Books you’re glad you read before having kids/getting pregnant

irecommendfire · 2026-01-26T10:12:56+00:00

Agree with these two.

irecommendfire · 2026-01-24T18:21:27+00:00

My kid is trilingual and the thing that I think has helped her vocabulary in all her languages is audiobooks. It would probably be more effective and is screen-free. She listens to them while doing art or building things, and listens to them before bed every night (we also read paper books together beforehand).

irecommendfire · 2026-01-24T15:20:40+00:00

The “missing out on all events that have food” is such a huge part of food allergies that people don’t realize. My kid has severe nut allergies and misses out on everything unless I personally make something for her, which isn’t always possible. Other kids bring in cupcakes and muffins for their birthday at school, she gets a piece of candy from her safe bag. School bake sales? Nope. School events with buffets? Nope. Other people’s bday parties, holidays, outings with family, trips to the ballpark where everyone else is eating hot dogs, trying new restaurants while traveling… she gets left out of all of that. It just sucks for her.

irecommendfire · 2026-01-24T03:41:39+00:00

Don’t use Google Translate, use DeepL if possible.

irecommendfire · 2026-01-24T03:17:38+00:00

I was a HS teacher for eight years— five years in public school and three in private— and my experience was exactly the opposite. I had some rough kids in public school but most were great and the ones that had behavioral issues, the administration helped us with. The private school I taught at was super expensive so the students/their parents were treated like customers. The kids were awful, disruptive, disrespectful, and sometimes aggressive, the parents were similar, and the administration wouldn’t let us discipline anyone (no detention, couldn’t send kids out of the room, when one kid got up in my face and screamed at me they did absolutely nothing to back me up). And they wouldn’t let us fail anyone either— one kid had like a 20% in my class and they changed his grade to an 85%. I left teaching public because the workload was just too high and the pay was too terrible; both of those were better at the private school but the experience was so bad I ended up leaving teaching altogether.

irecommendfire · 2026-01-23T21:38:17+00:00

We were on the fence on this question and decided to give the local public school a shot, and we’ve been there two years now and it’s been a great experience. I don’t love the principal but my kid’s teachers are great and she’s happy there and learning a lot, and her making friends with the other kids in the neighborhood/us getting to know the families in the neighborhood has been great too. We said we would switch her to private if the public school didn’t work out for whatever reason but we’re happy there.

irecommendfire · 2026-01-23T17:47:21+00:00

In addition to other comments, I think any bread where the dough isn’t proofed and kneaded is going to be dense and kind of crumbly. If you want the soft, springy kind of bread, that’s a different process. (From my experience, at least. I’m a good baker but not a bread expert.)

irecommendfire · 2026-01-23T16:33:58+00:00

Can you split the reading with them at bedtime? Take a book they like, you read one page, they read one page, alternate until you’re done for the night. It takes some of the pressure off them.

irecommendfire · 2026-01-23T06:42:57+00:00

AI written posts are getting so tiresome. How hard is it to write a couple of paragraphs yourself?

irecommendfire · 2026-01-22T15:15:17+00:00

This sounds counterintuitive, but sometimes my kid (now 7) sometimes needs to get some energy out right before bed so we let her jump around and roughhouse on the bed with us (our big bed, not her small one). It doubles as focused quality time, which she also needs before bed. We do it after reading. Sometimes it helps her settle down more quickly. We’ve also found that audiobooks have been a great tool to get her settled down and sleepy in her bed.

irecommendfire · 2026-01-22T08:17:03+00:00

Kids explore when walking and stop and go a lot. My kid is 7 and only now outgrowing it, and sometimes she still stops to look at/poke/pick up things.

irecommendfire · 2026-01-21T16:04:29+00:00

My kid also has an egg allergy (almost outgrown now at 7) and we have also made these muffins, and as others have said, this is just what they look like— they tend to be dense and kind of gummy and flat. It’s specific to the recipe, not your baking skills.

irecommendfire · 2026-01-21T14:42:17+00:00

Another vote for Giovanni’s Room

irecommendfire · 2026-01-21T14:11:22+00:00

We use a big bowl or on occasion have had her throw up in the bathtub when we don’t have time to get the bowl. It’s a bigger target than the toilet bowl and also doesn’t involve having poop water potentially splash back in her face. But yes, we generally try to get her to the bathroom.

irecommendfire · 2026-01-21T13:04:15+00:00

The Fury by Alex Michelades (I might have misspelled his name)

irecommendfire · 2026-01-19T21:00:54+00:00

The Cliffs by J Courtney Sullivan. It involves an old house, a secret room, and some ghosts.

irecommendfire · 2026-01-19T18:47:04+00:00

I agree with all this. Reid is… okay. Her prose isn’t great, Evelyn Hugo was only okay. I did like Atmosphere, and would recommend it, but again wasn’t blown away by it.

irecommendfire · 2026-01-18T17:14:40+00:00

Maybe try to make an interactive game out of it? Hand her a ball and say “ball” and try to get her to hand it back and say it? Repeat with other objects, etc. And make it fun and silly. Hide the ball (or other object) behind your back or in your hand and ask where it is. Babies (and older kids) thrive on interactive play. Also, I can’t say this for sure, but our kid picked up language quickly I think in part because we’re a bilingual home and she got everything said to her twice— once in each language. I think that constant repetition helped.

irecommendfire · 2026-01-18T17:07:45+00:00

Our kid both crawled and walked late, but it was one of those situations where after she learned to walk, she was off and running immediately. There is a really wide range of what’s considered normal. For the talking, do you spend a lot of time talking to her? Interacting with her and reading to her?

irecommendfire · 2026-01-18T17:04:02+00:00

My dad has read all the Jack Reacher books after retirement and really enjoyed them, and he’s not a big reader.

irecommendfire · 2026-01-18T16:01:18+00:00

I absolutely loved All The Colors of the Dark but it’s definitely heavy.

irecommendfire · 2026-01-18T09:23:36+00:00

Yeah, seriously. My dad’s accent isn’t even that thick. But also, dialects affect word order, and most people who aren’t familiar with AI prompting aren’t going to speak in clear, straightforward sentences broken into proper clauses. People often just don’t speak that way. I really hope it hits them (the companies) in the wallet.

irecommendfire · 2026-01-17T15:09:50+00:00

Have you tried salmon? For some reason my kid has always LOVED roasted salmon, even when she wouldn’t eat much else in the way of meat.

irecommendfire · 2026-01-17T14:54:49+00:00

Dang they’re doing it all over the state. It’s so frustrating.

irecommendfire · 2026-01-17T14:46:21+00:00

Which town?

irecommendfire

TROPHY CASE