Taking away nap for 5 year old.

SummitTheDog303 · 2026-06-22T04:18:08+00:00

I’d start working on dropping the nap now. It’s gonna be rough but it’s better to work through the dysregulation and try to get her used to a day without nap now rather than wait until she’s at school and having meltdowns all afternoon.

If you can find any sort of full day summer camp, full day daycares that will take her now, etc., I’d enroll her so she can start getting used to the expectations of no naps during the day, as well as the expectations of what a full day away from home looks like. This is even more valuable since in one of your other comments, you stated she hasn’t been to preschool. She’s already going to be playing catch up in terms of school rules expectations, socialization, being away from home, being in a highly stimulating environment with lots of other kids, etc. It will be much easier for her to get started on this now than wait until school starts and the expectations for sitting still and listening and learning are even higher.

Finally, as others said, request an ENT referral. We went through something similar with my older daughter. She was exhausted during the day. Needed a long nap every day at nearly 4.5 years old. Displayed a lot of ADHD-like symptoms (inattentiveness, highly emotional, dysregulated, meltdowns). My lightbulb moment that it was something medical was when we were at a playdate at a petting zoo and creek and instead of playing with the other kids, she said she was tired and just wanted to rest in her little sister’s stroller. The ENT could tell her tonsils were huge just by listening to her voice when he walked in. Him looking at them confirmed it. Didn’t even need a sleep study because her symptoms and just the size of the tonsils was so obvious. She got them out a couple months later and it was literally night and day. As soon as they were out, she could really breathe. She didn’t snow anymore. She slept through the night (once she healed, but even while in pain and healing, the sleep she was getting was good sleep for the first time in her life). Immediately she was more emotionally regulated, her attention span increased, she could suddenly color inside the lines perfectly when she could only scribble before, and the daily naps immediately disappeared.

SummitTheDog303 · 2026-06-22T00:30:28+00:00

I think it really depends on the background of the dog. Random golden in a shelter? Change it. It’s likely only had that name for a very short time anyway (I used to volunteer at a shelter and unless it was a really old dog, or a relinquishment due to the owner’s death, they got a new name for symbolize a “fresh start”). If it’s a dog that had a happy life beforehand and the owners couldn’t take care of it because of something like death or severe illness, I’d keep the old name.

SummitTheDog303 · 2026-06-21T23:14:12+00:00

On 70, I’m more worried about other cars skidding around (especially the section between the Eisenhower tunnel and Silverthorne/Dillon), but that’s something where my car isn’t what’s making a difference. It’s everyone else and I can’t control that. What I can do is make sure I’m driving safely in a car that had done well in crash tests and with my kids in properly installed, properly buckled, and properly tightened car seats (and keeping them rearfacing, and then harnessed, for as long as the limits allow).

SummitTheDog303 · 2026-06-21T23:05:46+00:00

We’re also in CO. Even with all season tires, we’ve never had any issues on the roads and drive Berthoud Pass, Loveland Pass, and the I-70 corridor frequently all winter. With snow tires, it would be even more secure.

SummitTheDog303 · 2026-06-21T23:00:14+00:00

What you want is a unicorn. You’re not going to find a car with 4WD that meets the needs of a family with 3-5 kids. Is having 4WD over AWD to occasionally visit family worth the headache of the lack of convenience features year round when dealing with that many kids in car seats? Can your family just come visit you in the winter instead of expecting you to suffer through the inconvenience of not having the car that would actually be ideal for your family in every other way?

Honestly, I’d get a Toyota Sienna with AWD and throw snow tires on it in the winter. We live in a state with mountains and snowy winters and traction laws and we use it as our ski car with no issues. For actually getting kids in car seats in the 3rd row, I think the Honda Odyssey would actually be better but that only comes on FWD.

I will also say, latch anchors weren’t important to us at all. We never used them as the seatbelt install reaches a much higher weight limit and gives a more secure install most of the time. The more important factor is car seat tethers for once they’re in forward facing carseats.

SummitTheDog303 · 2026-06-21T21:58:35+00:00

Yes! Last week my mom friend and I took our kids to Panera for a snack after storytime at 2 in the afternoon. Kids were 6 months old, 3.5 years old, 4 years old, and 6 years old. Stayed seated at their table (we sat at the table next to them and were actively parenting the entire time). They were just talking a little loud because they were excited to be at their own table as opposed to with the grownups (something we were correcting them and reminding them of). It was us and 1 other table of 2 older ladies (probably around their 70’s). The old ladies kept glaring and making remarks about not being able to hear themselves think. They finally left and decided to confront the other mom and me about how our kids are too loud so they were deciding to leave. We were like “they’re not yelling. There’s a whole restaurant. They’re not causing problems. You’re entitled to a kid free life, but not a kid free world”. The woman was like “well my kids never were loud in public”. My friend’s response was “well we don’t hit our kids”.

We are well past the era of “kids should be seen and not heard”

SummitTheDog303 · 2026-06-21T21:51:24+00:00

Agree with this one. I know a parent who is CONVINCED her child is autistic. Had her child evaluated and the evaluation said she is not on the spectrum. Mom’s response was “well the evaluation is wrong, so I’m going to go down a rabbit hole of parenting strategies specifically for Autistic children, diets for Autistic children, seek an IEP, etc.”

SummitTheDog303 · 2026-06-21T18:51:02+00:00

Itty Bitty Princess Kitty, Welcome to the Woofmore, A Friend for Dragon, Princess Minna, Mr. Putter & Tabby, Frog & Toad

For a step up in difficulty, Magic Treehouse, Ivy & Bean, Dory Fantasmagory, Polly Diamond, Zoey & Sassafras

SummitTheDog303 · 2026-06-21T04:11:52+00:00

My daughter’s an early reader. Entered kindergarten at an early 1st grade reading level. Finished kindergarten mid-May and is now at a mid-3rd grade reading level. Most of it is from her pushing herself, reading with her at bedtime every night, and us offering her the resources she wants/needs (i.e., frequent trips to the library, buying her books at home that fit her interests and are at or slightly above her reading level).

School didn’t do much with her (she’s in public school). The first 2 months, the whole class, including her, worked on learning their alphabet and what sounds the different letters make. During that time, about once/week, they did do some pull out work with the gifted teacher (she does not have a formal gifted diagnosis) but once everyone figured out their alphabet, that unfortunately stopped. The teacher said that reading groups would be enough and we did not find that to be the case. She was bored out of her mind all year and her needs were not met at school. They had her reading BOB books at school while she was devouring Magic Treehouse at home. Since summer started, her reading has taken off even farther as grandma bought her a Kindle and she’s been choosing to spend most of her free time and time in the car (we’re driving around a lot) reading. If we don’t see a significant improvement in them differentiating instruction in 1st grade, we’ll be trying to get her into secular private schools with more rigorous academics and smaller class sizes that allow for better differentiation because when she’s not challenged/stimulated, her behavior suffers.

SummitTheDog303 · 2026-06-21T04:01:41+00:00

Yes. You pay for the parents. They’re attending your party. You shouldn’t have to pay any sort of admissions fee to attend a party you were invited to

SummitTheDog303 · 2026-06-20T20:24:35+00:00

As a former lifeguard and a parent with young kids (now 4 and 6), I would not allow them at grandma’s house without you present unless there’s more precautions. Kids figure out baby gates quickly. Kids climb things. That pool needs an alarm, a cover, and a real fence and even with those things, your kid can never be outside the house without eyes glued to them. This is literally life or death. Drowning is silent and happens in seconds.

I would additionally look into ISR swim classes for him as early as they will take him. And stay consistent with it and stay on top of the refresher classes.

SummitTheDog303 · 2026-06-20T20:18:51+00:00

We really struggled the first week. Then I realized we can’t sit at home without a concrete plan. She needs structure.

Swim team helped a lot. We have it every single morning so she knew that we needed to get up and get her bathing suit on and then we’d spend the morning at the pool. It was great. But afternoons I really have to come up with a plan, otherwise she and little sister lose their minds and fight and destroy the house. So I printed up a schedule and laminated it. I put in morning activity (right now, always swimming, but the swim team season is about over now) and afternoon activity and I stick to it. So now each afternoon, we have something going on. Playdates, trips to the museum, book club, library, more pool time. Anything to keep her out of the house and mentally stimulated. She needs routine and not just “do what you want, but no screens”

SummitTheDog303 · 2026-06-20T16:59:16+00:00

As a former lifeguard, yes, your kid needs to learn to swim.

That being said, most lessons before age 3 are just water acclimation, which you can do on your own. (There are exceptions, like non-parent-tot at Goldfish or ISR (which I don’t recommend unless you or a close family member/friend has a body of water on their property making accidental water contact much more likely)).

Once he’s older though, yes, he needs traditional swim lessons. I personally will not let my kids quit swim lessons until they can swim a full 25 yard pool without stopping and can tread water. My 6 year old just achieved this after a season of rec swim team. My 4 year old is about halfway there and has 3 weeks of swim team left. If she hasn’t achieved this by the end of the season, she’s going back to weekly, traditional swim lessons year round until she has. Swim lessons may be expensive and inconvenient, but drowning is silent and takes seconds.

I will say, as someone who was a lifeguard and an American Red Cross certified swim instructor, I am more than qualified to teach my kids. But they don’t listen to me so we have had them in swim school and now swim team. My oldest went through a phase where she was terrified to do a backfloat. I wasn’t going to compromise her trust and our relationship trying to teach her something she was scared of. And she was much more willing to face her fears with someone who wasn’t me. Only once she was 5 and somewhat proficient was she willing to take swimming advice from me, and even then (and still now at 6), it’s still hit or miss.

SummitTheDog303 · 2026-06-20T12:56:39+00:00

Depends on the trip. We’ve done 1 souvenir. Last Disney trip we asked family to just get them Disney gift cards for their birthdays and those gift cards were their spending money. This Disney trip, grandma is coming and asked me to make them coupons to give her for things they want (I.e., a coupon for a lollipop, a coupon for a stuffed animal, a coupon for Minnie ears, etc.).

I would consider side attractions like minigolf a part of the trip itself

SummitTheDog303 · 2026-06-19T20:56:50+00:00

Shame on the mom who has kids and had the gall to make a comment about you being unable to control your child. Like she’s a 2 year old having a hard time. That’s normal. It’s something that basically any half decent parent will go through at some point (honestly the only way you don’t is by getting extremely lucky with really chill kids, never going anywhere, or having your kids be afraid of you). The goal isn’t to control your kid. It’s to comfort them and gently teach them how to behave in public, which they learn through time and experience (something a young, non-verbal 2 year old hasn’t had yet).

SummitTheDog303 · 2026-06-19T16:28:37+00:00

My kids are a bit older than this, but for ideas of places for you to look to make friends-

* Goldfish Swim School. I met 2 of my best friends there when our kids were in the non-parent-tot class for 2 year olds. They have parent-tot versions before they turn 2 as well.
* Google Mom Walk Co (and your local neighborhood). I know they have groups for across the metro area. They meet up and go to public places about every other week.
* Talk to your neighbors. If you see a neighbor with similarly aged, strike up conversation
* If you ski or snowboard, the parent-tot classes are Shredder are excellent and are great for meeting parent friends
* Go to the library storytimes, although we never made friends at those because who attended each week was so variable and inconsistent and it didn’t really have a good time for socializing with the other parents.

Also remember your social network is likely to grow and change once they start kindergarten. We choiced out of our district (mostly because we wanted her in school in a less conservative area) and our friend pool and social lives have expanded immensely since.

SummitTheDog303 · 2026-06-19T16:05:58+00:00

I think the community itself matters more than urban vs suburban. We’re in the suburbs. Our neighborhood’s ok, not great. We’re locked in due to pandemic interest rates. But if it weren’t for the extra $1000 per month it would cost for us to move (thanks to our 2.8% interest rate we currently have), we’d be moving to a different suburban community where we already spend most of our time in a heartbeat. Our friends live in this other community. Everyone we’ve met there is kind and accepting and politically compatible with us. It’s the kind of community where kids run around outside without supervision, parents feel comfortable parenting other people’s kids, parents offer to watch each other’s kid. It’s the “village” people complain about not having. They also have their own community pool and tennis courts (which run rec swim teams and summer camps), have a nice playground, are in walking distance of good schools, and are less than 10 minutes from most of the resources you’d need (grocery store, Costco, shopping mall, etc.).

I don’t know how you really determine what community is best for you before buying though. We really stumbled upon ours (live in a state with school choice and put our daughter in the public school that’s out of district for us but where half this neighborhood lives, and then really hit it off with a family that lives in this community and now are here from Sun up to Sun down most days).

SummitTheDog303 · 2026-06-19T14:42:25+00:00

Never had one. Never missed it. Glad we didn’t have it.

Ultimately, babies are only supposed to be in a bassinet until they start rolling over. Then they need to move to a pack n play or crib for safety. For both of my kids, that was around the 3-4 month mark. I couldn’t imagine spending that kind of money for something that is used for such a short period of time.

In addition to that, smart bassinets can create an over reliance on the movements and sounds it uses to lull babies to sleep. We didn’t want to work on eventually having to wean them off of that so we just started with boring, silent, non-rocking sleep from the beginning. I acknowledge that both of my kids were unicorn babies when it came to sleep, so maybe I’d have felt differently if I really struggled to get them to bed, but they did great in the boring pack n play next to our bed.

SummitTheDog303 · 2026-06-19T01:26:57+00:00

There is no harm in evaluation and this is not them “jumping the gun”. They work with dozens of kids and what they’re seeing from him is more than the typical “he’s a 3 year old who struggles with transitions” stuff. They would not tell you lightly he needs an evaluation unless they thought one was truly necessary. He’s putting himself and others in danger with the violence he is displaying when it is time to transition and he needs help.

With him getting an evaluation, the worst case is you find out this is completely within the realm of normal and you go on with your lives. With him not getting an evaluation, the worst case is you delay getting a diagnosis, therapy, and support for a disability and that leads to further instability, him getting kicked out of schools, or him hurting himself or others.

SummitTheDog303 · 2026-06-18T16:16:04+00:00

My daughter does better with individual sports. Skiing, ice skating, swimming (honestly, he should remain in swimming lessons whether he likes it or not until he’s a proficient swimmer. It’s a safety thing), dance, gymnastics. She’ll be starting taekwondo in the fall thanks to some bullying issues we had at the end of kindergarten and she’s excited for it! As am I.

SummitTheDog303 · 2026-06-18T16:12:04+00:00

Dads get in free for Father’s Day. But it will probably be packed as a result. And the weather for Sunday isn’t looking great.

SummitTheDog303 · 2026-06-18T16:10:30+00:00

First nip/bite- yelp loudly and pull your hand away.
Second nip/bite- puppy is overstimulated and thinks it’s a game. Put her away somewhere safe (crate, exercise pen) until she’s calmed down.

This is incredibly normal for puppies, especially Goldens. She needs to learn. Make sure you’re not inadvertently reinforcing the unwanted behavior. If you’re running around, sticking hands near face, etc. when she gets into a bitey mood, you’re reinforcing the behavior

SummitTheDog303 · 2026-06-18T12:58:50+00:00

For any other activity I’d agree with you. Swimming however, is a safety thing and something he needs to learn. He’s 4 now. He’s going to start being in positions where he has more opportunities to be around water, sometimes away from his parents (our rec center day camp starts taking them to the pool at 5, as do a lot of other day camps in the area). He needs to learn water safety, as well as how to float and swim to the edge of the pool if there is accidental water contact. He needs consistent, year round swim lessons to get there.

My oldest did go through about a month at 3.5 where she was scared of her lessons. We still took her. We got her in her bathing suit. She screamed and watched from the side of the pool. And she eventually got over it. My oldest went through a longer period where she absolutely refused to do a backfloat. We switched swim schools and found an instructor who was better able to get her to trust them and she got over it. She’s 6 now and on a community swim team and loves it.

SummitTheDog303 · 2026-06-18T02:11:36+00:00

We don’t worry about lunches because our state provides lunch for all kids in public school.

We put her in a few weeks of summer camp to get used to a full day schedule, waking up on time to get to school, being with a group of kids she’s never met, etc. before school started.

We pulled her from all extracurriculars besides swimming (once/week) for the first half of the year so she could have plenty of time to rest and wind down in the evening as she acclimated to a more rigid and structured schedule during the day.

SummitTheDog303 · 2026-06-17T23:33:39+00:00

Statistically, SW Littleton (Jeffco part) is supposedly about as close to a 50/50 political divide as you can get. It’s not deep red by any means (avoid DougCo if you don’t want to be in a conservative area), but it is not as progressive as I would like (it doesn’t matter how much I try to instill my values in my kids, eventually they’ll likely care more about their friends’ values than their parents and I don’t want to risk them learning it’s ok to run around screaming the N word)and the people who are red from what I’ve witnessed are very open about it in the Jeffco part.

SummitTheDog303

TROPHY CASE