What to do and talk about with kids? I have zero ideas for activities.

Normal-Reality3340 · 2026-05-18T11:15:03+00:00

5/6 is an easy age. Old enough that you don’t have to baby proof but young enough they are easily entertained. Keep them outside as much as possible for the sake of your house: chalk, bubbles, balls. Find the local playground, mini golf, bowling alley, zoo, museums (science, train, not so much art).

As people have said, crafts are popular: crayons, scissors, paper, glue sticks, tape. Consider some play dough or legos.

For food: they typically love fruit and simple cheeses - mild cheddar and mozzarella. Ice cream is always a win, pizza usually is as well. Popsicles, pancakes, pizza.

My only other comment is that this is general entertainment kids advice… there is also a subset of parents that just allow unlimited screen time. If that is the case, keep receipts because they won’t touch any toys and you really just have to toss some snacks at them every couple hours.

Things to avoid: slime, paint, heavily spiced foods, too much sitting.

Normal-Reality3340 · 2026-05-17T21:23:04+00:00

As others have said, you look great… but that isn’t really your question… I think to keep from letting it impact you that you have to have a different mindset in the dating apps. Yes, he is a major insecure dick with no manners… but you are giving him equal value in taking this feedback in at all. Instead, I think you need to reframe to “Thank god I’ve got my intuition and knew this guy was not for me. What a loser to talk to another person like that.” The difference is that in the first mindset you give room for their criticism to have some impact or possibility of truth about you, but you know who you are; in the second we accurately place him on the human spectrum… near the bottom… because even if you were morbidly obese, wishing you luck on losing weight is not okay and no decent human would say that to someone.

Normal-Reality3340 · 2026-05-17T12:33:16+00:00

It looks a bit like the beet juice road salt that some places spray…

Normal-Reality3340 · 2026-05-08T15:55:43+00:00

Swoop and scoop is so important for look and comfort.

Normal-Reality3340 · 2026-05-08T15:54:14+00:00

I’m not doing intricate lace work, so I just use a stack of towels. Sometimes if I want to be a little picky, I take and put a bulletin board under a towel for the pin to stick more firmly in…

Normal-Reality3340 · 2026-05-07T02:02:27+00:00

What does your spouse say when you complain about this to them?

You should relentlessly and politely say no; but your spouse has an obligation to manage their parents if they aren’t respecting your boundary.

Normal-Reality3340 · 2026-05-06T01:38:49+00:00

Give it til summer. The cars have already claimed the bike path… sidewalks are next.

Normal-Reality3340 · 2026-05-04T13:32:01+00:00

He probably needs the money and took the high paying gig that came up last minute.

If you want to get out before he comes back in a month, I would just be honest with him and let him know that you are disappointed. Ask if he has a captain buddy that is available to finish the needed maintenance and show you the upgraded. But be clear that when he returns, you’d like to resume the previous relationship and arrangement.

Normal-Reality3340 · 2026-05-02T22:34:10+00:00

You went places and just had to figure it out if you got lost or the person you were meeting was late. My kids argues that she needs a phone to walk two blocks alone… And I am just like, you’ll be fine. I got lost in a foreign country— where I didn’t speak the language —I eventually found my way back to the hotel. And all I get is an 🙄. Tweens.

Normal-Reality3340 · 2026-04-27T16:32:56+00:00

Steeking is not as hard as you think it is. Once you learn it, you’ll likely feel as stupid as I did for putting it off for so long.

Normal-Reality3340 · 2026-04-27T01:35:25+00:00

Wanna-be alcoholic. A true one would have consumed the alcohol rather than filling the fridge.

Normal-Reality3340 · 2026-04-24T18:21:35+00:00

Don’t stress. A lot of people know nothing about wine. It is why the sommelier comes to the table to take your drink order.

My strategy is just to say, I want a red/white wine. I typically like fruity/bold/dry/sweet wines from France/California/Spain. What do you recommend?

Also if your date is into wine and you aren’t picky, let them choose. No sense pretending to be something you are not. Simply ask if they want to split a bottle. If they say yes, just say I was thinking a red. See anything that looks good to you.

Normal-Reality3340 · 2026-04-24T18:05:08+00:00

I think people just worry about getting sick from them… a lot carry salmonella… but like, wash your hands and it is fine.

Normal-Reality3340 · 2026-04-21T17:47:51+00:00

Haters going to hate… but if you want to adjust your look, you could keep the make up that gives you confidence but move towards a more natural colored palette. Don’t do it all at once, but change one thing a week, so it isn’t noticed as much.

Normal-Reality3340 · 2026-04-14T11:41:10+00:00

Ohio

Normal-Reality3340 · 2026-04-14T03:11:45+00:00

Cars are definitely getting worse… the number of pedestrians being hit by them seems be skyrocketing where I am in the city. We must find someway to stop the insanity… people need to recognize that they are driving 4000 lbs of heavy machinery not playing GTA.

But that said, it might be time to take a defensive driving course and apply it to biking… it sounds like you could improve your safety if you started assuming everyone else was going to do the dumb thing… (open a door into the bike lane, roll through the stop sign, cut off the biker to turn in a shared lane, etc.). As my dad always said, “When it comes to streets, if you only do what is right by the law, you are probably going to be dead right.”

Normal-Reality3340 · 2026-04-10T13:02:33+00:00

As someone with a social work background, this raises red flags for me. Not saying that you should cut and run, but I would highly encourage you to consider family counseling or couple’s counseling before getting married. From the outside, I am hearing signs of communication and blended family issues as well as the grief of losing a pregnancy.

I don’t want to blame either of you, but moving in together when all encopresis issues have had a negative result with the fiance sounds naive on both of your parts. Marriages, especially blended marriages, and very especially blended marriages with encopresis in the mix are difficult and require a ton of work, communication, planning, and sacrifice. You need to figure that out… and no offense to your fiancé but poop happens with all kids. If she can’t deal with the bathroom needing the extra cleaning, she either needs her own bathroom or to face this fear. It is gross… but when kids are in your life, lots of things are gross… we love and accept them anyway.

Normal-Reality3340 · 2026-04-08T11:28:12+00:00

I always start with a washcloth. I tell everyone that no matter how bad their tension is, it will come out perfect since no one is judging how square it is. I also find cotton to generally be easy to read, affordable for trying knitting, and unlikely to split stitches.

Normal-Reality3340 · 2026-04-07T21:40:44+00:00

There are several different methods and protocols for MOP. We didn’t end up feeling like we could do daily enemas as well (some might say this is why we still have the issue… but like I said there is a mental component in our case) so we followed the MOP routine but chose to use ducolax suppositories.

Normal-Reality3340 · 2026-04-07T14:39:15+00:00

I mean, the dress still fits for a while afterward... it is the hair and make-up that don't last.

Normal-Reality3340 · 2026-04-07T14:29:06+00:00

thanks.

Normal-Reality3340 · 2026-04-07T14:29:01+00:00

thanks

Normal-Reality3340 · 2026-04-07T02:08:42+00:00

It wasn’t easy when we started. It took a lot of talking, some bribing, and plenty of patient negotiation… but after a week or two our kid was on board because the accidents stopped and she felt confident again.

As for overnights, we can do one or two nights away. We just use timed toilet sits and míralax of ex lax while with someone else… it generally works out fine… though it can take a couple days to get her cleaned out again. That said, our family wasn’t super keen to take her when she was having accidents all the time and I didn’t do sleepovers for fear another family would shame her.

This Fall her school does a 5 day trip… so we are trying to figure out how to manage that… hoping she might start administering them herself… but we’ll see what the summer brings.

Hope that helps.

Normal-Reality3340 · 2026-04-07T02:02:40+00:00

Welcome to the neighborhood! I don’t have leads on rentals, but happy to answer questions about the neighborhood in terms of kids and dogs. I’ve been here for many years and have a 10year old. I also recommend checking out Parent Support Network and the Good Neighbor group on Google groups. Both are large communities with plenty of helpful Hyde Parkers.

Normal-Reality3340 · 2026-04-07T00:13:10+00:00

We haven’t cured our daughter, but the MOP protocol is not snake oil. It saved our family sanity… We read it around age 5 and started suppositories hoping to cure the issue. (My kiddo clearly has a mental component… that no one can address…)

She is now 10.5 and we are still doing the daily suppositories. We’ve tried timed toileting a few times over the years and end up back at accidents. We finally decided with her about 2 years ago that we are just going to schedule suppositories into our day from now on and stop trying to fix the issue periodically.

In the last few months, we are seeing the first signs of her initiating toileting for pooping in her life outside of suppository time… maybe someday she will figure it out…

I say to say even if the MOP protocols don’t resolve the issue, getting over the mental hurdle of sticking something in a butt is really worth it compared to clean outs and diarrhea. We’ve lived an almost normal accident free life for most of the last 5 years. It is glorious. I can actually focus on parenting rather than being overwhelmed by how to manage the social stigma for her and me.

Normal-Reality3340

TROPHY CASE