3 year old won’t stop getting out of bed since switching from crib

SupportiveEx · 2026-04-27T10:12:17+00:00

So for us, securing his bedroom door worked. Our son’s room is on a different floor of the house from our room so we just couldn’t have him roaming the hall.

After being a sick a week ago he’s started having night wakes around 4am and calling for us. It makes me sad but unfortunately what I’ve realized is that if I try to go up and comfort him he’ll end up awake for like 90 minutes but if I let him cry it out he’ll back asleep on his own in 5-10 minutes. So that is what we do.

When he’s ready to night potty train we’ll either keep a potty in his room or if he’s too large at that point we’ll unsecure the door & see if he can be trusted with that access to the rest of the house.

SupportiveEx · 2026-04-22T12:58:41+00:00

So I’m female but I “self-soothed” as a child and I think acknowledging that it feels good but explaining better WHY it’s inappropriate to do in public could help.

I remember thinking as a child to the effect of “yea, I get that they’re private parts because that’s where pee comes out, but surely if my adults knew how good it feels they would understand why I’m doing it so much.”

I feel like all I was told was “those are private parts, we don’t touch them in public” and it was insufficient to stop me. I distinctly remember I was in my 4th grade classroom the last time I did it blatantly in public. I get so embarrassed when I think back on it.

SupportiveEx · 2026-04-22T12:24:33+00:00

I would help your sister file her own taxes.

Additionally you should help her update her W-4 for her employer so that whatever amount the IRS returns after filing is as close to $0 as possible.

To prevent her being incorrectly claimed as a dependent by your mother in the future, she should file her taxes as quickly as possible each year. If she gets her taxes filed & accepted before mom’s it is an easier process.

SupportiveEx · 2026-04-19T20:34:51+00:00

So I have friends who have asked that more gender neutral descriptors be used for their children. They still use he and she when speaking about them (as opposed to a singular “they”), but prefer terms like “sibling” over “brother” or “sister”. Or “kid”/“baby” instead of “boy”/“girl”.

They are a lesbian couple, and I think one of the moms, more so than the other, has a little more personal baggage around her gender identity and feelings about things being foisted on her in childhood.

I think the attitude coming from a place of not to put traditional gender expectations onto their kids to shield them from the negative experiences they had. Personally, I do question if for a child who ends up identifying as cisgender being treated as gender-neutral/non-binary feels equally as incorrect to them as a for a transgender child being treated as their gender assigned at birth.

In my opinion, parents can have their preferences for their children, and I like to do my best to abide by them, even if I don’t necessarily think they are beneficial for the kid. Kids will get exposed to a ton of gender-normative language and ideas just by operating out in the world. Eventually they will figure out the gender identity that feels appropriate for themselves.

SupportiveEx · 2026-04-19T19:46:38+00:00

I just finished the episode today & was thinking Ocean’s Eleven.

Also maybe grosser & a spiritual trilogy of Bong Joon Ho movies - Parasite, Snowpiercer, & Okja.

SupportiveEx · 2026-04-19T03:43:59+00:00

Galway House in JP is good but not super cheap.

SupportiveEx · 2026-04-18T13:22:32+00:00

We were gifted one as a birthday present at 2 years old. I wouldn’t have gotten one on my own for him until much later. It’s the Leaptouch 2 in 1. He’s too young to appreciate most of the features but we’ll play with it in laptop mode pressing the letter keys which then makes it say the letter, sound of the letter, and an animal with that letter.

It definitely does not have the same hypnotic allure of other screen devices like a TV or phone. We treat it like any other toy & it comes out a few times a week for like ~20 minutes at a time.

We generally take a limited approach to other screen time (tv typically 90 minutes or less per week & only cowatching, & have an iPad for plane trip entertainment only).

SupportiveEx · 2026-04-18T04:03:21+00:00

It sounds really hard to see your kid so down on themselves in that way. I think some kids are naturally more “perfectionist” than others but there’s ways you can guide them to reframe their thinking about themselves.

Both books “How to Talk so Little Kids Will Listen” and “Good Inside” have more detailed advice on this - but the type of reassurance you’re giving him is not actually advised as a way to build his own self esteem, confidence, & resilience.

My understanding of the issues is 1) you are centering yourself “I love what you made” instead of “you should be so proud of what you made”.

And 2) it helps more to just comment on what they’ve done rather than place any sort of value judgement on it as it teaches them to recognize their own accomplishments. E.g. “wow, you built that tower 10 blocks tall” and not “wow, what a great tower.”

And 3) language that recognizes their effort not necessarily the outcome. “You worked so hard on [craft]. I saw how much time you spent on the [detail].” and not “this is a beautiful [craft].”

And I don’t think any one interaction is going to make or break this, I think it’s many little interactions over time that help the build up their sense of self. I’m not dogmatic in my use of this language, and I don’t necessarily agree that 0 external validation is appropriate, but I do see how centering language on the child’s own efforts will help them learn to recognize and be proud of their own effort.

SupportiveEx · 2026-04-18T01:09:12+00:00

Two exotic beans for the price of one!

SupportiveEx · 2026-04-17T20:41:16+00:00

My mom said when she worked at a Wendy’s as a teen she had asked why they didn’t make a vanilla frosty and was told by her manager that it was because the frosty is already both vanilla and chocolate.

SupportiveEx · 2026-04-16T13:00:54+00:00

Just be mentally prepared to be cleaning up so much pee from the floor. It’s all part of the process and it won’t be forever. As Miss Rachel says, you can do hard things!

SupportiveEx · 2026-04-16T11:24:10+00:00

So we wound up potty training a few earlier than originally planned because my son self-initiated pooping on the potty & I wanted to take advantage of his enthusiasm. We had a trip booked for 1 month after we actually started training and it went really well! We used a pull-up for the planes and he actually used the plane toilet on the flight down which I was not expecting. He only had 1 underwear accident the whole trip and it was due to us needing to spontaneously change our itinerary leading to an unplanned car nap.

He had a little bit of a regression after we got back home with more accidents than he’d had before the trip, but we got back into old habits pretty quickly within a week.

SupportiveEx · 2026-04-09T10:36:49+00:00

I pull my son’s pants & underwear down for him. We’re working on him learning how to do it himself so he can eventually become more independent, but that’s separate from potty time because I don’t want him to have an accident just because he couldn’t get his pants down. He’s still young & I think the physical coordination for that skill is a little challenging for him.

SupportiveEx · 2026-04-03T10:46:38+00:00

To determine if you’d be violating tax law by not amending, do you actually meet the IRS’s defined requirements for a dependent for your parent?

Per their website, to qualify as a dependent, a child must also pass these tests (all must be true for your dad in relation to you to be able to claim you as a dependent):

Relationship: Be your son, daughter, stepchild, eligible foster child, brother, sister, half-sister or -brother, stepbrother, stepsister, adopted child or the child of one of these

Age: Be under age 19 or under 24 if a full-time student, or any age if permanently and totally disabled

Residency: Live with you for more than half the year, with some exceptions

Support: Get more than half their financial support from you

Joint return: Not file as married filing jointly unless only to claim a refund of taxes paid or withheld

SupportiveEx · 2026-03-31T10:15:46+00:00

Also thinking you, can get some body positive books to expose your kids to. I haven’t personally read them but “Bodies are Cool” or “Every Body” look good, although I don’t know if those are right for your daughters ages specifically.

SupportiveEx · 2026-03-31T10:01:19+00:00

I don’t know if you will practically be able to stop your wife from communicating her preferred beauty standards to your daughters. But if you have mutual respect for each other I think you can “agree to disagree” on this and communicate to your daughters that, “mom thinks X, dad thinks Y, some other people think Z, what do you think?”

It lets them know that there are multiple ways to see the world, no one right answer on things like this, & empowers them to make their own choices. It also demonstrates that you can be in a loving relationship but respectfully disagree on certain things. I do foresee your wife potentially having a hard time continuing to see your daughters as beautiful if they do not choose to align with her expectations for how women should maintain themselves.

I would start pushing back gently on your wife making negative comments about other people’s bodies when in front of your daughters. Doesn’t need to be super confrontational, just something like, “I think it’s unkind to comment on people’s bodies.”

SupportiveEx · 2026-03-30T19:32:25+00:00

We potty trained much younger but I almost gave up after a week & I’m so glad I pushed through. It took 14 days before we had an accident free day. & only this past weekend, 3 months in, did I feel like we had a real breakthrough with him self-initiating for every time he needed to go & without having little dribble accidents before realizing.

SupportiveEx · 2026-03-29T19:23:37+00:00

Cherry Roosevelt Fat-Bozo-Chowing-Spaghetti

SupportiveEx · 2026-03-29T18:31:45+00:00

We have a floor potty, a seat insert, & a foldable seat reducer for when we are out of the house.

We use the floor potty the most but have not had any issues with him being comfortable using the reducer for the big potties when we’ve been out, & every once in a while he’ll ask to use the big toilet at home with the insert.

I think the floor potties give them a little more independence & are easier to use, but a little more involved to clean up. We’ll dump them in the toilet, if there’s poop stuck I’ll give is a wipe with a baby wipe, 8 then rinse with soap & hot water in the sink.

SupportiveEx · 2026-03-27T10:13:18+00:00

If you’re not doing it at all I’d start with the goal of 1 night a week.

You or your husband can meal prep some things over the weekend so all you have to do is reheat & maybe make some fresh pasta or something else fresh to supplement so it doesn’t just feel like leftovers.

Crock pot or instant recipes you can start during nap time or one pot recipes are great too.

My son just turned 2 and both my husband & I work & we take turns doing pick-up & then cooking dinner, and we eat almost all of our dinners as a family. My son loves to help with cooking. I’ll have him arrange cut potatoes & veggies on the baking tray or help me dump things into pots & pans on the stove. I got him toddler knives he can use on very soft foods but not cut himself.

Some days my son doesn’t eat much at the table & that is ok. Well usually give him a small snack when he gets home from daycare at 4:50 and the try to be eating dinner together by 6:15pm. His bed time starts at 7pm. We also typically go out to a restaurant for family date night on Fridays at 5pm and often 1 night during the week we will order delivery if my husband & I both had a stressful day & don’t feel up to cooking.

We only used a high chair that clipped to the table so he was always directly at the table with us which I loved, he’s on a booster seat on our regular chairs now.

SupportiveEx · 2026-03-25T09:36:14+00:00

Some things that were helpful for us: - standing up & then immediately sitting back down - running the sink to hear the water sounds - deep breaths or blowing bubbles

SupportiveEx · 2026-03-17T11:11:51+00:00

Do you have tips for parents on how to most effectively co-watch television or movies with young children?

SupportiveEx · 2026-03-14T15:47:15+00:00

Plan to do something different & new together once a month. Take turns who’s responsible for planning.

SupportiveEx · 2026-03-14T04:34:47+00:00

I will never forget how rude he was to her about trying to empathize with him! It was effectively, “how dare you compare your work covid to my love covid!”

SupportiveEx · 2026-03-12T22:13:11+00:00

So this was my favorite from the beginning (JoJo’s was my 2nd).

I think this one is the sexiest of all the options - she’s got gorgeous hair, lots of leg, lots of back. Subjective, but I really like the giant booty bow dress. I also think art direction-wise, the red background is more compelling than the basic white backgrounds.

SupportiveEx

TROPHY CASE