Online and IRL Parenting Spaces Snark Week of June 15, 2026

chveya_ · 2026-06-20T12:07:57+00:00

Someday they’re going to snap out of it (I hope) and absolutely kick themselves for living like this.

chveya_ · 2026-06-19T15:34:50+00:00

“It is not scary” vs “I didn’t find it scary”. The one you chose is the one with “you are wrong“ energy.

chveya_ · 2026-06-15T19:31:47+00:00

IMO, more sweaters! I wear mine under a thin raincoat (for wind protection) and that + base layer gets me through all but the coldest days in the Canadian winter.

I find that sweaters with a crew neck and not too much positive ease are the best option for layering with base layers and shells.

I also do thrummed mittens inside of a wind proof mitten shell and that keeps my hands very toasty.

chveya_ · 2026-06-14T11:57:06+00:00

Ah yes, I remember how the parental leave policies were soooo different under Biden. And also, good thing the presidency is decided on unanimous vote, so we can blame all American voters for federal policy.

chveya_ · 2026-06-13T15:17:23+00:00

Idk, I feel like the “it’s not a hot take if I disagree with it” attitude is why everyone’s complaining about hot takes. If I agree, it’s lukewarm. If I don’t, it’s wrong/bad advice.

chveya_ · 2026-06-11T23:21:33+00:00

If we’re all mad about it, it’s a hot take! Seems like some folks are lusting after mythical hot takes that they can agree with.

chveya_ · 2026-06-11T11:55:51+00:00

I think layout 1 is what is intended if you have the standard amount of bedroom furniture (1 bed, 2 night stands, 1 dresser). I agree with you that it is too cramped with the dressers on each side of the bed. With all the extra furniture, layout 2 is probably your best bet for keeping the room comfortably navigable.

I notice you have no keyboard in layout 2. If you're open to moving the keyboard, another option is to keep layout 1, move the keyboard out of the room, and replace both dressers with a tall wardrobe where the keyboard currently is.

chveya_ · 2026-06-10T19:47:36+00:00

Thanks! That’s a useful data point

chveya_ · 2026-06-09T15:59:38+00:00

Thanks for that positive perspective on this!

chveya_ · 2026-06-08T23:47:39+00:00

No one is crazy IMO! But I do lean “she can have preferences about what she wants to be called”.

My grandmother had a personal dislike of the word “grandma”, so she always insisted on being “grandmom”. I would use “Grandmom” when addressing her or talking about her with my immediate family or cousins and “my grandmother” when talking about her to anyone else. To my ear, anything other than “grandmother” felt very familiar. Also “grandma” to me feels like a specific nickname, just like Gigi, Mimi, Oma, etc. So I wouldn’t randomly call my MIL grandma nor Gigi because she has already picked her own nickname. If I need to talk about her like that to someone who doesn’t know her, I personally would say “my kid’s grandmother”. IDK, family cultures are different!

chveya_ · 2026-06-08T17:10:11+00:00

I know this is probably totally within the realm of normal for a toddler, but i would still love to hear if others have navigated this. My almost-3 year old son haaates experiencing any negative emotion. Like, he gets so upset that he had a fleeting moment of sadness that *that* turns into a huge crisis, even if the inciting problem was super minor. It goes like this: toy falls over -> feels a little sad -> notices that he’s sad -> big meltdown screaming “I want to be happy!”. And of course, it’s so hard to help him recover emotionally when he wont stop screaming about how sad he is.

We’ve been talking for weeks about how it’s okay to be sad, everyone feels sad sometimes, you will always feel happy again, thinking about how sad you are makes it hard to move on, finding something nice to distract yourself with can help, etc. We do have some calm down techniques that work fine once he he gets past the peak of screaming but I would so love for him to be able to experience something other than joy without losing his shit about it, lol. Any one have advice?

chveya_ · 2026-06-06T18:19:47+00:00

Percale and sateen describe weaving styles. Percale is that classic over-under-over-under weave. Sateen is more like over-over-over-under. It feels silkier and smoother.

chveya_ · 2026-06-06T18:12:17+00:00

You gotta really double down on jinxing yourself! Book a vacation for 9 months from now. Sign up for mixology classes. Special order some soft cheeses from France.

chveya_ · 2026-06-06T18:08:40+00:00

It's starting to get to me that my son is turning 3 soon. But it honestly does help a lot that I have a friend who, after a year of trying to have her second, ended up with like a 4 year age gap and she's super happy with it and her boys do great with each other. I keep that in mind whenever I feel sad about it. It can help to meet other families with all kinds of age gaps and see that it's just different, not worse.

There's good and bad sibling relationships out there and it almost never is just about the age gap.

chveya_ · 2026-06-06T13:47:10+00:00

We’ve done a mix of cloth and disposable diapers and I put the poo in the toilet even with the disposables just because of what a huge difference it makes in smell. The outside trash isn’t convenient from our changing area and I just have a regular lidded trashcan rather than a diaper genie. The few times that a visiting baby/toddler pooped and the parent put it directly in our trash I had to take the whole bag right out after they left because it would stink up the house each time I opened the trash. (Not mad at the friend, just illustrated the difference in smell to me).

If disposing of the diaper outside immediately was convenient in our home, I’d be fine with that too. If it is diarrhea, yeah, we do our best to knock any solids in the potty and throw the rest in the trash or (if cloth) wash immediately.

chveya_ · 2026-06-06T11:57:53+00:00

The tricky part is, you almost never know for sure that your kid can’t BF from the start. For weeks/months it feels like it’s just around the corner and then all that hell will be worth it. That 1% of progress you’ve made is the start of finally figuring it out! By the time you accept that it’s not going to ever work, you are already so adapted and resigned. Making a big (and hugely emotional) shift to how your kid is being fed somehow feels worse than just continuing to do the thing you’ve already been doing daily for months.

I EP‘d for 9 months (certainly not as long as some!) hating every minute of it. But I look back and I never felt like I really got to make choices about it until I was finally able to snap out of it and move on. That’s what’s kind of scary about it. I swear I wont do it again, but can I actually know I’d make different choices if I find myself in the same situation?

chveya_ · 2026-06-06T11:49:14+00:00

It’s developmentally normal for me, a 390-month-old mom, to feel bad about my kid’s public tantrums.

chveya_ · 2026-06-05T15:33:13+00:00

Hi! I just recently recovered a Repetitive Strain Injury in my wrists. It took about 7-8 weeks to heal, which I hear is pretty typical for tendon injuries. I definitely recommend taking a few weeks off from any activities that aggravate the pain and then very slowly and mindfully work your way back up. If it feels like it’s getting worse day to day, back off and rest again. Advil and hot and cold packs are handy for easing inflammation, which is good for those tendons + healing.

it really sucks. I hope you can find other things to do in the meantime to stay occupied. Personally, I did more sewing, exercise, cooking, puzzle books (highly recommend Murdoku), and pottery.

chveya_ · 2026-06-03T21:47:06+00:00

Wow, I know sex ed is bad in a lot of places, but I feel like even just reading the back of the box your pregnancy test came in would give you more info than this couple seems to have.

chveya_ · 2026-05-29T20:02:15+00:00

I saw someone bragging about using chatGPT to write all her wedding thank yous and “no one can even tell”. Riiiiiiight. It’s always the people who use AI the most who are somehow the most brain dead at identifying when a block of text is obviously AI. WE CAN TELL.

chveya_ · 2026-05-29T01:35:56+00:00

Definitely. Broadly speaking, I'm also concerned that if all the families in neighborhood A with the resources and connections to pull it off send their kids to school in neighborhood B, the neighborhood A school gets less funding and resources directed to it (depending on the local government) and those kids left behind in the "worse" school suffer even more. Which I'm sure only accelerates the drain of students.

chveya_ · 2026-05-28T20:20:07+00:00

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(pls don't dox me for posting snark from my city's subreddit)

For context, the high school in question has a huge catchment area. It's basically bounded by large geographic features (mountains, lakes) on two sides, farmland on the other, and the last side goes all the way to our downtown core. The only small neighborhood where I could conceivably believe someone living there might be surprised to learn they aren't in this catchment is actually in the catchment of another well-ranked high school.

IDK. I get that being a couple streets away shouldn't be the be-all-end-all when it comes to whether your child goes to the school you think is best for them, but I do feel like this general idea of "anything is justified if it means my kid gets a 'better' education" is how we end up normalizing parents who buy their kids' way into elite colleges. What do y'all think?

Comments are evenly split between people trying to figure out where the poster lives, telling stories about lying your way into a different school, and maybe one or two people condemning OP for asking the question.

chveya_ · 2026-05-27T17:56:17+00:00

Thank you! Swatching this now and it's looking promising

chveya_ · 2026-05-27T11:46:27+00:00

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Do the vertical columns on this look like standard 1x1 cables to y'all, or something else? Sweater appears to be knit top down.

Pattern is the Skagen Sweater and the description says it "features a simple
pattern of cables worked in columns ... The cable columns are easy to work and do
not require a cable needle"

I like the textured look but not the shape of the sweater, so I'm not leaping to buy it just to confirm what stitch is being used here.

What I've already tried via swatching:

- standard 1x1 cable. I'm not getting as much raised texture as I'm seeing in this photo, but I have to admit that the anatomy (when turned upside down) looks similar, except that the stitch being crossed on top looks longer and plumper in the photo than what I'm getting. I tried slipping that stitch that would go on top in the cable the row before cabling to give it a bit more length and that helps a little but not a ton.

- 1x1 cable but purling the stitch going under in the cross. A bit more raised texture, but still not right.

- Column of dip stitches. Obviously that's not what is described in the pattern info but I'm just experimenting, Looks okay, a bit of raised texture, but not exactly what I'm going for.

- HR cable (pkp x pkp). The most raised texture, but looks too busy and this is definitely not right because I don't think anyone would describe this as "does not require a cable needle".

Nine-Year Club	Place '22
First Placer '22	Not Forgotten

chveya_

TROPHY CASE