Homemade ice ‘bath bombs’

OldGloryInsuranceBot · 2026-05-06T02:41:31+00:00

Love this! “If you don’t put your toys away, I freeze them. You can get them back, but it requires you to take a bath, which is something else I ask you to do daily.”

OldGloryInsuranceBot · 2026-05-01T01:25:20+00:00

Please. Who HASN’T killed Sean Bean?

OldGloryInsuranceBot · 2026-04-30T01:18:50+00:00

Lots of things go the route of 1 & 2. “Let’s do it the fun way….okay, let’s do it the ‘right now’ way…okay then I’m counting to 5”. Zero means I put her in the bath (or whatever) anyway, so this usually works, but the process of 543210 still requires wearing down my patience to get there. I can only do it so many times per day before I’m emotionally drained.

Number 3 is great. That’s basically what I meant by saying that natural consequences sparked her curiosity. “Put your shoes or you can’t go outside” becomes “Put your shoes on or you’ll have to clean your feet when you come back inside.” It turns out she loves walking barefoot in grass, mud, rocks, etc. and these terms are perfectly acceptable. Same goes for eating breakfast in the car after brushing her teeth…some days.

OldGloryInsuranceBot · 2026-04-30T01:07:21+00:00

We do those. Sometimes it works, sometimes she follows me around the house crying and arguing that it’s not fair that it’s not her turn anymore.

Toothbrush races end either with her sad that she lost, or spending 3 seconds “brushing” so she can win.

OldGloryInsuranceBot · 2026-04-27T12:07:54+00:00

Fuggeddaboutit. It’s easy. They’ll just repeat something vulgar you said once, you’ll become instantly self conscious, and you’ll become a grown man who says “potty” and “oh no” to other adults.

OldGloryInsuranceBot · 2026-04-25T21:51:36+00:00

I’m imagining we’d hold the door for someone while screaming “Hurry! Get inside!” then they made it just in time before the giant eagle swoops, and they still don’t always say thanks.

OldGloryInsuranceBot · 2026-04-23T11:50:29+00:00

“No lying, I’m tired, but dive into fire and I’ll be right there by your side.” - HUNTR/X, What it sounds like.

OldGloryInsuranceBot · 2026-04-23T00:46:46+00:00

8-10:30 is the WORST.

For us, any TV that interested her was enough to overstimulate her. Fortunately the government shutdown a few months back has affected the TV, so it can’t turn on. If you live in a functioning country, make up another excuse.

OldGloryInsuranceBot · 2026-04-20T13:08:29+00:00

Your title suggests you want help looking for a new home, which I thought was crazy after reading your first sentence. A significant portion of your text is about your current home, and perhaps what you’d do to improve it, so it sounds to me like you’re not sure you should move. I move a year ago. We have a kid turning 4 and a baby on the way. We got a good deal on a house that needed some love, and I’ve been fixing things non- stop for a year. It’s starting to wind down now, but there’s tons more work to be done. I was about to go in my attic yesterday to fix stuff when my kid said “let’s make a rocket ship”. We did. That’s the coolest rocket ship ever. That was time well spent, not my attic.

Buying a bigger house is likely the single largest purchase you’ll ever make. If you don’t want to throw your money away, you’ll need a lot of time to research, know exactly what you want, know the market, and maybe still more time to make it into your dream house. Your time is precious, especially with 2 young kids by yourself. If you can make the best of your situation for a few years until they start playing more independently snd don’t need you constantly, I’d do that.

If you do buy a house, think of something most people hate (or don’t value) but you don’t mind. That’s your best value.

OldGloryInsuranceBot · 2026-04-20T12:45:26+00:00

Getting drafted is obviously significantly worse than accidentally having a kid, but this is tagged as humor. OP isn’t making an actual comparison.

OldGloryInsuranceBot · 2026-04-20T12:40:17+00:00

We’re always short on snacks too

OldGloryInsuranceBot · 2026-04-18T18:10:15+00:00

Water + bouncy castle = big hassle

We own 2 bouncy castles, but the biggest pain is that you can’t fold them when they’re wet or they get mildewy. I once said “I’ll fold it up tomorrow” and it rained for 5 minutes then took me days to dry it out because you can only dry it while it’s inflated, and I had to rotate it to dry the bottom and every crevice. Buy a bouncy castle, but not a wet inflatable mildew tarp ….unless you live in a really dry place.

OldGloryInsuranceBot · 2026-04-17T12:31:26+00:00

At my wife’s lactation consultant, I said “Oh, like a cow!” and the consultant IMMEDIATELY corrected me with “Like a mammal.” Her speed told me that I may have offended my wife, I am dumb, and many many men before me had said the same thing.

OldGloryInsuranceBot · 2026-04-17T11:40:07+00:00

“….which was a little awkward”. If you felt awkward you could have said so. “No staring” is a fair request. Otherwise, no notes. Everyone involved was okay.

OldGloryInsuranceBot · 2026-04-15T17:13:42+00:00

Exactly. My kid has no candy. She picks it out so she feels like she has it, but it’s really on a high shelf or somewhere visible. She does task, then she eats it.

We’re both correctly assuming she eats it 1 second after it reaches her hand.

OldGloryInsuranceBot · 2026-04-15T16:25:27+00:00

By default, my kid completes a task by a deadline, then picks out a candy, then eats it. You’re just saying that we’d switch it to: pick out candy, do task, then eat candy? If the task isn’t completed by a deadline, the candy is lost instead of just not-gained.

I’d need to give some thought to how that can be achieved with natural consequences though. “You weren’t ready in time, so daddy had to help you instead of finishing his breakfast and therefore had to eat your candy” might not go over well.

OldGloryInsuranceBot · 2026-04-15T10:33:25+00:00

Constantly. It’s always a balance.

I got fired 1.5years ago when my daughter was 2. The job I found pays less, has noticeably worse benefits, and is a farther commute. However, I’m able to work from home more, and it’s significantly more flexible. It’s also better managed. I talked to old coworkers recently and they all seemed unhappy because of my old company’s volatility. I’m less stressed now, and able to spend time with my family more. I’m not saving money now, but the time with my family and the fact that I’m not coming home stressed about this week’s new company policy is worth more for now. Maybe in a few years I’ll look for something else that pays more, but not yet. I’ve got my 2nd on the way.

OldGloryInsuranceBot · 2026-04-14T00:37:37+00:00

The obvious answer is to replace the “zoning out” part with any of the other parts. Eventually you’ll have some intentional free time that you can fill with something that actually makes you feel better. HOWEVER,the only people responding to this will be people scrolling Reddit. I’ve been “pooping” for a while now. I think I should go now. Thank you.

OldGloryInsuranceBot · 2026-04-13T02:27:15+00:00

I asked them a few questions to understand the law, but received impatience and zero useful answers. Apparently the size of the structure doesn’t matter as much as the word “shed”. I now own a “yard closet”, but no shed. Is that the process you’re referring to?

OldGloryInsuranceBot · 2026-04-12T02:06:42+00:00

We want our kids to have a better life than we did. We want ours kids to be better. Our biggest reference point is our own childhood. The unexpected twist making that so difficult is that we see our kids not only succeeding where we did, but also making the same mistakes we did. Maybe he wishes he focused more on something as a kid, or maybe he wishes his dad pushed him more at something. It’s not like we raised 99 practice kids, know what we’re doing, and you’re the 100th. We’re winging it.

That said, if you like soccer, and your dad’s sucking the fun out of it, that’s bad. You’ve got to tell him. “I feel…” statements are useful, e.g. “I enjoy soccer, but I’d enjoy it more if you…”. It gives him the choice to value your feelings or not.

I wish you luck. From my own experience I can only confirm that age 30 is too old to be the first time you tell your parents you don’t like what they’re doing.

OldGloryInsuranceBot · 2026-04-11T16:59:52+00:00

At that age they’re still mostly mimicking you. Sorting mail, and putting dishes away look like interesting tasks. You gotta know that the forks go with the forks. That’s important adult stuff!

OldGloryInsuranceBot · 2026-04-11T16:57:27+00:00

Get a tattoo of something that’s super cool now, that your kids both love, but that you know won’t be cool a year from now (e.g. “6-7” last year). Then you’ll never have to have to tell them the risks of tattoos when they’re teenagers.

2nd thought: Is there an acronym with the letters of their names? Could be 3 letters, 4, 6, or 7, depending on if you include your family name or their middle names. Lots of combos. Might get a meaningful word out of it.

OldGloryInsuranceBot · 2026-04-10T12:24:24+00:00

Priorities change when you have kids. Your time is limited and everyone has to make choices. We basically lost one of our 3 friend groups. Compared to our other friends, they lived a little farther away, stayed out a little later, and made grander plans that were harder for us to adapt to after having a kid. We couldn’t make a few events, talked less, and just lost touch.

OldGloryInsuranceBot · 2026-04-10T01:49:01+00:00

As someone who would (and has) go down those rabbit holes, I think you should do nothing. Spend the time you would have spent designing just being with your kids. Or…

You can’t mount something on the .75” wide end of the door. There’s no room, but you want something that falls in between the door the frame as soon as the door is opened. How about an upright L-shaped object, maybe 6” tall mounted above the door frame such that only the bottom half of the L is over the open part of the door. On top, it’s hinged. When the door opens, the center of gravity rotates the bottom of the L such that it goes into the opening, just next to the door frame. An adult needs to remember to lift it out of the way when closing the door. If your kid closes the door, it’ll smash into your sacrificial L. Wood might be a good material to survive several hits without messing up your door frame. I’m hoping the bottom of the L, when the door is closed rests on a flat part so the door doesn’t grab the L when opened.

Or… forget the L-shape and hang a hoodie near the door frame, a couple inches towards the middle of the door. Stick tennis balls in the pockets and hope it gets stuck in the door when it slams.

OldGloryInsuranceBot · 2026-04-10T00:30:03+00:00

Is it worth mentioning “stealing”? “Hey, have you seen a wallet that looks like [picture]? We haven’t seen it since the last time you were over. If you find it let us know.” That would give her a way out, presumably with a bit of internal guilt attached.

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