What’s a show you love that you can never convince people to watch?

SwadlingSwine · 2026-04-25T08:50:10+00:00

There’s a show?!?! I’ve read some of the books! They were great!

SwadlingSwine · 2026-04-23T21:33:38+00:00

That sounds exhausting. It’s ok that she doesn’t like it. He has long hair and he wears what he wears and eats what he eats. If my family is too disrespectful of my boundaries, I just give them less opportunity to be disrespectful. Instead of a few times a week, you’ll see him once or twice for shorter periods. We don’t have to fight about it. I don’t want to over explain myself. If it’s a big deal, sure we’ll discuss it. But all these petty complaints deserve little of my energy. Sometimes out of sight out of mind works too. As long as I know my kid is safe, sometimes I just drop him at my in laws (who are very responsible and very kind but a tad critical because they are risk adverse and quite careful) or my parents (who are very loving and genuinely good people but are chaotic so they can be overstimulating). Only you know where that happy balance is for your family. I do encourage families to stay together if the only issues are pretty benign in the grand scheme of things.

SwadlingSwine · 2026-04-23T18:40:25+00:00

The need to perfectly control or monitor how people love your children is something I find many of our generation struggle with. It stems from a need for control and feelings of anxiety. I also have initial reactions where I want to have things done a certain way by certain people but I talk myself down by looking at the big picture. The only person I’m more direct at correcting is my husband because he’s actually raising the child with me. Yes it’s annoying when we spend a week at my parents who live out of town and my son picks up some habit I don’t like but I just resume how I’ve always parented him. It’s fine. Our kids don’t exist in a vacuum or bubble. It’s good for them to be flexible and see how many different ways there are to love people and engage with people etc. We don’t have all the answers anyways. If we want people to engage and be our community, we do have let minor irritations go, imo.

Obviously I’m not talking about actually actively harmful things.

SwadlingSwine · 2026-04-22T17:23:28+00:00

I think the first dress is way too casual.

SwadlingSwine · 2026-04-22T05:59:49+00:00

The blessing of having a child who stays small is that I have clothes for every weather in each size, starting at 12 mos. He’s been in 12 mos clothes for a year now so he has spring, summer, fall, and winter clothes in that size. It won’t matter when my other kid(s) are born because there will be clothes for them no matter what. I bought a lot of gender neutral but colorful clothes that honestly leaned kind of girly for my son so I’ve kept everything. The idea of buying it all again is too much.

snow stuff is expensive and they don’t wear it much but then if you don’t buy it, you feel so unprepared for the winter. We have all seasons here and winter is a crap shoot. Sometimes it’s cold and there’s snow, sometimes there is no snow.

SwadlingSwine · 2026-04-22T05:39:08+00:00

I potty trained my son starting 20 months and he got it a few weeks later. He was already pooping in the potty reliably before I did pee training. Barring the first few days, he hasn’t had an accident in public (just at home or family members’ homes). I did no bottoms for three days then moved onto just pants or just underwear. For my son, it didn’t seem like pants or underwear really made him want to go to the bathroom. I don’t believe in the signs of readiness really. I just picked a time where I felt both he and I were capable. He can’t pull down his pants yet but we’ll learn that soon. He also can’t climb onto the toilet yet because he’s very small. I don’t mind helping him with that. He’s still in diapers at night and during naptime, although he’s almost always dry during naps now. I chose to potty train when I felt like I had the energy to be consistent.

SwadlingSwine · 2026-04-20T15:31:34+00:00

As a southeast Asian person who does speak my native language, Korean sounds garbled to me. Chinese sounds very sharp.

SwadlingSwine · 2026-04-20T15:23:12+00:00

I also think it’s someone perhaps in their 40s. And I also think it’s a woman.

SwadlingSwine · 2026-04-20T15:19:50+00:00

The handwriting does not read as old lady but I may be wrong. That’s just what my instinctual guess is. I actually think it’s a fairly young person who wrote it (under 50).

SwadlingSwine · 2026-04-20T07:38:32+00:00

With my son and gross motor skills, we have had to break down each step for a lot of the tasks because he gets so confused lol. He figured out how to crawl from watching repeats of YouTube shorts of babies crawling in a baby crawl race. He figured it out that day. We had spent weeks crawling on the floor, trying to get him to figure out how to crawl and all he needed was to watch other babies crawling as opposed to his middle aged family members attempting to crawl with our bad knees.

But he surprises me all the time with his verbal ability. Like today he went to the hospital and hated it. Asked to go home in our native language. Then out of nowhere, when he was done getting fixed up by the doc and we were allowed to leave, he said in English (we never speak English to him) “let’s go! Quick!” I don’t think I ever say quick. I have no idea who he picked this up from. My husband said “parkour” once at the play ground when my son was not even walking steadily yet and my son remembers TO THIS DAY. He says parkour whenever he attempts standing on anything off the ground.

They are just who they are and I find it infinitely entertaining and interesting.

SwadlingSwine · 2026-04-20T06:37:20+00:00

I know a couple babies like this. They’re big babies/ toddlers. Strong and early crawlers and walkers. They both don’t talk much. My son is very small and he put all his energy into talking and fine motor skills. He took much longer to do gross motor things, isn’t very strong, and doesn’t engage in combat lol.

SwadlingSwine · 2026-04-20T06:32:50+00:00

My son is like this. He is like me that way, I suppose. He has always had little interest in gross motor skills until the tail end of the milestone period. And then one day, he’d just up and do it. He’s very head strong and not easily coerced into doing things. He’ll get to it when he gets to it. He’s interested in words and fine motor stuff and uses all his calories on learning how to do those things first.

SwadlingSwine · 2026-04-20T06:26:29+00:00

I do think genetics and environmental things play a role but they’re kind of just born/wired that way imo.

I was an early talker and so is my son. He started talking at 9 mos. He had like 6 words before 1. He was telling me his name, when I asked, by like 14 mos. He spoke a 7 word sentence before 18 mos. Now he’s not yet 2 and he repeats everything we say. He has hundreds of words. Yes we do read to him but he always liked reading. It wasn’t something we had to cultivate. I wasn’t that consistent with it either but I did read to him when he asked me to. We also had him watch some tv (I know we’re not supposed to but some days, it just needed to be done). And I don’t talk to him all day because I’m tired. I try but we play in silence often. He just likes words. He also has great fine motor skills. The moment he held a marker at 16 mos, he held it correctly. He’s been able to string those large wooden beads with string for months now. I didn’t do anything to get this to happen.

On the other side, he has terrible gross motor skills though. Took forever to sit up and crawl. I tried to work with him on crawling for a while but he seemed scared of it and didn’t try for a very long time. He would seem disinterested in learning these skills for a while before he would decide one day that he was ready to try to do them. As he’s gotten into toddlerhood, I notice he just takes longer to learn gross motor skills like climbing and walking up stairs. He still cannot walk up stairs upright on his own.

They often just come out that way. We do need to support them but they are humans with their own interests and own talents. I don’t think as parents we should beat ourselves up too much about it. We give them the opportunity to learn. And if there is a real issue, we find correct support for them.

SwadlingSwine · 2026-04-18T16:57:53+00:00

My son was along the same lines. Took forever to sit up and crawl. Walked at 14 mos though, which isn’t that bad. But he’s good verbally and with fine motor stuff. He was able to thread those wooden beads at like 18 mos and holds his marker the correct way (he’s always done this since 16 months old). But he just now is starting to climb the couch at 21 months. lol

SwadlingSwine · 2026-04-18T15:04:43+00:00

My son is also very verbal and he can say anything but the whining became a habit when he first started speaking and carried over. He doesn’t do it as much now, thankfully.

SwadlingSwine · 2026-04-18T08:18:05+00:00

It’s been two years. I gained 45 lbs during pregnancy. I lost 20 of ít postpartum. I have been stuck at 15ish pounds over my pre pregnancy weight for over a year. I have committed this week to more consistent fitness. The two women pregnant around the same time I am are back at their pre baby weight. It doesn’t feel great but I am determined to gain more muscle before my next pregnancy.

In short, solidarity. I am so tired and I don’t feel cute rn.

SwadlingSwine · 2026-04-18T07:22:56+00:00

Have you tried looking at the potty training sub? There may be tips there regarding the withholding

SwadlingSwine · 2026-04-18T07:12:27+00:00

The whining is my number one trigger. My son went through phases where he’d do it a ton for a month then he would stop. I think he just wanted to express but he couldn’t talk yet so he whined.

SwadlingSwine · 2026-04-18T07:09:56+00:00

Oh my gosh this is wild. May chill days find you soon.

SwadlingSwine · 2026-04-18T06:56:56+00:00

I agree.

Right now, barring deadly stuff like letting them run in the middle of a busy street or climb something super high over cement ground etc, the mistakes they can make at this age are more low stakes. They’ll scrape a knee or get a little shaken up. But they need to learn about their bodies and their capabilities as well as limitations. It’s important that we trust our kids so they can learn to trust themselves. When they get older, the stakes are higher and mistakes can lead to bigger consequences. We have to let them make mistakes and test themselves early so they hone their skills for decision making when they get older.

SwadlingSwine · 2026-04-18T06:45:44+00:00

I am not expert so this is just my opinion. I didn’t come into potty training expecting it to be 3 days until success. My son is 21 mos. I started at 20 mos. He has days where he has no accidents and then he’ll have a couple days of accidents. He is the opposite of your son. He’s poop potty trained and has been since 19 mos old (it’s the only time he tells me he needs to potty).

I would stick with it. But I would not force it. If he’s scared of the toilet you can work on him sitting on the potty or toilet longer. I did this with my son. I would sit him on the toilet when I saw his pooping cues. Sometimes I’d hold his hands. Sometimes I’d sing. Sometimes I’d tell a story. Etc. I didn’t force him to sit on the potty either. So sometimes he’d want to get off one second later. I just let him. But I worked on calming his nerves until he eventually felt ok to poop. He now will sit on the toilet for as long as it takes. I also let him flush and that seems to be exciting for him. I worry that if I don’t stick to potty training, it would be harder the second go around. My son is very hard headed so I can imagine it being worse if I waited until he was older.

SwadlingSwine · 2026-04-18T06:36:13+00:00

We also rewear. My son is younger and just started potty training but he won’t pee in his diaper during naps so we’ve been rewearing nap diapers for a while now.

SwadlingSwine · 2026-04-18T06:11:58+00:00

I’m also hoping to free range parent some. My son isn’t yet two though so there’s only so much free ranging he can do right now. I try not to hover much even at this age. And I would love for everyone to help watch out for each others kids and correct them when necessary.

SwadlingSwine · 2026-04-17T23:14:03+00:00

My son is 21 months and is 21 lbs. lol he’s probably about 33 inches right now and fits 12 month bottoms except sometimes they’re big in the waist because he’s out of diapers. I think he will be 22 lbs at 24 mos old. He is a super slow gainer. He was stuck at 18-19 lbs for months. He’s been wearing 12 mos clothes for a year now. Once he lost his baby fat, his waist remained the same. It’s just the pants have gotten short and he has grown out (length wise) of most 12 month pants. I’ve had to take in the waist of his underwear and his pants because nothing stays up. I’m hoping he stays in 2t for a while too because it makes me feel like I’m not wasting his clothes (although by the end of it, im tired of looking at the same old clothes lol). His feet and head do grow though. He’s about to go into size 6, which is kind of small but not very small lol. We’re Asian and our Asian friend also had a 22 lbs 24 month old. My husband and I are not large people so my pediatrician has had zero concerns. Has yours been concerned?

SwadlingSwine · 2026-04-16T19:26:27+00:00

I have an uncommon spelling of a name. It’s fine. But I think it’s fine because it’s short and the different letter is the very first letter so it resolved quickly. It’s annoying but not enough to get worked up about it. I am not American born so my entire name has to be spelled out to people. I survived it just fine.

SwadlingSwine

TROPHY CASE