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Toddler thread

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Chris said:
More a question about parents than their kids, and sorry to bring the mood down but I have to ask: Did you all find yourself extra sensitive to depressing news stories about children being harmed after you had kids? Always been a very empathetic person and sensitive to human suffering, but ever since becoming a dad I just can’t handle seeing that shit on the news or on social media and whatnot. It just tears me up inside, affects my mood for the day, etc.

I’m starting to go out of my way to avoid stuff like that. I think I had been desensitized after years and years and having my daughter just opened up that vulnerable part of my psyche again. :/
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Yes.
 
Chris said:
More a question about parents than their kids, and sorry to bring the mood down but I have to ask: Did you all find yourself extra sensitive to depressing news stories about children being harmed after you had kids? Always been a very empathetic person and sensitive to human suffering, but ever since becoming a dad I just can’t handle seeing that shit on the news or on social media and whatnot. It just tears me up inside, affects my mood for the day, etc.

I’m starting to go out of my way to avoid stuff like that. I think I had been desensitized after years and years and having my daughter just opened up that vulnerable part of my psyche again. :/
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I think that's the right approach.

In a country of 350 million people, something horrible is happening to some kid every day. And with the 24/7 world of social media, it's not hard to find.

So I tend to avoid those kind of stories unless they're local, for the simple reason that it is more manageable emotionally that way. I don't think we're built to dwell on the suffering of so many people we'll never meet.
 
Chris said:
More a question about parents than their kids, and sorry to bring the mood down but I have to ask: Did you all find yourself extra sensitive to depressing news stories about children being harmed after you had kids? Always been a very empathetic person and sensitive to human suffering, but ever since becoming a dad I just can’t handle seeing that shit on the news or on social media and whatnot. It just tears me up inside, affects my mood for the day, etc.

I’m starting to go out of my way to avoid stuff like that. I think I had been desensitized after years and years and having my daughter just opened up that vulnerable part of my psyche again. :/
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1000% yes.
 
I actually sit down with my family at dinner and force them to listen to dramatic retellings of child abuse.

You know…Grimm’s Fairy Tales!
 
The Oi said:
I actually sit down with my family at dinner and force them to listen to dramatic retellings of child abuse.

You know…Grimm’s Fairy Tales!
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I was very excited to read the little guy The Cat in the Hat, the first book I remember being able to read back to my dad when I was in Kindergarten. While reading it to my son over 30 years later, my first thought was, "Man, today, we'd call CPS on that mom in the story, leaving her kids unattended like that in the home."
 
KevinLoveFan said:
I was very excited to read the little guy The Cat in the Hat, the first book I remember being able to read back to my dad when I was in Kindergarten. While reading it to my son over 30 years later, my first thought was, "Man, today, we'd call CPS on that mom in the story, leaving her kids unattended like that in the home."
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This is an interesting point!

On one hand, it’s a plot device to let the kids get into it with the cat without the cunty parents around.

On the other hand, remember “latchkey kids”?

I was one. I think the total hours I spent alone, both inside and outside as a kid were well over the time I was with my parents lol.

I work from home and my wife gets home too early for my 8 yo son to be one anyways, but we’re trying to give him opportunities to be home by himself for 30 minutes+. He keeps asking which I think is cool.

My sister in law leaves her 10 yo and 8 yo at home together and has been for the last year or two. They love it. I think it’s great for their independence and self-esteem.

It’s good for the parents to build trust in the kids too.
 
The Oi said:
This is an interesting point!

On one hand, it’s a plot device to let the kids get into it with the cat without the cunty parents around.

On the other hand, remember “latchkey kids”?

I was one. I think the total hours I spent alone, both inside and outside as a kid were well over the time I was with my parents lol.

I work from home and my wife gets home too early for my 8 yo son to be one anyways, but we’re trying to give him opportunities to be home by himself for 30 minutes+. He keeps asking which I think is cool.

My sister in law leaves her 10 yo and 8 yo at home together and has been for the last year or two. They love it. I think it’s great for their independence and self-esteem.

It’s good for the parents to build trust in the kids too.
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Free range children! ;)

Gen X was truly the last one to be given that kind of independence on a wide scale. My late older brother was a little less than four years older than me (born Dec 1980; me Nov 1984), but he went around town by himself as a kid in the early 1980s, and my parents were totally cool with it. When I came around, the Adam Walsh case had changed everything, and letting kids go around was no longer seen as a good thing, so I never had any time completely unsupervised. I think this is probably the biggest difference between how Gen X and Millennials were raised.
 
KevinLoveFan said:
Free range children! ;)

Gen X was truly the last one to be given that kind of independence on a wide scale. My late older brother was a little less than four years older than me (born Dec 1980; me Nov 1984), but he went around town by himself as a kid in the early 1980s, and my parents were totally cool with it. When I came around, the Adam Walsh case had changed everything, and letting kids go around was no longer seen as a good thing, so I never had any time completely unsupervised. I think this is probably the biggest difference between how Gen X and Millennials were raised.
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Him and Jacob Wetterling.

TBH I think it’s that and how much the world has shrunk with how much we’re on social media and a mean ass news cycle.

We’ve become a very anxious traumatized group of people whether we realize it or not. Much of our thinking and fear is irrational and it’s going to affect our kids if we let it. But some of it is real. And new.

The likelihood of a child being abducted is very low. The likelihood of someone being abused by a relative or someone close to them is actually much higher than people ever realized, esp for girls. The likelihood of a kid getting bullied is high. Getting shot is a new risk. :confused:

These are the things we as parents have to focus on now. Hard to navigate, but keeping kids totally protected isn’t the way to do it IMO.
 
I'm just glad this thread is here, shedding light on the difference between babies and toddlers.

I've become a bit of a vigilante for toddler identification. Have you noticed how many baby on board stickers on the back of car windows are old and peeling off? At least half of the stickers out there are old and no longer to code. Go ahead and look in that backseat... boosters I bet. Not an infant car seat in sight. It's a charade; a ruse to manipulate traffic.

So I'm rarely without my box cutter as I transverse the town. When I see parked cars with a Baby on Board sticker without an infant seat, I remove the sticker with a razor blade.

Have some irate toddler parents become unhinged when they see me removing stickers? Occasionally, but mind you I'm holding a box cutter. What are they really going to do? Plus deep down they know my public service is all for the kids.
 
I have two, with one on the way. A 4 year old boy & a soon to be 3 year old girl. They drive me insane. For whatever reason, the past few months they have given up any sense of listening. Wont go to bed, wont stop hitting each other, etc. Some days I legitimately have to walk away to prevent smacking the snot out of them.

I love them both & know this is just a phase.
 
We'll work on moonwalking...we are at that phase right now where she is capable of running fast but doesn't actually have the coordination to do so lol. Lots of skinned knees.

Yesterday and today's crisis was that she was falling off the couch last night, I caught her by the wrist and felt a pop, then came the tears. Arm was just limp, woke up a bunch through the night, still limp in the morning...took her into urgent care, took all of two minutes for Dr to identify it as nursemaids elbow, and pop it back into place.

Always something...
 
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