The years before kindergarten your preschooler will grow leaps and bounds, mentally, emotionally and physically.
Parents share resources and advice about raising 3 to 5 year olds, including potty training, early education, behavioral struggles and more.
My 3 year old is in that stage where he doesn't care to listen and is so mean to his 1 year old brother. He is nice to him sometimes and shows him affection but NEVER shares. I have done everything to try and help him share and be more loving towards him but he continues to hit him, take toys from him and push him down. We even tried taking him places alone without the baby. I know its prob... More
YES I know potty training is a marathon not a race, but I have a few weeks off work and I am thinking it’s a good time for me to focus and buckle down on potty training my almost 2 year old. Do you think my progress from 2/3 weeks will be enough before going back to daycare? (I know his daycare will help of course, but I’d like for it to be more solid before trying to have him potty here and th... More
Yeah goooo for it. My daughter didn’t like going bottomless at all so oh crap didn’t work for us. Which is good because I never really had time to read the book anyway and instead paid my niece $30 to read it for me and give me the cliffs notes. What ended up working for us was my mom came and visited and brought my daughter underwear as a gift. Like those thick training kind. She loooved the... More
Is he actually ready, as in showing many of the signs of readiness? If so, you'll be fine. I potty trained my 2 year old daughter (2 days after turning 2) in a weekend. She stayed home naked the whole weekend. I sent her back to school on Monday in training underwear (not pullups) and she was fine. To be fair, she only had half days of school so that likely helped. I think she averaged arou... More
Just found out I am pregnant with baby #2. My son will be about 2 months shy of being 2.5 when the baby is born. That being said, we've been working on potty training with him since he was a little over 1. He did it all by himself. It's a slow process in the sense that he doesn't always go on the potty, but he willingly goes into the bathroom when we say time to go potty. Plus we ha... More
I’d say time to buckle down with the potty training before new babe comes! Toss the diapers and deal with accidents accordingly.
I also agree with ditching the diapers, I think most kids aren't going to willingly give up the diapers if they have the choice and convenience of using them. I potty trained mine at 26 months, and I was 7 months pregnant. If he's going when you tell him then he's proven he knows what to do, and how to do it, and going in the diaper is ONLY happening because he has the option. My m... More
I don’t know if she just has insomnia or if I’m doing something wrong but bed time is a huge battle that lasts for two hours and strips me from having any alone time. I’m a single parent so I don’t have anyone helping me get her to bed. She throws a fit if I leave the room so I’m sitting here until she falls asleep. She’ll roll around in the bed, talk to herself, sing, play with her stuff anima... More
Have you tried an ok to wake clock? My son used to drag out bedtime too... kept getting out of bed and screamed at the door. We got the clock with the dog and ball that turns red and green (amazon). Red means stay in bed and green means go. We got door knob covers too so he couldn’t come out of his room. With our baby monitor we would just remind him that red means stay in bed and that we would... More
My first two kids dropped their nap around age 3. My oldest would do exactly what your child is doing. Take forever at bed time, rarely falling asleep before 930. I used to bring my computer in the room and just sit in the corner angled away. I told my son I would tell him a story, sing a song 5x, then go do my work. He rolled with it, and I felt like i atleast could do something. Pay bills, sh... More
My daughter will be 2 in january. I'm a little new to potty training any tips on how to start having her pee in the toilet.
We wasted no time 😆. My daughter potty trained the weekend after her 2nd birthday. She showed most of the typical signs of readiness and agreed to learn how to use the potty so I went for it. Getting her to actually sit long enough to pee was a pain in the ass but we got there eventually. It only took a few accidents and rushing to the potty for it to click. I read the Oh Crap book but didn'... More
I’m an advocate with following their lead. For both my kids we started experimenting with it when they were 2. My girl got it pretty quickly. We gave up on my boy and tried again like 6mths later and he got it quickly. To me it seemed to just “click,” when they were ready. Id much rather change diapers another few months than force it ... and clean pee off the floor. Just my thoughts and experi... More
What time does your LO go to bed? How old are they? My son is 3 and goes to bed late. Everything I see on the internet seems to say he should be going to bed early but he isn't tired.
I have a 4 year old and I use to just let her stay up late with me (until about 11pm)because I was under the impression she wasn’t sleepy but in reality she really was sleepy. In the mornings I would dread getting her up for kindercare! I had to put a stop to this ASAP!! So I try and cut out screen time on iPad 2 hours before bed and then we would watch tv for 30 mins (set the sleep timer on t... More
Hey moms! Which cup do you recommend for milk on the go? For a 3 year old! Big enough and spill proof of course
We use the Re-Play sippy cups, they are amazingly durable and spill proof. I actually take the little rubber stopper, which makes them extra spill proof, out because it just seemed to hard for my kids to drink out of it. We used to use the 360 cups and I loved them. However, my son started chewing through the rubber piece on the top of them. I was over replacing them constantly. Lol For water... More
Any advice on how to get a 4 year old to sleep back in their room. Made the biggest mistake of our lives letting her come to our room because she was scared.....now we can’t get her back. She screams and cries and says she scared and doesn’t want to be in her room by herself. I feel bad because the look in her eyes is like she’s terrified....we tried night lights...flash lights...leaving the do... More
My son's sleep is getting out of control. He doesn't want to go to sleep. He has to be touching me or my husband to fall asleep. Then after a few hours in his bed he comes to sleep with/on me. We are guilty of never sleep training him and letting him watch YouTube before bed. He naps 1-3:30 and goes to bed at 9. Anyone have any suggestions on how to fix this. What does your child do before bed?
Oh boy momma. I'm sorry. You've got a hard road ahead. I've got some tips and they'll be hard if it's a big change for you. Start with a new routine. A regular routine that happens at the same time every night. Start putting kiddo to bed earlier. Since he's used to 9pm start putting him to bed a half hour earlier. Doing the same things in the same order. Bath (or not) t... More
Anyone else struggling w/extended pretend play? My 4, soon to be 5 y/o is obsessed! We have some “Inception” play going down; MLP Mane 6 pretending to be Disney Princesses. If she had her way - and she tries - she would have us play from the moment she wakes up and she passes out from exhaustion. I’m so tired.
Sounds like she's having fun! Maybe change up the routine and go to the park, library, play date, and the like. Your busy, you got other things to do. Like have some quiet time. We have "quiet time" from 1pm to 3pm where my kiddo plays in her room. It used to be nap time. I play with her after I've had my morning coffee, for about 30 minutes and then again after dinner or ... More
Hi all! Yay! My daughter is finally fully potty trained. But now when she pees it shoots straight out. The majority of the pee doesn't go into the toilet..how can she get her pee into the toilet?
She is a shy kid in general, but she has never had any issues with kids at her day care for the past year. But a few days ago a new boy joined her class, and her teacher tells me that she gets upset and breaks down crying when the new friend says Hi, or comes anywhere near her. Today while dropping her off at daycare I saw that happen myself. Please help! How do I deal with this situation? My ... More
Maybe find the kids mom and do a play date so she can really meet him and have fun with him?
My 4 year old daughter has started mentioning a lot the difference between her sister's skin color and her own skin color. Her sister has darker skin than her and my 4 year old daughter has very very pale skin. She will make comments like "we aren't twins because my sister has dark skin and I have light skin". I don't know why she always brings it up. I guess she just noti... More
My little one turns 3 soon and I would love to send home party favors that are useful and eco-friendly. Thank you!
My son is potty trained with the big toilet. He knows how to take off his pants and underwear then we help him up onto the toilet seat. However lately he’s been trying to get up there himself with the step stool that he uses for the sink. He’s having trouble maneuvering himself onto the seat (the seat sits at the back of the toilet). Any product recommendations for something that might help my ... More
My little girl is 26 months, and we started putting her in regular underwear but when she has An accident she does not seem to care. How do I help her realize going Pee pee in her underwear isn’t good without doing damage. She will go in the potty when I bring him to the bathroom and I sit down to but she doesn’t tell me when she Has to go and when she does go in her underwear it doesn’t seem t... More
Have you tried going a day without undies? If she’s naked and pees on the floor it’s harder for her to ignore. 1. You can try and catch it and run her to the bathroom for association 2. You can have her clean up the mess on the floor
We potty trained my son around 22 months and it took a good 2 months before he could start telling us he has to go potty. We started with always taking him every hour/hour and a half just to help avoid accidents as well as take him before we leave the house or once we got to the park etc. He tells us he has to go now, but we still watch him and when he is showing signs of maybe needing to go, w... More
Wow for the last 2 weeks my son started waking up an entire hour earlier. Every morning. Last night we put him to bed an hour later and he still woke up today an hour earlier! He stays in his room but he cries or is super noisy waking us all up. For 9mos he’s been consistently waking up around 7:15. Now it’s 6:15 regardless of when bedtime is. He’s almost 4. He doesn’t nap/won’t nap. He ha... More
My child just turned four and is in his second year of preschool! Due to my work schedule I am thinking of sending him to the before school program for about 15 minutes for two mornings a week. Is it mean to do that? I will have less face time with his teachers and feel like a terrible mom for making him go early...
My daughter will be 3 in November she loves sitting on the potty but won’t go pee or poop on it she just sits for a few seconds and flushes the toilet how can I get her to actually go?!
He hits, kicks, bites etc. It's not just when he doesn't get his way. Sometimes just randomly. He refuses time out. He thinks he does not have to listen.. I am a single mom, his father died when I was pregnant. I've tried everything! It's as if he is not scared of anything or anyone. HELP!
When he pushes or hits your 1 yr old, remove the 3 yr old really quickly, tell him no. Then spend more time making sure that your 1 year old is ok. He might be doing it to get attention. When your 3 year old is nice and affectionate to your 1 yr old, be sure to really praise that every single time. Clap, say good job, thank you, get excited, etc.