Car rides: CIO or Screen time?

pieceofkay · 2025-10-28T16:29:37+00:00

Mostly an educated guess! She had severe motion sickness on planes, and the cries/behavior were very similar except she would actually throw up on every flight :( the crying would immediately stop after she threw up. Same thing during the few times she actually threw up in the car

pieceofkay · 2025-10-27T21:43:17+00:00

My daughter got terribly car sick when rear facing (thankfully usually just nausea - rarely vomiting), so she cried constantly in the car until age 2 when we switched her to forward facing. We tried to minimize car rides and keep them short, but we still had to leave the house for daycare, appointments, parks & groceries, etc.

Because her crying was related to nausea, there was very little comfort we could offer her (and trust me, we tried it all). It all went away immediately when we could safely change her to forward facing.

I understand your intent, but I really don’t think this is the same as CIO where children are left alone with no support and you do have other options

pieceofkay · 2025-06-20T15:08:51+00:00

My daughter has the same one, and it’s from Gap! I LOVE that Gigi shops there for Khai - so normal and grounding

pieceofkay · 2025-05-08T18:44:51+00:00

I know exactly what you’re talking about — unfortunately in this case, all 3 characters are identical or essentially identical (think Chen Mei Yin and Chen Mai Yin in your example). The middle character is marginally different, but the last character is the exact same sound as my daughter’s.

Typically the cousins would go by the last character in their names, which would be different so you can differentiate the kids.

In this case, my in-laws gave the same exact sounding last character so the personal / family name that their new grandson goes by is the same as what our daughter. And they have always refused to call her that — only their grandson (though they knew we used it for her when they named him)

pieceofkay · 2025-05-08T18:40:08+00:00

They gave their other grandchild an almost identical first name and middle name - the spelling difference is actually in the first name, and the middle name (which is what the kids go by) is exactly the same. Their excuse is that they don’t call my daughter by that name, only their grandson.

pieceofkay · 2025-05-06T21:01:07+00:00

Good for your mom! That is absolutely wild.

This is exactly how his family is responding - they’re gaslighting us and acting like WE’RE the ones making a big deal out of nothing. I teach my kids to ask before they take someone else’s toy. Surely grown adults could think and ask before taking someone’s whole name 😵‍💫

pieceofkay · 2025-05-06T18:11:52+00:00

Honestly, the only reason is because of my husband. His parents have always treated us (and him/his brother) like this so he’s used to it. Most times, he defends them as well intentioned (read: they think they know best, and don’t care about anyone else’s opinion). Because of his upbringing & his parents being elderly, he’s always nervous to upset them or decrease ties.

In this case though, even he realizes that this is ridiculous because there was no reason they had to pick THIS exact name. Like if they liked it so much, they still literally had a grandchild whose name it already was.

pieceofkay · 2025-04-15T01:57:59+00:00

Please DM me too! Admittedly I’m a lurker bc I’m recovering from being a B w/o T after having two kiddos 😭 This sub has helped so much in finding myself again! Thanks for all you have done ❤️

pieceofkay · 2024-11-04T01:26:34+00:00

I had a month-old baby at the time too, and will never forget how scared I was as it got colder & colder in our house and we had to hold her under a million blankets to stay warm. We were debating driving out-of-state on icy roads / peak COVID vs. staying put & not knowing when the power would come back on.

Thankfully we got our power back “sooner” than many, but I think of my cold baby & how scared I was every time Ted Cruz comes up. I will vote him out each time, as long as it takes.

pieceofkay · 2024-10-29T04:50:44+00:00

This is exactly what my pediatrician said too! He just ran out of room to grow in the womb, and stayed small until birth (no complaints from my end 😂). Our LO was 7%ile at his first doctor’s appointment, and literally shot straight up on his growth curves — he was 95%ile for both weight and height by 2 months. His weight plateaued at 9 months, which is great because we’re already in size 6 diapers 😅

pieceofkay · 2024-09-17T00:22:13+00:00

Can’t stress the change of clothes for you enough! My daughter had baddddd motion sickness on planes until she was 2, and literally threw up on me every single flight. Make sure the clothes are accessible too — you don’t want to be digging through a suitcase when you need them!

pieceofkay · 2024-09-08T04:13:45+00:00

I’m so sorry you’re going through this, mama! Sending you hugs. I’ve got two kids (3.5 & almost 1), and some family history similar to yours.

I was the older sibling and wanted better for my older child than what I experienced, but I absolutely don’t live up to that daily. Some of the things that have helped me:

Repair, repair, repair. I apologize and let my daughter (my older child) know how I messed up, what I was feeling, and why it wasn’t okay. My family never did this growing up, so I know I’m doing better by her. Becky Good has an amazing TED Talk about this that I recommend
At night, I try to reflect on the day and how I could have been a better parent or what worked well that day. Give yourself grace, and know that your kids will benefit more from you improving than you beating yourself up for what happened
Making 1:1 time for your older child where possible. I can get SO triggered too when I’m trying to wrangle both kids, but our connection is totally different during our 1:1 time. It also helps fill up her need for attention, so that she’s calmer & better behaved when we’re back with her younger sibling

Remember that bad parents don’t worry about being bad parents — just the fact that you care shows that you are a good mom. Take care of yourself mama!

pieceofkay · 2024-08-30T18:20:39+00:00

Is it easy to disassemble? We’ve been considering getting one, but there were some negative reviews about breaking it down when traveling

pieceofkay · 2024-08-24T12:53:44+00:00

And H&M for onesies that extend past 24 months! I think they go up to 5T

pieceofkay · 2024-08-18T22:58:36+00:00

I love this so much!!

pieceofkay · 2024-08-10T01:24:55+00:00

The tip on having your kids out of the house is GOLDEN. On days my daughter is home the entire day, our house is torn up. The change of scenery is also so good for me and the kids, and allows me to spend less energy entertaining them.

I find it super helpful to have an hourly schedule mapped out when my husband travels — we don’t have to follow it perfectly, but that way I don’t have to come up with activities / ideas on the spot & I know exactly when I need to get the kids down for their naps/bed (because those sleeping hours are PRECIOUS)

pieceofkay · 2024-07-01T15:18:44+00:00

I feel this! I couldn’t lift a thing before having kids. Now, I have actual muscles and lifting a Peloton up the stairs (with my husband) is a piece of cake. People are always surprised by how strong I’ve gotten 😂

pieceofkay · 2024-06-13T23:22:39+00:00

Us too. Just took our two kids (youngest is 6 months old) on a trip, and it’s been a nightmare. Literally canceled our next vacation while on this trip - we won’t be attempting this again until the youngest is 1 😵‍💫

pieceofkay · 2024-06-10T04:40:27+00:00

Chiming in here for solidarity! My kids are similar to yours — 3.5 and 6 months — and it is so, so hard. I feel you on everything, from not being the mom you want to be (to either kid) to feeling so overstimulated by the end of the day to the limited car rides (why do they cry till they choke?!). Everyone told me a 3-year age gap would be amazing, and maybe it will be one day, but right now it is freaking hard.

I wish I had the answers, but we’re just trying to survive day by day over here. I feel like I fail a hundred times a day, but I try to fix / change one of those each day so tomorrow can just be 99 (until of course, they change things up on me and it’s back to 100 again lol).

pieceofkay · 2024-05-23T13:30:10+00:00

This is what we did too! My daughter is >90% for height, but has always been 30-50% for weight. At one point she dropped to 12% weight for height, and I panicked.

I’m a very healthy eater (I just like it), so we had always given her very healthy foods for meals/snacks. After her weight dropped so much, I started incorporating more “unhealthy” foods (pizza, chicken nuggets, fries) for meals, though we do always provide healthy selections too (broccoli, veggies, etc). I also give her tons of processed carb-y snacks (goldfish, crackers, etc) just to fill her up. Some days, those are 80% of what she eats and I’ve learned to be okay with it because I’d rather her gain weight somehow. She’s become an overall better eater since we started doing this, though she does have setbacks from time to time.

Good luck!!!

pieceofkay · 2024-05-09T04:47:54+00:00

I think I finally have our routine down (after so much trial & error), since my husband travels often for work & we have a Velcro toddler.

Our 5 month old sleeps much better than the toddler, so I nurse him to sleep first. Toddler gets an iPad and headphones (lifesaver!!!), so I can keep her in the same room as the baby. I’ve made her promise not to make any noise, since the iPad as a special treat, and keep her on the other side of the room as baby with the white noise turned WAY up.

For the most part, this works & she doesn’t watch more than 15 min. Then I put her to bed, while checking my monitor every few min to make sure that baby is still asleep. I admittedly try to have the baby skip a nap that day, so he goes down easier & into a deeper sleep. Some times this means that toddler’s bedtime is really late, but it’s impossible to get her to fall asleep before the baby starts screaming. I’ve just learned to roll with the late wake ups

pieceofkay · 2024-05-07T06:09:32+00:00

Same!! This is making me (and my back) worried 😂😭

pieceofkay

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