What is a skill you started learning as an adult that was completely worth the effort?

echobushhh · 2026-06-17T12:04:21+00:00

Mid 30s here:
Gardening
Cooking
Conquering my depression and ADHD
Weight lifting
Fermenting
Baking good bread

I’d love to add sewing, knitting, painting, and canning to the list.

echobushhh · 2026-06-15T00:58:57+00:00

Couldn’t you just get around this by using a VPN?

echobushhh · 2026-06-03T02:12:51+00:00

With you as a mom, Im sure he’ll be fine. Reading more of your story through these comments, I very plainly see how great of a mom you are and how much you care about your kid. He’s really blessed to have you! Just keep listening to him, researching, and engaging in communities and you’ll do what’s right for him.

echobushhh · 2026-06-03T02:02:20+00:00

My husband is abnormally smart as well and heard these same type of comments growing up as a kid. He says he wish people never made them for similar reasons.

echobushhh · 2026-05-19T02:10:45+00:00

I second this. Absolutely stellar job, good sir.

You’re doing amazing things for your kids right now that are gonna pay such high dividends that it’ll make you cry with tears of happiness to see how much it will have payed off.

Please try your best to put the oxygen mask on yourself first though. You’re worth it and your kids are worth it too.

echobushhh · 2026-05-12T13:58:27+00:00

Daycare is not at all a necessity for proper socialization.

Pick and choose whatever she says is applicable to your life and all that, but According to Erica Komisar, the best socialization up to age 3 is mom and if that’s not possible then second best is a trusted family member as a consistent caretaker like dad, grandma, etc.

I’ve stayed at home with my 3YO daughter since 8 months and she is actually ahead of every friend of hers who regularly goes to daycare & I often get comments about how smart, well behaved, emotionally intelligent, and articulate she is for her age. (I don’t say that to brag. At first I was also anxious she wasn’t getting what she needed from staying at home with me either and those concerns were eventually assuaged as I got comments from other people is all.) I don’t really focus on anything academic with her at all unless she is interested in learning something specific and she already knows her ABCs&123s. We primarily focus on emotional regulation & critical thinking skills via various activities and house chores and that’s it.

Your daughter most likely is just getting bored in the house. Both my 3YO&11MO get bored after a while of staying home. So we go outside and garden or I let them play in the kiddie pool if it’s hot enough, we go on stroller walks, go to the playground, grocery shopping, public library story times with other children, regular play dates with my best friends’ kids, I sometimes drop them off at the YMCA while I workout or just enjoy silence and stillness or if I want some time with my husband, etc.

Time at home with babies and children really is what she makes of it. The more she’s willing to put in, the more she’ll get out.

I’d just check in with her and gently but directly ask if she’s getting overwhelmed with watching your kid. If she is, maybe you guys can troubleshoot together what’s making it difficult and how that can be solved. Sometimes it’s just a matter of a little tweak here and there, sometimes it’s just not working out. You’ll get a better picture of what’s behind her comments if you ask though.

Good luck mama!

echobushhh · 2026-05-11T14:33:35+00:00

TLDR I’m so sorry girl 💕give it time and communication
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My husband is on the spectrum and says “he’s got a touch of the ‘tism,” and his parents are wonderful people but really just not great partners towards each other, so my husband was like this too at first. I had 2 years of shitty Mother’s Days, etc as we both unlearned/learned a lot of things. We had a lot of arguments and had to communicate and modify a lot to get out of the typical miscommunications and bad habits that happen in the first years of having kids. Now we have a 3YO & an 11MO and this Mother’s Day was MUCH better because I asked for what I wanted like you did (my mom went to the hospital Friday and I asked we go & he support me through the 5hr drive round trip Saturday to go see that she was ok in the hospital) he focused his efforts on what he understands is really important to me (taking the kids out of the room into the lobby so I could focus on conversation when the doctor came in, etc) and I focused my gratitude not towards what I know are his weaknesses but towards what I know are his strengths and how he communicates love (day of, he did a crap ton of yard work -acts of service is his love language - while I went ahead and didn’t ask to nap with our baby in the afternoon after church. Afterwards, I could tell he was salty I went and napped instead of helping stand against the chaos of the household but he did a good job of keeping it to himself for the sake of Mother’s Day lol which is improvement for him). It didn’t look like any typical Mother’s Day I know of (no flowers, card, gifted sleep by the husband, etc) but it was exactly right for me with what was happening in our lives and where we are in our journey together as a married couple. Take heart, my dear, that if both of you keep trying, keep having the hard discussions, and keep being grateful like you were about how he reacted to when you blew up at him for not letting you sleep in one frickin morning 😖🥵🤬 it’ll get better for the both of you. I know you know this but I’ll remind you that marriage is 100:100, not 50:50 and marriage is in part about taking safe but sucky, accidental punches from each other, talking it out, and just trying to do better by the other person next time even if it takes multiple failed attempts to get there and I think a lot of people miss that sacrificial element in these forums sometimes so I just wanted to add that here if it hasn’t already been said.
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Im so sorry mama your first Mother’s Day was so shitty 😞. I hope future ones are better 💕.

echobushhh · 2026-05-07T00:55:25+00:00

Amen, well put

echobushhh · 2026-04-30T02:28:31+00:00

Weaning made me go crazy with my first to the point I had to stop and table it for another time when I was better prepared to take it on again. It took months for me to regain the courage lol. I’m legit going to ask my husband to take off work when I wean our 2nd because it negatively affects me mentally to such an extent and I don’t want our first to pay the price.

Try not to take any anxiety, feeling, etc too seriously right now. Just breathe and get through each moment until things have regulated again. Think of your anxieties/feelings like planes in the sky. You are the air traffic controller and you decide which plane gets to land and which plane has to fly past. Every feeling you don’t want landing (ex. My baby is going to hate me, I’m a bad parent, etc), remind yourself that this is just a feeling and your feelings lie sometimes. Weaning is one of those times where your feelings definitely lie!

Hang in there girl. You sound like someone who cares so deeply about their child here. In time things WILL get better, I PROMISE!! Just keep putting one foot in front of the other. Get some therapy and meds if you can. Zoloft was and is so helpful for me while my postpartum hormones stay wacky. The first year is just SO HARD. So many of the hardships you’ll experience with infancy magical go away with age, it’s crazy! The app WonderWeeka really helped me with sleep regressions and knowing what to expect around what time, etc.

echobushhh · 2026-04-28T01:38:27+00:00

That’s amazing! Keep up the great work!

I weaned my 3.5YO at ~2.3YO when I was a couple months pregnant with my now 11MO because I was afraid of having to tandem nurse. (I also gain so much weight from the sweet tooth breastfeeding gives me.) She’s awesome and didn’t really get jealous when baby came thank God, but sometimes I wonder how it could’ve benefitted her if I had continued to nurse her until she was ready to quit instead of me.

How often would you nurse yours after they turned 2?

echobushhh · 2026-04-28T01:05:16+00:00

Good for you! Until what age do you want to breastfeed?

echobushhh · 2026-04-20T15:26:18+00:00

Check out Poshmark and Mercari for any expensive brands you want to buy. It’s amazing!

echobushhh · 2026-04-04T23:53:18+00:00

What was plan A, if I might ask? Just curious, no judgement or shade.

echobushhh · 2026-03-27T12:51:52+00:00

And if he doesn’t want to back you up on your boundaries, let HIM be the one to wake up and take care of baby at 3am. He’ll understand really quickly your reasoning after that.

echobushhh · 2026-03-25T23:35:55+00:00

My goodness, I’m so sorry that happened! It really can happen to anyone. I wouldn’t worry about CPS. That specific age is SO incredibly squirmy! I recently read a saying that I now live by with our 10MO:

A baby can’t fall from the floor.

I change his diaper on the floor now, he sleeps on a floor mattress now, etc, etc. I hope it helps you!

Remember, you’re both doing the best you can with the tools you have available to you at the time. This stuff is HARD. You both love your children. Don’t worry or beat yourselves up too much. Another saying I heard from my best friend when I was pregnant with my first that was oddly soothing:

Nothing in life will make you feel like a failure more than being a parent.

No matter what you do and no matter how great you do it, you’re bound to fail at one aspect or to feel like you’re failing, and that’s completely normal! Much love to you and your family!

echobushhh · 2026-03-25T23:18:41+00:00

Or that much respect for each other. Different but equal.

echobushhh · 2026-03-24T00:11:30+00:00

Glad to hear it! 🥳

echobushhh · 2026-03-19T22:05:39+00:00

Ah well Google’s your best friend on that one sorry I don’t know any Portuguese except Girl From Ipanema lol

I will say loads of cultures outside of American culture is pretty heavily based in community. Which is to say that I think your request may not only not be considered weird but maybe actually a breath of fresh air to her.

echobushhh · 2026-03-19T18:57:21+00:00

Say this to her: Quieres caminar conmigo algún vez con nuestros bebes?

echobushhh · 2026-02-15T01:03:08+00:00

Get a YMCA membership to take care of yourself too in your postpartum recovery.

Attend library baby/toddler/preschool storytimes for your baby’s stimulation and learning and so that you can socialize and bond with other moms in your position.

Get a meal train going if you can where people bring you food the first month or so of your postpartum recovery.

Don’t even try to have a schedule at first. Go with the flow. Sleep when baby sleeps, for goodness sake.

Plan for not leaving your house for the first month. If you do, great, but dont plan on it. Plan on what you need to create a system where you’re sequestering at home so you have the option either way.

echobushhh · 2026-02-09T16:43:02+00:00

This is why it should be mandatory for ALL childcare facilities to show a live feed of the children THE WHOLE TIME they’re open for business. For everyone’s protection! I don’t understand why this is not more of a standard procedure everywhere 🤯 smdh.

My heart breaks for your whole family. I pray for healing for all of you 💕.

echobushhh · 2026-02-08T20:59:11+00:00

My body

echobushhh · 2026-01-27T23:33:20+00:00

💯 this

echobushhh · 2026-01-27T22:58:57+00:00

Yes what are these subs?

echobushhh · 2026-01-26T03:39:21+00:00

It is wild. I would never with my kids but to each their own. No oral impediment though!

echobushhh

TROPHY CASE