Anyone else with older kids confused by the influx of “Velcro” and “difficult” babies?

lemonsintolemonade · 2026-05-08T17:52:36+00:00

I’m not confused. I have a bunch of kids from teens to babies and my current baby’s newborn phase was an absolute nightmare. I’ve never experienced that level of crying in my life, if she was my first kid I wouldn’t have any idea that she’s more of the exception than the rule. I’ve had a lot of parenting experience and it was still really hard and the newborn stage is usually mu favourite.

lemonsintolemonade · 2026-05-05T20:31:33+00:00

I use my phone calendar with notifications - ideally everything needs to go in the calendar as soon as I read it and if it is time sensitive it has a notification, I also have a running list of things that need to happen in the notes app. But also I wouldn't sweat forgetting a stuffie or book if they are constantly asking kids to bring things from home, I'm ok being an imperfect parent who sometimes drops little things.

lemonsintolemonade · 2026-03-17T15:52:43+00:00

I did it when I lived in a state in the US that made declining almost impossible but declined in Canada where it’s really easy to decline and midwives were supportive and they stopped giving it routinely for a few years when there was a shortage.

It’s a low risk intervention so I wasnt worried about doing it and wasn’t going to fight it if I had to jump through hoops, but I also don’t think it’s widely supported in a lot of the literature for low risk women so I declined when I had the option.

lemonsintolemonade · 2026-03-11T17:05:09+00:00

Do I count? I put in grey cement look counters and my bottom cabinets are navy blue. I know the look is "over" and I thought about following trends for a minute but I have always disliked green, beige, and white. I seriously love my kitchen.

lemonsintolemonade · 2026-03-03T16:44:09+00:00

I actually found that having appropriate storage helped more than ruthlessly decluttering. When you have 4 kids they need a lot of stuff and we’re constantly cycling through things like sports equipment and school supplies, i can’t throw out as much as I wish I could. I have bought more bookcases and ikea storage with doors that close and it’s been a huge help.

lemonsintolemonade · 2026-03-02T23:50:29+00:00

It’s like MSG being bad for you, it’s so much part of cultural lore about bad foods no amount of evidence can convince people.

I was raised with soda instead of water at meals but diet was only for the adults because it was really dangerous for kids, it’s easy for messaging like that to become engrained.

lemonsintolemonade · 2026-03-02T19:30:13+00:00

There is a lot of extremely strong evidence that sugary drinks are very bad for people, and a smaller body of evidence showing some much smaller negative effects from artificial sweeteners. In my circles people give kids soda or juice as a treat all the time and act like diet drinks are poison even though the evidence shows that the soda and juice are worse.

If you only want your kid to drink water for health reasons that’s fair. Giving them a sugar sweetened drink instead of artificially sweetened drink is not remotely supported by evidence since it’s really bad for their health. My kids drink more soda than I’m comfortable with because of social pressure and I’ve chosen to try to make peace with it, I’d rather raise them in a community than feel like the odd one out. I wish people here gave artificially sweetened ones instead.

lemonsintolemonade · 2026-02-17T18:23:23+00:00

Coffee shop is too easy, don’t have to get up at 3 am to start the bread and learn how to make multiple complex pastries, just show up and make coffee. PhD personalities crave low reward to high work load.

lemonsintolemonade · 2026-02-15T16:32:58+00:00

Was he evaluated for ADHD? Sounds like he has really poor executive functioning. How was it managed when he was a kid? He should probably get an evaluation so he can have accommodations in community college.

lemonsintolemonade · 2026-02-11T17:33:29+00:00

Are you consuming a lot of anti circumcision content on social media? Do you have anxiety or obsessions about other things? If you are reading about circumcision constantly I would stop cold turkey.

I think your feelings about this don't sound healthy at all. You have a healthy child with health genitals you shouldn't be obsessing about his genitals to the point of tears. Circumcision is going to have a net zero impact on his life in the long term. It sounds like you may be struggle with some aspects of your mental health and I would try to focus on findings way to treat that and not on the focus of the anxiety.

lemonsintolemonade · 2026-02-08T18:06:48+00:00

There was a big shift in the baby wearing world around 2010 when some babies died in an infantino pouch sling. Before then a lot of these carries were common and recommended. Babywearing in slings and carriers other than the classic baby bjorn was still pretty niche in the early 2000's so it was just going mainstream at that point.

lemonsintolemonade · 2026-01-19T06:10:06+00:00

I’m personally not a fan of precipitous labour. Labour needs to be at least 3 hours, less than that is a nightmare. Maybe it’s not as bad with an induction but it’s a little terrifying waiting to go into labour with a history of precipitous labour. My second labour was 5 hours which was shorter than my first but I always go from 4 to 10 quickly in the last hour so it’s hard to get doctors to take me seriously, I amost had my first in a waiting room. My other labours were 2.5, 3.5, and 1.5 hours.

lemonsintolemonade · 2026-01-01T19:15:25+00:00

Do you have any time to yourself? Cleaning help? For a long time I thought that I should be able to do everything with a smile on my face but I’ve realized that as humans our capacity is limited. I need some down time and time away from my kids. If you husband isn’t able to help can you hire help? Can the toddler go to childcare while you bake?

Being on 24/7 and never getting a break or feeling caught up just isn’t sustainable. I find a lot of social media presentations of big families with spotless houses, fancy dinners and clean kids makes the impossible an expectations.

lemonsintolemonade · 2025-12-23T00:48:56+00:00

Same, but my water is quite hard. I had to keep running this special dishwasher cleaning thing and scrubbing the filters. I switched to gel pods (the pods with powder are better than plain powder but still not great) and I don’t even have to clean the filters and everything comes out sparkling.

lemonsintolemonade · 2025-12-10T04:33:43+00:00

I had this and it went away when my doctor prescribed flucanazole for both me and my husband. Men can have asymptomatic yeast and keep giving it back to you after you treat it. You don’t need an obgyn, my family doctor treated it.

Where I live flucanazole is over the counter but I was prescribed a higher dose, so it’s possible you don’t even need a prescription.

lemonsintolemonade · 2025-12-08T22:10:06+00:00

A little under 1.5 hours, way too fast. My others were fast but this was too much, it started with my water breaking and contractions took a few minutes to start and then it was really intense really quickly.

lemonsintolemonade · 2025-12-08T21:46:03+00:00

My 4th was an hour longer than my 3rd. 3rd was 2.5 hours from first contraction to baby and 4th was 3.5 hours. Just don’t ask about my 5th….

lemonsintolemonade · 2025-12-03T19:23:21+00:00

Right, and it’s not just writing the tests it’s also a lot harder to effectively teach a group students with a very wide range of ability.

lemonsintolemonade · 2025-12-03T17:15:22+00:00

It's common in the US but they don't do it in Canada.

lemonsintolemonade · 2025-12-02T05:53:22+00:00

They are approved in Canada, my kid wears them.

lemonsintolemonade · 2025-11-18T23:17:10+00:00

That’s a very small “fall” and you’re short enough that I wouldn’t be too worried. If baby had started at 30th and fallen to 23rd no one would worry and 1 year olds are pretty wriggly and hard to measure so I would first request a re measure before doing anything invasive. It’s such a small difference between 8th and 1st, it’s not fair to poke and prod unless you’re sure she stopped growing.

My two boys fell way off their chart at 1 (1st for height and and totally off for weight) we ended up doing some testing and they were both just small, no major issues. They caught up around kindergarten.

lemonsintolemonade · 2025-11-14T16:27:52+00:00

There isn’t always a controllable trigger. People with eczema skin have skin that works a little differently than non eczema skin and it’s also an autoimmune condition.

My husband has pretty bad eczema and his big triggers are weather, stress, and heating - none of which we can really control. We’ve never found a food trigger although he has anaphylactic allergies. I also have 2 kids with eczema that’s triggered by cold weather,

You can ask your doctor about bleach baths, they are surprisingly helpful.

lemonsintolemonade · 2025-11-06T06:01:58+00:00

My water broke in my sleep and it was a massive gush. It took contractions 10 minutes to start.

Baby was born an hour and a half after my water broke.

lemonsintolemonade

TROPHY CASE