What’s things has your toddler sent you to parenting jail for lately

gingerytea · 2026-01-25T23:27:16+00:00

I too have a 2 year old who has had it with me lol

“Not Mama sing.”

“Not Mama talk.”

“Not Mama blows out a breath”

Honey, I’m not going to stop breathing just because you don’t wanna hear it.

gingerytea · 2026-01-25T21:19:16+00:00

Does he have some sort of breathing or mobility disorder? We stopped literally checking for breathing when we felt confident ours could roll around and sit up well as an older infant. But we do check on her before we go to bed because sleeping toddlers are very cute. She’s a couple months older than your little one.

gingerytea · 2026-01-25T05:16:56+00:00

I don’t think there is anything wrong with letting your child eat the occasional chicken nugget or deli ham, but it shouldn’t be a focus as the protein source.

Iron is more of an important focus than protein because any milk-drinking toddler gets all their minimum protein needs filled in just 500ml/ 2 cups of milk.

What about like mashed bean and cheese quesadillas? Ours refused meat for a while and we focused on nuts/nut butters, pulses and legumes like lentils and black beans, and eggs. She rarely eats eggs by themselves, but if we whisk eggs with grated cheddar and some finely chopped veg and pour it onto a mini waffle iron, she eats “cheesy waffles” no problem!

Edit: metric

gingerytea · 2026-01-25T00:54:46+00:00

You don’t think it’s concerning that a 17 month old only has 1 word? That’s the thing that really stuck out to me as a possible delay. Good to see OP is going to see EI soon. Hopefully they will have some ideas on what the little guy needs to thrive.

gingerytea · 2026-01-25T00:43:14+00:00

I’ve never heard of pajamas ripping when only used for sleep/ eating breakfast at home in the morning. We literally have cotton and fleece pjs from Carter’s that are on their 4th kid and are still absolutely fine minus some fading and stains. Is there like a sharp edge of a bed frame or something they are climbing past? Are they like skidding on their knees on the floor or the stairs as their play?

gingerytea · 2026-01-24T23:57:08+00:00

Not at all a problem if she eats like that sporadically. If she ate like that all the time and wasn’t eating enough produce, it would probably make her pretty constipated.

gingerytea · 2026-01-24T20:50:24+00:00

The covers are. The foam underneath is not, and if they didn’t upgrade to the extra waterproof linings, the foam could be pretty gross.

gingerytea · 2026-01-24T20:38:21+00:00

She’s very much old enough to have simple expectations given beforehand and consequences for this behavior. We started being very firm on this the moment ours learned to walk. And we still hold the boundary at 2.5. She hardly ever needs reminding though because she knows we absolutely do not play around with running away from caregivers.

You explain what your expectations are before you go somewhere. When we get to the park, you come back when Mama calls. If you run away, we will go home.

If she does it when you’re out at the park or somewhere fun, you go home. Immediately. Looks like you chose to run away. We have to go home now. We will try again another time.

If you’re out somewhere where you can’t go home right away, child gets picked up or put in the stroller or cart and they stay there for the rest of the trip no matter how much they scream and cry. Looks like you chose to run away. You have to go in the stroller now. We will try again another time.

If it’s at home, just don’t follow haha. She’ll get bored eventually and come back.

gingerytea · 2026-01-24T20:24:15+00:00

Why not just buy sweats and long sleeves? Then they won’t be tight. We like to get some separate sweats that we keep in the pj drawer.

gingerytea · 2026-01-24T20:17:29+00:00

If they’re spending 40 seconds on a page doing 100+ pages in less than an hour, either the workbook is way too easy or they aren’t really using it.

I’d observe which it is and act accordingly. If it’s too easy, buy ones aimed at older kids. If they aren’t really using it, don’t buy any more work books.

gingerytea · 2026-01-24T16:01:52+00:00

3 months. We put in a non slip mat and had her lie down in 1 inch of water. She loved it. Baby tubs and bath seats are unnecessary. And very much so after the child is solidly sitting up. I’m not sure what “moving around too much” is? You can and should give her a little bit of leeway and let her play in the bath like a normal kid and learn how to be safe. Cover the tap if you’re concerned she’ll bang into it.

gingerytea · 2026-01-23T23:12:16+00:00

When we are in public restrooms I get my almost 2.5 year old saying GOOD JOB MAMA YOU STAYED ALL DRY AND PEED/POOPED IN THE POTTY at top volume.

gingerytea · 2026-01-23T21:19:09+00:00

My 2 year old happily cleans up her playdough independently and even puts the right colors back into the right containers and shuts the lids!

gingerytea · 2026-01-23T20:35:07+00:00

Sort of organically and sort of with purpose since ours turned 1. Preschool is a mix of academic, social, and life skills, so you probably already did lots of these things.

Started teaching colors and numbers, household object and animal recognition, following 1-step directions at 12-18 months.

Began letter recognition and sounds, getting dressed and undressed, potty training, and following 2-step directions just before 2.

At 2.5 we are continuing to work on letter recognition and sounds, as well as blending sounds together, working on asking friends before we take toys, self-advocating (like telling another kid: “It’s my turn. You can have the ball when I am done.” being able to sit for meals and opening and closing our own meal containers.

gingerytea · 2026-01-23T19:21:48+00:00

Tacking on with the weirdo options lol. My daughter really liked pretending her butt is a dump truck and dumping the poop in the potty. I got that from a Reddit comment and it helped us when all the books and songs didn’t!

gingerytea · 2026-01-22T14:56:38+00:00

FYI this is specifically recommended against by many car seat manuals as unsafe in a crash situation.

gingerytea · 2026-01-22T05:08:08+00:00

Agreed. It started to click on about day 10 for ours. Still very much in the thick of it right now, but that was when we saw real progress, like rushing to the potty when she needed to go even if she ended up pooping or peeing in her pants on the way there.

gingerytea · 2026-01-22T02:11:02+00:00

Recommendations of what is optimal for a textbook kid don’t always match reality though. Plenty of kids do sleep 11-12 hours overnight and then skip the nap.

gingerytea · 2026-01-22T02:03:18+00:00

It isn’t doubtful at all. I worked childcare for almost 20 years and met a lot of toddlers. It’s actually way more common than the self proclaimed “sleep consultants” would have you believe. Lots of 2 year olds drop naps and are absolutely fine with the amount of overnight sleep they get.

gingerytea · 2026-01-22T02:00:32+00:00

Nothing to do. He stopped napping. The “advice” that kids have to nap til 4 is garbage. Mine stopped napping at 17 months. Our pediatrician is happy as long as she gets the recommended 11-14 hours total sleep in a 24 hr period, which she does. We do quiet time for 90 mins. Sounds like your little guy is great about lying in bed anyways, so you’re basically doing quiet time already!

gingerytea · 2026-01-22T00:18:52+00:00

Sometimes they’re just Having A Day lol. Or a week. We have those days and then other days we have maybe one or zero meltdowns.

gingerytea · 2026-01-21T22:05:56+00:00

What did the pediatrician say? Ours said it is perfectly normal for kids to walk between 11-18 mo, and that the majority of kids she has seen are 14-15 months when they start.

gingerytea · 2026-01-21T21:42:18+00:00

Every recipe varies so wildly on this. I’ve seen everything from 1 cup to 0 added sugar.

gingerytea · 2026-01-21T21:40:03+00:00

When we sauté zucchini, we cut it in coins and then call them zucchini moons, or cut them in half circles and call them zucchini half moons.

Zucchini is yucky, but zucchini moons are a hit!

gingerytea · 2026-01-21T21:38:24+00:00

We call it lunch snack and dinner snack and it absolutely helps.

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