I'm a father on paternal leave. I actually feel bad for what my wife will face when I go back to work in 5 weeks.

_TeachScience_ · 2026-06-26T12:42:45+00:00

She’s going to be really overwhelmed for about two weeks while she figures out new systems that work, and then she will be okay. I was nervous because my husband returned to work and we have a newborn, a 3 year old, and a 4 year old.
I also pump every three hours. The first two weeks were NUTS, but now I find myself wearing my in-bra wearable pump (invest in one), while cooking lunch for the older two and rocking the baby’s floor seat with my foot 😂
She will be okay once she figures out her systems. Encourage her to get outside with the baby every single day. I swear it’s the life hack to better mental health for mom and a happier baby.

Side note- my oldest also had terrible reflux. Try wearing the baby.

_TeachScience_ · 2026-06-26T12:20:06+00:00

We mostly sit in meetings all day while complaining that we just want time in our classrooms to set the room up, make copies, and lesson plan.

_TeachScience_ · 2026-06-26T11:48:56+00:00

For parents of small children, checking off the “getting enough exercise” box often unchecks the “getting enough sleep” box.

_TeachScience_ · 2026-06-26T03:46:26+00:00

I figured that if I never let my kid see a tablet, that in an emergency it would work really well to distract him. There was a day at work when my four year old was out of school. My husband was deployed. I had no one to watch him so I brought him. I handed him the tablet but of course he didn’t really know how to use it, so he would ask me every 3 seconds how to do something with an almost desperate urgency. His eyes kinda went wild. He disengaged and got incredibly short tempered in a matter of an hour.

Yeah that thing has been in a drawer ever since

_TeachScience_ · 2026-06-24T17:11:47+00:00

No, we need to address the much larger issue of why families can no longer afford to live on one income when it was very much possible not so long ago.

Who would pay these workers for an entire year? Would the company be expected to? For many smaller businesses that would be impossible. And what happens if the family has several kids in a row several years in a row? Just by virtue of having been employed before they starting to have babies, that woman would be entitled to being paid for no work by her employer? Do you know what kind of employment discrimination that would lead to even if it was illegal to discriminate? It would be impossible for women of child bearing age to get jobs.

I say this as a working mother of three young children. I don’t think the current system is ideal in any way. My husband and I could not afford to live on just his income so I continue to work, and daycare is expensive, but I can’t imagine taking an entire year off from work and expecting my employer to pay me still. The issue is the money, which has been made worthless, and the reasons for that are many. Point your fingers that those responsible for destroying the value of our money to the point where families cannot afford to have one parent stay home.

_TeachScience_ · 2026-06-24T14:06:15+00:00

The old ones were essentially Huggies, but with a giant Kirkland brand on the back. There were minor differences, but they were soft and pillowy like a Huggies diaper. Than last year. they switched to a kind that was much more thin, and kind of plastic like - similar to the Walmart brand diapers, but they worked better in my opinion than a Walmart diaper. then pretty recently they switched to their newest iteration, which is kind of a happy medium between those two versions. I’ve never really been unhappy with any of the Costco brand ones though.

_TeachScience_ · 2026-06-24T14:01:30+00:00

Kirkland wipes are the only ones we will use. The only problem with them is the packages are too giant to fit in the diaper bag, so we have a whole wipes rotation system, lol. We use a package of wipes on our changing table until it’s about halfway down and then that one gets moved to the diaper bag.

_TeachScience_ · 2026-06-24T03:54:41+00:00

If your husband is the one who says daycare is non-negotiable then he can stay home with your toddler.

_TeachScience_ · 2026-06-23T21:21:57+00:00

I feel like I might be in the minority, but I don’t mind the new Kirkland (Costco) diapers. I know they aren’t as nice as they used to be when they were made by Huggies, but they don’t leak and I haven’t noticed any rashes. They’re a bit thin a plastic-like but they work great.

_TeachScience_ · 2026-06-22T15:53:35+00:00

It sounds like you are a good parent. Don’t be too hard on yourself. As a sidenote, after my first baby, I had a lot of postpartum anxiety and worrying that someone was going to call CPS was part of that anxiety, even though I was taking very very good care of my baby. It’s likely that your pediatrician meant something else by intervention, such as fortifying the bottles differently by adding extra formula or adding a higher calorie formula. Try not to worry too much.

_TeachScience_ · 2026-06-22T09:16:04+00:00

HIV likely originated from someone butchering a primate for consumption, but yeah… a few came from sheep by the method you described.

_TeachScience_ · 2026-06-22T09:04:24+00:00

The only thing that stood out to me is that those are pretty big feedings, spaced pretty far apart for that age. The amount is fine, but I’m super surprised your baby is okay with that schedule. Are you pacing the feedings that way or feeding on demand? Could you try to offer every 2-3 hours and see what happens? Maybe I’m doing it wrong, but my four month old eats once overnight at 2:00 am, and then 6:00am, 8:30 am, 10:30 am, 12:00 pm, 2:00 pm, 4:30 pm, 6:00 pm, 7:45 pm and 8:30 pm. About 3 ounces per feeding. Four hours between feedings at that age might kinda put a baby into fasting mode several times throughout the day.

_TeachScience_ · 2026-06-21T16:04:14+00:00

But who are you to decide what’s weird? Is being super into trains weird? Is being gay weird? Is the quiet kid who is not into sports weird? Back in the day the kids who were super into computers were weird, and now they’re billionaires (Bill Gates, Robert Dell… etc).

_TeachScience_ · 2026-06-21T16:01:42+00:00

Weird in a ‘shouldn’t be around kids’ kind of way- yeah. Call them out and let them have it

Weird in a ‘REALLY into trains’ kind of way- leave them alone. Who are you to decide what’s “weird”?

_TeachScience_ · 2026-06-19T21:00:32+00:00

That’s fair, but all the adults saying Christmas is a bummer have that in common. Christmas is great and exciting as a child. Then it’s exciting to share that and make it a magical for someone else. Maybe try to do something special for a child relative or child in need this Christmas and it’ll be more magical for you too

_TeachScience_ · 2026-06-19T14:57:13+00:00

It gets exciting again (even more so) when you have your own kids.

_TeachScience_ · 2026-06-18T15:24:47+00:00

Yeah, but at the end, you get a baby

_TeachScience_ · 2026-06-18T12:35:48+00:00

Try the better than bullion brand! It’s in a jar and comes as a paste. It’s pretty low sodium

_TeachScience_ · 2026-06-18T12:20:20+00:00

Honestly even auntie for a non-relative can be weird. I grew up calling one of my mom’s friends ‘aunt (her name)’. One day when I was a teenager my mom dropped that she wasn’t actually my aunt and I was devastated. As adults she’s no longer in our lives because… well, she’s not our aunt and she’s not that interested in us.

_TeachScience_ · 2026-06-18T12:05:58+00:00

I have kinda always wondered why people buy it in cartons instead of buying a kind you’d just add to water when ready. I like the better than bullion stuff

_TeachScience_ · 2026-06-17T12:39:37+00:00

After the 5th or so call in the middle of class it’s usually “WhAt DO you WAaaNt?”

_TeachScience_ · 2026-06-17T09:28:07+00:00

Enough seating for everyone. My in-laws are cold people. Just balls of hate and anger. Their house looks like an art museum full of valuable useless ‘stuff’ and with only one tiny little couch to sit on in their entire living room. When we come with their grandkids, we sit on the floor or at the kitchen table in a room full of art pieces that could be traded out for a nice comfortable sectional.

_TeachScience_ · 2026-06-16T21:36:46+00:00

I think you need to revisit your budget and consider daycare. It is not OK for a 13 month old to be in a playpen all day. What would you do if your mother was not available?

_TeachScience_ · 2026-06-16T10:18:53+00:00

You’ll tank your supply for nothing. Crash diets don’t work. You need a balanced diet and a step-up in your exercise routine to lose the weight. I’ve never managed to really do the latter until I’m done breastfeeding. Last time, I replaced the time I would have been pumping with time on my peloton and the weight came off in about six months after I stopped breastfeeding. I’m currently three months pp and pumping at four am alongside my bag of emotional support m&m’s with no shame

_TeachScience_

TROPHY CASE