How do you juggle 3 little kids?

I'm pregnant with #3 (11 weeks). Baby was very much planned and wanted but lately I've been panicking that I don't know how I'll manage activities for 3 little kids.My daughter will be 4.5 and my son will be 17 months when baby #3 is due. I'm a stay at home mom.I just need some reassurance (and maybe some helpful tips!) that this is doable. I think it's partially hormones since I'm still in the exhausted phase of this pregnancy, but I'm just so worried I won't know how to make it work.How am I ever going to teach these kids to swim? I can only handle 1 at a time when they're still learning. How do you handle activities for 3 kids? My daughter loves gymnastics but I just can't picture how I'd juggle 2 other kids having something they love too.As I type this I feel like I'm making no sense. I'm just so scared of having 3. I was so sure it was what I wanted and now I have cold feet. Any advice welcome. via /r/Parenting http://ift.tt/2wXK0Tx

New cat, 2yo is constantly hurting him. What have you done to teach toddlers to be nice to animals?

At this point she's point blank not allowed to touch him at all unless I'm holding him. She gets in trouble (timeouts, and an explanation of what she did wrong) every time she hurts him, which is typically 4+ times a day. I feel bad for the cat, he is a sweet thing and won't do anything but meow or hiss at her.Is there anything I'm missing, or just keep up with the timeouts? via /r/Parenting http://ift.tt/2yJfEGO

DIY - Quick & Inexpensive Kids Dress-up Rack

About a year ago I got this idea to make a dress-up rack for my kids bedroom. So they can access their numerous dress-up outfits and accessories easily and not have it be overly messy or another box full of junk.This was my idea and assembled by my ex-husband. 1 1ftx3ft white shelf board, 1 towel rack, 2 wall brackets, screws, tools, and childrens sized clothes hangers.Attach the towel rack to the underside of the shelf lined up with the outer edge. Attach shelf to wall. Hang up clothes. And for $5 you can get a super cheap floor length wall mirror to hang up next to it for your kids to use.I think, in all, this was a less than $20 project and took like 10 minutes to assemble.Pic: http://ift.tt/2fznwph via /r/Parenting http://ift.tt/2y9AWAd

How would you respond to the question from your child, "Why did you make me?"

My friend's kid asked them this, and it was really interesting.I wonder what I will tell my son when he gets to the age where he can ask this question.Kids ask about everything, but this is one of those questions that could be a bit strange/existential to answer. via /r/Parenting http://ift.tt/2k3ZHYf

Advice on what to do with outdated kids stuff.

I have a 2 yr old and a newborn and won't be having anymore kids. Pretty soon I'm going to run into a situation where I have a bunch of kid's crap in my house that I no longer need. Does anyone have good recommendations on what's the best thing to do with all this stuff? Most of it is in good condition. I would love to sell them on like Craigslist or eBay but have no patience or experience doing so. I have also donated some of it to Goodwill but am not sure if they are a good charity. In general I want to donate the clothes but sell the heavy duty stuff. Does anyone have some good tips on this? Thanks so much! via /r/Parenting http://ift.tt/2wXaHI9

My 11-year-old has been "sexting" a 30 yo man.

My daughter is a very precocious girl and has always been confident, creative, intelligent, thoughtful, and talented. I was a teen parent and I worked really hard to excel in school/work/etc to bring us to the great life we have now so she spent a lot of time in daycare and with nannies as a small child. In the last few years I've finally gotten to a very financially secure and generally secure place so I've been able to be around a lot more.All of this is to say that I'm worried this is my fault for not being a helicopter mom like her classmates parents that all had their kids at 30+.I recently discovered WhatsApp on her iPod touch, and among texts with her friends I found a text string dating back for two months with a 30 y/o(or older?) man. Pictures, even nude ones, were exchanged, and a lot of sex talk. I don't think they have met in person.What do I even do while being sensitive to my daughter? This is a sex crime obviously but I don't know what steps to take.Edit: I have already contacted police and started the process for having this guy arrested. What I'm looking for is advice for how to handle the situation with my daughter. via /r/Parenting http://ift.tt/2hyoCCq

Need some advice on swim lessons and nervous kid.

I took my daughter to the Y for swim lessons this year for the first time. She was five years old at that point. Let's not go into why I didn't take her sooner and what not. I wish I had been able to, but I wasn't.They have a big shallow area where they did this first set of classes where she could touch the bottom and the first lesson she initially was scared, but quickly got over that and enjoyed the rest of the lessons. She was a bit uncomfortable going over to the deeper area where she could not touch the ground for some parts of the lessons, but she got through them.She did that first set of lessons and by the time they had the next set a couple of months later she needed to move into a different class as she had turned six.With this new set of lessons she has a different instructor, but they also work in the deeper area where she was uncomfortable and she has just been miserable doing the classes. Lots of crying prior and during the classes and anxiety over going to them in general. She gets that anxiety from me mostly and some from her mother. She is an overly cautious child who I never worry about getting into trouble as she approaches everything unfamiliar with a lot of trepidation.I generally don't push her to do stuff when she is having this sort of issue as most of the time if I wait she comes around on these things, but at the same time I paid for the lessons and it's hard to find time to get her there for the scheduled lessons much less the make up lessons. At the same time I feel like it's not that productive if she is going to be miserable, even if she is doing the work. The thing is, she enjoys playing in the pool. The big shallow area they have she wanders around in there into water up to her shoulders and when we have practiced the various skills necessary for swimming she can do all of them! It's just that she gets so worked up about doing it in the class lessons.I would teach her myself, but I really am not a hardcore Dad type and when it comes to instructing her on things she gets super stubborn with me when she doesn't want to do something, but she will do the same things for a teacher without making a big deal out of it. When I ask her why she did it for the teacher, but wouldn't do it for me the answer is, "Because I have to because they are my teacher!" This particular logic does not seem to extend to me the parent.At this point I'm not sure if I should push her to finish these lessons or not. via /r/Parenting http://ift.tt/2fQYPl5