Realistic Parenting

I am starting to prepare for pregnancy again. This time its going to be different. I will be using artificial insemination, and giving the baby away to the parents, basically I will be acting as a surrogate. I am from the UK so the baby will be legally mine until 6 weeks.

Has anyone else done this? Any advice?

Do you think giving a 7-11 year-old child 4-5 drops of tabasco sauce on a spoon is child abuse?  Grounding, writing sentances, corner time has not worked.  What other solutions do you have?

My 8 1/2 year old son is sick today... he's got a flu bug, threw up once but is sleeping for the most part. I kept my 6 year old daughter out of kindergarten, so my son wouldn't have to travel back and forth three times (we still have to go get the girl I watch after school) The kids step-dad suggested afterward that our son would have been okay while I ran my daughter up to school... how old do they have to be before you can leave them alone for 10 minutes? The school is a block away, he knows how to use the phone and I have a cell phone, if that makes any difference. We live in a 4-plex and know many of our neighbours. The furthest I've walked away from the house when one of the kids was in it is 2 doors down to check on the other kid playing in a friends' yard.

Last week, when my daughter had the same bug, I suggested to my son that he could walk to school by himself (something he's been asking to do for a year) and he said no, he wanted me to go with him. I walked him up and saw him across the road (side street, residential) to the school grounds, piggy-backing my daughter. I was comfortable with him walking to school because it's so close and there are lots of people walking up at the same time, so he wouldn't be ALONE-alone. He's walked ahead of me and gone home 'by himself' a lot before, he's careful when crossing the street and does a good job.

Eleven is the age here where kids are considered 'old enough' to babysit. The start middle school at the same age and it seems most of the kids walk to and from school by themselves at this stage. The middle school is about another 4 blocks beyond the elementary school. If eleven year olds are doing all that, I should probably start letting him push his boundaries a bit soon, right?

So, based on this tiny article stub (if anyone else has a longer article, I'd love to see it) about the situation, what are some thoughts? Do you buy that he's just trying to use language that the students will relate to, or do you think it's over the line?

http://www.ksfy.com/news/local/874…

What time does your 6 or 7 year old go to bed on school nights? My two go between 7 and 7.30 and I just realised this has been the same since my son started nursery at 4. Does that sound too early?

First post, hello everyone!

I'm a SAHM and a student and I've been able to rely on relatives and very close friends to sit my kids when needed until now. I'm taking a class I need during the day when all my childcare resources are working. I'm looking for a sitter to watch my six month old (will be seven months when the job starts). On occasion I'll have my two year old home if he's home sick or the preschool has a holiday.

Any tips with regards to interviewing and hiring a sitter? I'm asking for references, backgrond check if they have it, CPR cert, and we'll meet in person. I'm not sure what questions to ask, and how to negotiate a rate. Our budget is pretty tight. How much per hour do you guys pay for sitter?


TIA.

My son is in kindergarten this year.

He has beautiful blonde cherubic curls all over his head. He came home the other day and told me  one of the boys in his preschool doesn't like him, and told him it was because he has curly hair. He was almost in tears over this.

He's wanted to cut his hair shorter for a while (it's not terribly long, but it takes very little to curl) but now I'm worried that if we cut it, it'll be because he feels like he needs to fit in, and not because he wants straighter hair. I don't want to inadvertantly support the idea that he needs to look a certain way to be liked.

I had a long talk with him about it. He acknowledges that he likes my hair (which is also curly) but says it's okay because I'm a girl. Apparently only girls have curly hair. I have no idea where this came from; he's never shown dissatisfaction with his hair before, and certainly I've never suggested anything like it. I suspect it came from the same kid who told him he doesn't like him. People coo over his hair all the time, so it's not like he doesn'.t have positive reinforcement that way.

Thoughts? I really did not expect body image issues to crop up in a six year old. :P A bit over my head.

I'm having kind of an odd problem with my youngest stepson. In my experience, most children, when they visit a new place where they don't know the rules, tend to be very cautious and on their best behavior, I'm guessing because they aren't sure what the rules are and they don't want to get in trouble. C is not that way. He's pretty well behaved at home (our house and mom's house), at school, at church, and pretty much anywhere he spends enough time to know what the rules are. If he goes some place new (a family friend's house, the home of a relative he doesn't see frequently, etc), he acts like there are NO rules, and he does whatever he wants.

Has anyone else had this problem?

His mom, my husband, and I are all a little puzzled by the behavior, and somewhat at a loss as to how to correct it. We figure if we can give C a handful (maybe three to five?) of very general rules that he needs to follow *everywhere* he goes, unless or until he is told otherwise, it would work pretty well, but I'm having a hard time coming up with thse general rules for visiting other peoples' houses. Help?

*C is 10, btw, but as the youngest of four, he has "Youngest Child Syndrome." Also, he's pretty ADD, so because of those two things, developmentally, he's a little behind other kids his age.

I have a 5 1/2 month old infant who is rolling and sitting up without support. He loves to stand when somebody helps hold him up, but is in no way pulling himself to a stand or even pushing himself to sit up, or creep, or crawl. He is about 20 pounds.

We have a $75 gift card to Babies R Us.

Is it worth it to get an exersaucer? One of the big benefits I see from other parents is that it keeps the kid occupied for "up to fifteen minutes!!!" Maybe I'm a terribly negligent parent, but Niko's perfectly fine chewing on his blocks or his rattle or just rolling around on his own for half hour stretches. He's not contained, but I know where he is and it's in a baby proofed area.

I think he'd enjoy an exersaucer, but they seem to be really expensive while having a very short shelf life-- a lot of them have a weight limit of 25 pounds or so. As much as he'd enjoy banging away on things, I don't want to waste money (and storage space) on something that won't get a lot of use. On the other hand, some of them are portable and would be great (at least for a short while) when we visit people whose homes aren't baby proofed.

What do you think of exersaucers and their ilk? Would you get one/have you gotten one? Why or why not? If yes, what would you recommend?

My mom's been bugging me to get him a walker, but from what I've read they can delay actual walking. I haven't read similar about exersaucers.

My 16mo old has recently started reporting when she poops, which makes me anxiously happy in hopes that she'll be much easier to train than her 3yo sister who had serious poop issues that took me 1.5 years to resolve. I haven't forced her into anything yet though. She's expressed interest in sitting on the big toilet and on the little potty for which she yells "Weeeee!"), so I've left it as all a game.

But yesterday, she was making her poop face, so I asked if she was pooping. "poopy," she confirmed (but nothing had come out yet. I asked if she wanted to sit on the potty. She said yes and went to the bathroom, but didn't like the concept once I had her sitting. I rediapered her and she pooped and I changed her, but then she got fussy when I tried to put on another diaper. I wasn't listening very well (I was on the phone with mom) and it didn't click that the wee one was saying "Pee." I put on her diaper anyway and sent her on her way. She was still fussing, got into the living room, managed to take off her diaper - which she's never done before - and peed right there on the floor, shouting "pee!" and then proudly pointing clapping her hands (and soon playing in it before I could get to it).

Awesome!

But.

Now what do I do??

She's only 16 months old so I didn't even expect anything like this right now. And of course I don't want to push her, as much as it would be amazing to have her diaper free this early.

I told her provider this morning about it. Her son is 2.5 and she's about to start actively training him , so maybe my wee one will follow suit.

Anyone else have potty trainers start really early? How did you proceed? Should I just leave her be and see what happens?

x-posted to badparents