong. We have a baby gate up that prevents the 4 yo from coming to get us because I am afraid she will fall down the stairs (she sleeps on the second floor, hubby and I on the first). I am thinking of ditching the 4 yo’s monitor but I don’t feel like I can do that until she could come get us by herself and I am scared she will accidentally fall down the stairs in the middle of the night (she is not the most coordinated kid). I am rethinking this though because she has had nightmares on and off and I am a light sleeper and have trouble going back to sleep after middle of the night wakings and this morning I had to spend 10 minutes explaining why I would not be getting her ice water at 4am.tl;dr - When did you stop using a monitor and would you have stopped if your kid couldn’t come get you? via /r/Parenting https://ift.tt/2Rriskg

Would you let your 8 year old wake you up every weekend morning?

When daughter was younger (especially 5-6), she naturally woke up very early on the weekends. At 5 AM, she would come into the bedroom and shake one of us awake. She was younger then and not really capable of being alone for several hours to wait for us to get up. So it was fine. We set a rule that she had to wait until she saw daylight outside before waking us up (i.e 7-8 AMish), otherwise had to stay in bed. It sort of worked, but she would frequently wake us up at all hours of the night/morning anyway. Especially in the middle of the night. So many nights at 3 AM she shook us awake.Anyway, she's 8 now. She can sleep through the night on her own, she showers on her own, she's reading chapter books, etc. Point being, she's growing up.Now, she wakes up at a more normal time but always comes in to wake up dad. We had a long discussion with her about this 2 months ago because her dad was in the hospital for a month and part of his recovery was needing to get uninterrupted sleep for a long period of time. She said she understood. We told her she was free to do whatever in the morning as long as she was quiet: play with barbies, read, draw, etc.She respected that rule for a little while (I think). But this morning at 9 AM she was in the bedroom shaking dad awake. I told her to go back to her room. 20 minutes later when he woke up, I asked him if she's been waking up him. He said yes, she's been waking him up every morning.Now, 9 AM is a very reasonable time. It's not super early, and it's an okay time to wake up.however... I told her to go back to her room, that we'd talked about this, and she can't be waking other people up. For 2 reasons:We had several serious discussions about this due to her dad recovering from being in the hospital. We made it clear that if she woke up early, she needed to stay in her room (but could play with whatever she wants)I think that perhaps at 8 years old, it's a matter of learning patience and empathy for others. If she thinks she can go and wake people up just because she's bored, that's teaching her that SHE'S the most important person and everyone else is here for her entertainment, that we revolve around her every whim. It's also teaching her she doesn't have to stick to rules.Now, I'm not totally sure about my point #2. That's what I personally think but maybe I'm being too strict? via /r/Parenting https://ift.tt/2JtHXhX

My kindergartener is being bullied and it has his father and I on edge.

My five year old has been being bullied since the start of the school year. It’s been the same movie style elementary school bullying where one kid chases the other, taunting, throwing kick balls as hard as he can into my son’s face. At one point he chased my son face first into a pole. There have been meetings between my son’s father and the principle. My ex husband volunteers at the school frequently and has personally seen the bullying. But today my ex husband was pretty alarmed.Today my kids’ school had a fall festival party. Many of the students had their parents there. My ex husband was volunteering again and so had to interact with a lot of the parents. This boy had his grandparents there (parents not (really) in the picture). His grandparents kept giving my ex husband dirty looks and acting very...weird. But the biggest thing: earlier today my son’s teacher told my ex husband that she heard the bullying boy tell my son that his dad was going to beat up my son’s dad.I do not have custody of my kids and I work two jobs so I don’t get to participate as much as I’d like in my kids’ school activities. I don’t know if this boy’s grandparents have been spoken with about their grandson’s behavior. Coincidentally enough, shortly after my ex husband and I split up, I dated this boy’s father. I’ve seen the way he treated his son, one of many reasons that relationship ended as quickly as it began. I’m sure this boy has suffered some disorganized parenting, and his mom is not in the picture at all. Either way, I don’t want my son going through this crap at freaking five years old. How can we handle this? I’m afraid it’s going to escalate further and quite honestly I don’t want my son in the same class as this kid. Is moving him out the right thing to do? The bullying will likely continue during recess so to me that doesn’t seem like the best option. Any advice or personal stories are much appreciated. via /r/Parenting https://ift.tt/2yKtBG5

Yay me. Kids are hard, but so worth it!

I am a stay at home mom and often feel guilty for not bringing in money or not doing enough around the house. Today I went to do the dishes and my 18 yr old son said "I was just about to do that. In case you don't realize you do too much work." He then did the dishes with me. He was serious. Then while helping my 13 yr old daughter with homework she mentioned that her Algebra teacher told them they couldn't miss any of the new material or it would really mess them up. She said to herself "that's ok cuz I have a smart mother to teach me." She too was for real. These made me feel a little more valuable and valued. I have 3 great kids and a fantastic husband. Very blessed! via /r/Parenting https://ift.tt/2QeDpil