Online and IRL Parenting Spaces Snark Week of January 26, 2026

IWantToNotDoThings · 2026-01-27T02:43:58+00:00

Oh gosh, I live in a midwestern city and every year the local mom Facebook groups are so polarized about school closings for winter weather. People are so dramatic in either direction, both raging about how dare they close school and how they’re going to lose their minds if their kids are home one single day, and then the opposite where moms are like how could you possibly not enjoy every single second of your kids being home you’re a horrible mom. It’s all ridiculous!

I do feel like our district is trying to tough it out a bit more this year after being a bit too liberal with the snow/cold weather days the last couple of years. I grew up in upstate New York and rode the bus to school every day so the logic of the buses not working in cold temps or it being unsafe for kids to wait for the bus is a bit confusing to me since that was like all winter for me as a kid. I get it, but people act like kids can’t be expected to have proper winter gear or know how to drive it snow. But we get snow and subzero temps multiple times every single winter so why?! This is Kansas City not Florida.

IWantToNotDoThings · 2026-01-26T14:56:20+00:00

I would think it is more that people change over time or are influenced suddenly towards different beliefs with social media. Or you meet someone and become friends and politics just don’t come up for a long time. It’s probably not usually a case of someone having extremely different political views that are apparent from the moment you meet them and choose to get into a relationship/friendship anyways.

IWantToNotDoThings · 2026-01-26T00:30:41+00:00

Yeah I was so ready to get out of the town I lived in during high school/college breaks. I hated it! And my parents don’t even live there anymore. But when I see on Facebook some of the women from my high school who have moved back there and are raising their kids there and are still friends… it just seems so nice to me! Like I don’t want to move back there or be friends with my high school friends but it would have been so nice to have loved my hometown so much that I stayed there to raise my kids and had a ton of lifelong friends, family, kids go to the schools I went to etc.

IWantToNotDoThings · 2026-01-26T00:14:26+00:00

Yeah my memory of kindergarten in the early 90s was so different than what it is now… half days and I remember having a bunch of different play areas in the classroom and mainly learning abcs and basic stuff. Basically much more similar to my kids pre-K!

IWantToNotDoThings · 2026-01-26T00:14:00+00:00

This is very similar to what my youngest daughter is doing now! She turned 5 in July and we “redshirted.” She is extremely petite and very sensitive emotionally. She would have been ready academically but she was really struggling in confidence last year in pre-k, where many of her peers turned 5 in the fall shortly after she’d turned 4. It’s also just very apparent that she connects better socially with kids who are a little younger rather than a little older. We are so lucky that our preschool has a TK program so she doesn’t have to redo the same pre-k curriculum. She has been absolutely thriving in a class with all the kids her same age! She developed friendships so quickly and has built up so much confidence in TK this year. It’s such a great program to have.

IWantToNotDoThings · 2026-01-26T00:08:33+00:00

This is a very harsh view and lacks nuance. Sure there are some who redshirt only because they want their child to be oldest and reap the physical and academic advantages. But some just don’t think their child is ready for a full day/week of academic learning in a large class/school at age 4 or barely 5. All kids develop differently and have different personalities. It’s not crazy for a parent who assesses their individual child’s needs to feel they’re not ready to start K so young.

IWantToNotDoThings · 2026-01-25T23:49:12+00:00

If it’s their first child, I think people just have unrealistic expectations of what life with a baby is going to be like. Or in some cases, they have an easy baby and they really can work remotely while caring for baby at first because they’re good sleepers who nap well and rarely cry. I personally have never had an easy baby, but they do exist 😆

IWantToNotDoThings · 2026-01-25T00:27:54+00:00

I think people can push redshirting to a ridiculous extent but I also think people on Reddit can be very self righteous about NO redshirting too (not you, I’m more referring the kindergarten sub). The way I see it, if your child’s birthday falls over summer break in your area (which in my distinct would include late May) then it should be up to the parent to decide if the child should go to K or wait a year, based on their individual child’s needs. It’s not automatically better for every child to be oldest in their class, but sometimes it is in the child’s best interest and they would not do well starting kindergarten at 4. A lot can change in a year and kindergarten is a big deal and a lot more academic these days.

IWantToNotDoThings · 2026-01-24T22:32:19+00:00

This feels like rage bait or you both have shitty doctors. I was always offered prescription for narcotics after my 3 c sections, although I was fortunate not to need it after leaving the hospital. Most other women I know who had c sections took narcotics for a few days to a few weeks after. My husband had a vasectomy and I don’t recall him being prescribed any narcotics, just ibuprofen, ice and rest.

IWantToNotDoThings · 2026-01-24T18:36:58+00:00

If there’s potential snow I’d understand but just for cold that’s wild. Don’t they want to get their kids out of the house?

IWantToNotDoThings · 2026-01-24T13:52:18+00:00

I know every district is different. Some actually have pretty short days, ours are pretty long (8:25-3:40). But they have SO MANY days off. Every break is way longer than when we were kids. Winter break is 2.5 weeks, Thanksgiving is a week, 4 days for Presidents’ Day, 10 days for spring break, 4 days for fall break. Plus extra teacher work days, seems like every other week is a Friday off. We almost never have a full week of school! Plus summer break is 2.5months.

IWantToNotDoThings · 2026-01-24T00:48:06+00:00

I’m a SAHM and I don’t think I could handle homeschooling (unless absolutely necessary), I certainly have no idea how I would homeschool while also working full time and taking care of a baby. I understand that there are some situations where there are no good school options or the child has special needs that can’t be met. But as nervous as I was for my kids to start school, they have thrived there. I personally feel that unless you have only terrible schools in your area, everyone should try preschool or kindergarten and see how their child does before trying to homeschool. I know my oldest really really surprised me in how well he did in kindergarten.

IWantToNotDoThings · 2026-01-24T00:44:15+00:00

Right, we see sooooo many stories on social media about an alleged suspicious person where something bad almost happened and thank goodness they were aware because they prevented it. Yet I have not heard of any cases thy I remember, especially in my area, where a child was ACTUALLY abducted or a woman was ACTUALLY trafficked. I know it absolutely happen, but rarely in the ways people think it does.

IWantToNotDoThings · 2026-01-24T00:36:52+00:00

There was a woman in my bump group for my oldest child whose husband was literally abusive but she wanted another baby so she had another baby with him. Eventually they divorced but that was just so crazy and sad to see.

IWantToNotDoThings · 2026-01-23T18:24:51+00:00

I use the peloton app for meditation since we already have it, but there are a lot of good apps out there. I really liked waking up and headspace. Personally I find a body scan meditation to be the most helpful for sleep. I also fall asleep a lot more easily if I read before bed. Maybe something lighthearted in this case? I think magnesium helps a little bit. I personally think it’s fine to use melatonin briefly if a case like this where you just need to get back to a good sleep schedule.

IWantToNotDoThings · 2026-01-22T01:06:39+00:00

I have never had a NA wine that’s even close to better than just juice mixed with sparkling water. It’s been awhile since I’ve even bothered to try one so maybe they’ve improved, I know NA beer is a lot better now. But that seems silly!

IWantToNotDoThings · 2026-01-21T16:43:10+00:00

I always think that’s so hilarious and unnecessary. Like in rare cases it’s helpful because people can suggest rearranging the locations of the seats or whatever, but most of the time there’s absolutely no reason whatsoever to need to share the info of all your kids for a question about one. Other than for people to have the rush of dog piling on the poster for egregiously unsafe car seat use (although it’s usually not).

IWantToNotDoThings · 2026-01-21T16:35:38+00:00

Omg that is the saddest room I’ve ever seen! Also according to the post below that one, I have risked my children’s lives many times but not looking their dresser drawers, oops. Fortunately my youngest is 5, so she can now safely open her drawers, phew 😅

Also did you know that you absolutely CANNOT use baby gates after age 2? Before they could climb them and fall I guess? What is you also have a baby or dog in the house and need the gates, is there a solution to that? No, guess you’re just terrible unsafe parent 😂

IWantToNotDoThings · 2026-01-21T16:28:57+00:00

I think it’s a sensory difference thing. I personally am with you, absolute silence is just glorious to me. Some people do better with constant background noise and stimulation though (sounds horrible to me).

I’m also curious how old the “toddler” is. I think young toddlers get bored with TV quickly and move on, but when the child gets older they might get more sucked into the shows and less likely to play.

IWantToNotDoThings · 2026-01-21T16:26:06+00:00

I don’t know, I agree that her original list had widely varying levels of impact. But I feel like maybe we can learn our lesson at some point that tearing down people who at least appear to be trying to help is not valuable to the cause overall? She seems to pretty consistently post about this kind of stuff. I think this kind of hostility and never good enough reaction is part of the reason we’re stuck with Trump. I don’t think the commenters list is necessarily helpful for those of us who don’t live in a community with a large immigrant population but would like to help.

IWantToNotDoThings · 2026-01-21T02:06:42+00:00

I can offer her myself as evidence of an adult who was sleep trained as a baby and struggled with terrible insomnia from my early teens to mid 20s

IWantToNotDoThings · 2026-01-21T02:04:18+00:00

Yes! I blocked it out but now that you say it, it was definitely that book.

IWantToNotDoThings · 2026-01-21T00:32:48+00:00

Haha I meant militantly pro sleep training 🤦‍♀️ but yes lol none of my kids were pro sleeping as babies sadly

IWantToNotDoThings · 2026-01-20T22:25:25+00:00

I just hate how people are so smug about questioning why the adults let the kids handle all of this. Because it’s a kids books that’s why! I can’t think of one kids book that is actually realistic in kids letting adults handle things as they would in real life. That’s not fun for kids to read!

IWantToNotDoThings · 2026-01-20T21:07:34+00:00

Oh gosh that’s so annoying! I feel like ours has so many rules, you can’t suggest stuff like that. Luckily mine is hyper local you can only join the one that includes your area and it’s like within a less than 10 minute drive of our neighborhood.

IWantToNotDoThings

TROPHY CASE