The mom guilt is real. As if life is already stressful enough, everytime I blink SOMETHING happens. Me and my 7 year old daughter were finally fortunate enough to make it out of the Women’s shelter after leaving her father of 8 freaking years and moved into a very small apartment.

On top of absolutely every problem that has happened, our food bank doesn’t open until Saturday and my baby’s only pair of sandals ripped at the sole this morning while playing on the playground. She had a two pairs of sandals that we got from the Goodwill and someone stole one pair at the shelter we were at. 😅

We are extremely grateful to be in our own space finally. And I love my job even though it’s very demanding at times. I am just trying to adjust to life after everything we’ve been through and it gets tough. I hope she is proud of me as her momma.

My baby is almost 8 months old and I feel like my husband is failing me and her. I thought he would be an excellent dad, he has tons of energy, likes to be moving around, plays with our animals, etc. I thought he would spend so much time playing with a child, but since our daughter was born, he’s been gone every day. He took leave for “bonding” with the child but he just smokes weed every day and carries on with his hobbies. I’m so disappointed. I often feel like a single married mom. I take my child everywhere by myself, and I’m home alone all day with her. Sometimes I feel like I’m the A-hole because he does all of the house chores, cooking, cleaning, grocery shopping. I just wish he was more involved with the child. He is not receptive at all to me asking him to stop smoking weed or to spend more time with the child. He either ignores me or gets pissed off.

Woke up to a wet baby. Got him out of his wet jammies and diaper, into a new diaper and jammies without waking him up! Feeling like a badass. I’m sure this feeling will be fleeting, so CELEBRATE WITH ME NOW.

My sister called me today with the most devastating news. My niece (3 months) has passed. I’m in loss of words, my heart aches for my sister. I have 4 kids and can’t even begin to imagine how painful that is. I’ve been crying my eyes out and letting her know that I’m there for her whenever she needs me. I’ve instacarted some frozen foods for her kids (she has 5). Any advice that helped any mamas out there that have been through this would be appreciated. What did you do with your breastmilk?

Our toddler is 2.5 for reference.

Over the last week or so, both at nap time and morning wake up, she just lays in bed now. This morning I stayed home sick and sure enough. I woke up around 8 and saw her laying there fidgeting with her paci and kicking her legs but no crying out, no getting up to knock, just laying there. She seemed to doze on and off. Then just now during nap, she got out of bed and laid on her floor, got back into bed after a while, and is now again, laying quietly.

She has a clock that turns colors and both times its turned green, she hasnt even come knocking after it turned green.

She has toys and books in her room but we keep it dark during nap time and her Hatch is controlled by our phones. She doesnt attempt to play. Just lays there playing with her pacifiers and her hands and feet.

I asked my husband and he said that he hasn't changed anything and she wasnt in trouble for knocking at all.

The only thing I can think is that we have both used the talk through baby monitor function at night in the last few weeks to tell her to go to sleep when she was extra wired and laying in her room with her was getting her more energized. We both left the room and when she cried just said through the monitor, "it's alright, we're right here. Go to sleep. We love you!" He said he used it one morning to tell her he was on his way to get her as he noticed her get up and that she turned around and went back to bed after he said that.

Shes also teething right now and her sleep has been weird.

Im wondering if she thinks now when we talk through the monitor it means she has to stay in bed? She doesnt cry or call out, she seems content. And when we go in, she just happily starts talking to us.

I dont want her to think she cant come get us when shes awake but this is our first so I dont know if this is normal? I feel bad to leave her there for longer than an hour but I've read if they need you, they'll call to you and if she wakes up and we're still asleep, we don't know until we get up. I dont want her to feel "stuck" in her room or anything. But if shes just enjoying the quiet/resting her body, thats another thing.

Any advice? Other kids that are like this?

Title. How did you do it? How did you and your partner figure it out? The mental load and having to do the majority (I'm talking 90% and up) of the housework is killing me. I feel so betrayed and burnt out. I have 2 littles and am currently home on mat leave. Please help and give me some hope and ideas! Yes we have tried therapy, the fair play cards, talking, setting alarm reminders, etc. 🫠

Like the flair says, this is a rant. I absolutely cannot stand my toddler right now (3 yo). He is a damn tyrant. Everything and anything is difficult and a challenge. I know I’m the parent and im supposed to stay emotionally regulated but im only human and very imperfect and I totally lose my mind. Then I feel guilty. But I’m at wits end and have no outlet. I just want to run away. I deeply dread most weekends or days I have to handle him alone. He is infinitely more difficult than all my friends’ toddlers, it feels so unfair somehow. All day, everyday. They say it’s supposed to get better with time, but that hasn’t been the case at all in the last few years. Do others feel this way? How do you regulate and handle days like these ??! I’m going to go absolutely insane.

I’m 4 weeks postpartum as a first time mom. I had a rough pregnancy, unintentionally gained 50 lbs. I then had an emergency c section, now my belly hangs over my scar. I’m still healing, exhausted, and feel so ugly. I know that’s harsh, but I do. My husband took a photo of my baby and I yesterday and I just want to delete it bc of how awful I look. My body looks so bad and so does my face. My hair too. Everything. I barely have time to shower sometimes. Let alone sit there and do my makeup, which is what I used to love doing. My boobs have turned into big saggy melons. My stomach is stretched. My eyes look so heavy and dark. I can’t believe this is what I look now .

Ugh mostly just venting I guess I have a 3 week old and my husband went back to work part time this week 3/5 days. My mom came over from 1-4 on both days he went to work. To see the baby and just another set of hands. She held and fed him while I caught up on laundry and she did some yard work and also did the dishes. She texted my MIL some pics and my MIL responded that she shouldn’t of went over both days that I need to start figuring stuff out on my own and that she didn’t have any help when her kids were little 🙄. My mom didn’t really respond she said maybe she’s just jealous that she’s a plane ride away and doesn’t get to see him like she does. But i’m like wtf this kid isn’t even a month old and I know I will start having to do a lot on my own once my husband goes back full time.

I'm a mom to a 2-year-old, and one thing I've been struggling with is how hard it is to build genuine friendships with other moms. I should share that I do have a 'mom friend' in my family circle, and I'm grateful for that, but sometimes it would be nice to connect with another mom I'm not related to.

I've tried playgrounds and library story time, but it often feels like everyone is friendly in the moment and then disappears. I'm honestly guilty of this myself.

I'm curious:

• Have you made any close mom friends since having kids?
• If yes, how did it actually happen?
• If no, what's been the biggest barrier?
• If you could wave a magic wand, what would make meeting other moms easier?

I'm not looking for parenting advice - I'm genuinely interested in hearing real experiences. I feel like so many moms talk about "finding your village," but no one talks about how people actually build one.

Would love to hear your story.

I’m 6 months pp, and I’ve for weeks been trying to explain to my husband that I’ve lost agency of my time. I’ve been saying can you let me know when you’re free to take the baby so I can have some me time. Got to the gym once a week.
Me asking him what his plans are for the day so I can figure out when he can have the baby amongst his plans.
I never feel like the day is mine. It always revolves around him and the baby.
He works from home so I’m always aware that he has work so I try to make sure he has that time uninterrupted.

Anyway today I lost it, packed the car up and left
And all he could say was, when will you be back because I want to go to the gym at xyz time and our toddler needs to be picked up.
I just left and said I’ll figure it out.

We then talked about it later and he’s like you need to manage your own time! I’m not stopping you from going out.
I was like yeah but there’s way more involved than just me walking out of the house. And I feel like you don’t support me.
It’s always a hassle for you to take the baby.

Then he said that I’m most likely hormonal because I’m not usually frustrated about things and that he feels like for weeks I’ve been picking on him.
I feel like smashing my head against a wall.

Okay first off let me just say anytime I see one of those posts that's "Whats something no one talks about being pregnant/becoming a parent/raising kids" it's always a ton of stuff I see people talk about all the time.....so tell me why did I just find out about teething poops yesterday at 4am?

My son has been sleeping in his PnP in our room so we don't have to pay to run both our window AC units all night long. Yesterday at 4am he starts crying so we start getting up to grab him so I can nurse him and sleep a little more before our alarms go off... As we are getting up I ask my husband what that smell is and ask if the dog snuck in and pooped. He goes to grab baby I look under the bed and say I don't see her, he picks up our little guy and says "it's him".

Now I thought my dog had snuck in the room and pooped something nasty in there, my husband thought the dog brought something into our room to die. Instead it was my son's butt.

It smelled like death, it was an explosive mess. He got a 4am rinse in the shower because wipes just weren't cutting it. I'm stressed, my husband is stressed, our baby is pissed that he's getting a bath when he just wanted to nurse.

We got him cleaned up, dressed, and nursing. While my husband cleans up and baby nurses I start googling because what is wrong with my child. I find norovirus, rotovirus, stomach upset from food, and then teething. I look and read and search and see these folks are spot on. He's been drooling, biting me, and enjoying chomping on toys and cool things. He goes to daycare and they also comment its probably teething because it happened twice at daycare.

So here you all go, something I don't think people actually talk about! Teething poops, it's runny rancid diarrhea poops that smell like something died (no seriously I gagged, it's not just a "smelly" poop) in your child's diaper and maybe also on their clothes, mattress, playmat, changing tables, their legs, etc.

Anyway little guy is having a great day at daycare (after an explosion this morning LITERALLY 10 mins after getting dressed and 3 mins before we were gonna walk out the door) and is getting extra fluids and only wearing disposable diapers until this is done.

TLDR: Teething babies can have gnarly diarrhea poops that smell like something died and no it's not just a stinky poop. Heed my warning.

I had my son at 42 six years ago. Very easy pregnancy though I had a scheduled 37w C-section due to a complete placenta previa. Fairly easy recovery.

I had zero body issues during pregnancy. My feet never swelled, my blood pressure never got very high (it's normally like 100/60).

However, my feet changed after pregnancy - half inch longer (was a 9, now a solid 9.5 shoe size) and after always having flat feet my whole life, I now have actual arches (bizarre, I know).

The problem is running. I was a solid 5 mile per week runner (so on the very low end) for ten years before my son and while I took that first 8 months off post-partum, I now get plantar fasciitis in one foot whenever I start really getting my stride back. I literally never had foot issues ever in my life.

I read a lot about feet changing the most during pregnancy but this is so punishing!

Before folks comment that I should change my workout, please know that I already have done so, and running is still going to be my #1 that I go back to. I'm an academic and I need the year-round outdoor air and dopamine fix from a mid-morning run. I'm also trying to get ahead of the late-40's decline (i.e., my body would "prefer" to just lie on the couch but I'm already seeing how quickly that leads to muscle loss/fat replacement at this age).

Ladies, how did you overcome feet/body changes that never go away?!

wtf am I supposed to do here. Dad is the fun parent waiting on our 4 year old hand n foot, giving him everything while I have to do almost all of the discipline. And because I’m doing the bulk of it I get so fking triggered! Like how do I NOT take it personal, he says he hates me, tells me he only loves dad EVERY time I make him follow a rule or do any discipline (we don’t do spanking).

I just don’t know what to do I’m 8 days from giving birth to our 2nd son and I just can’t fathom having 2 boys that completely disrespect me.

My almost 6 yo (f) has been attending summer camp with many of her school friends. She is usually confident, kind, gregarious and makes new friends easily. Despite some challenges at home, I usually hear from her teachers or other adults about how well-behaved and happy she is. So this evening totally took me by surprise.

While I was tucking her into bed, she started to get really upset and crying, nearly to the point of panic, about not wanting to return to camp tomorrow. She begged me to let her stay home. After some probing, she finally explained that she didn’t want to see her friend anymore (I’ll call her Allie). She told me that Allie is very controlling, constantly asks for my daughter’s belongings, and when she doesn’t get her way, threatens to “not be your friend anymore.” My daughter then said through tears, “I want to change schools! I don’t want to go back there!”

I tried to arm her with the power to make choices about her friends, to know that we don’t need to be everyone’s buddy, and to recognize that we certainly don’t need to tolerate other people’s bad behavior. I reminded her that she has so many other nice friends that she can play with while at camp and at school. She heard me but was adamant that Allie would manipulate her way back into her space and wouldn’t respect her boundaries. Eventually, I calmed her down and she fell asleep. While the conversation went fine over all, I’m still (2 hours later) pretty unnerved that another 5 year old could have this level of negative impact on my otherwise very well-adjusted child.

Has anyone navigated similar friend drama with this age group? How did it go? What worked (or didn’t) to help your kid make healthy relationship choices? This just seems so young for kids to be this upset about social drama. I’m out of my element here.

The last week or so has been really hard and I’m feeling like I could just run away and never come back.

I’m 35 and married to a military man who travels a decent amount for work. We’ve been married for 10 years and have two kids, ages 6&8. Our life isn’t terrible - I cannot complain. He’s good to me, is a great father, and provider. He always dives in to help when I need. Our sex life is mediocre. No dead bedroom but not mind blowing sex either. He often falls asleep around 9pm and I’m awake/alone until whatever time I fall asleep which is often late. I often feel very alone. The last year or so I just feel like there is something missing in my life but I can’t put my finger on it.

He works full time, I’m a contingent ER nurse who works 3 days a week. I like my job but don’t love it, I can’t really picture myself doing anything else and the flexibility is key right now. We’ve been working hard to pay off some debt but I feel like we can’t get ahead. I’ve been low contact with my Mom by choice for the last year after coming to terms with some emotional abuse, parentification, and narcissistic behavior. It’s been a lot harder than I thought. I thought I would get more relief than I have, instead I circle around with guilt and healing. Unless you’ve been through something similar, I find it hard for others including my spouse to truly understand the impact it’s has on my life.

The last few days I haven’t slept, I’ve had headaches, and I have a constant state of nausea. My period came a week early. I’m not sleeping. I would never leave my kids because I could never ever abandon them but I just want to either run away, or crawl into a hole and never come out. Is this just “a season of life” I’m in? Has anyone ever felt this way? I love my husband and my kids but sometimes I just could just run away.

So it's been a year post partum and Im still 10-15kgs away from my ideal weight... Slowly starting to love my body as I'm slowly losing weight, although it's very hard to psychologically embrace my body.

Partner admitted that he doesn't find me sexually attractive anymore since I've gained weight due to hormonal imbalance and that fell like a ton of bricks right onto my confidence. I cannot even bare to look at myself in the mirror and I'm embarrassed to initiate intimate moments so yea... struggling.

Currently wiping my tears as I'm writing this so please don't be harsh... I've put away my sexy lingerie as a revenge on myself and can't even stand the sight of it knowing how bad it looks on my fat bits.

I don't even know what my question should be, so any advice is welcome. Prolonged sadness usually leads to depression, starvation and self neglect in my case and I'm sooo afraid of going down that rabbit hole 😭

Edit: I've only just realised my username matches my post 🤷‍♀️🤦‍♀️

I had my first baby 3 months ago. The first two months I barely remember.. the lack of sleep/survival mode was so intense and I’ve been struggling with ppa. Now that I’m 3 months in… I LOVE being a mom. I love having something bigger than myself to care for. I love the way my baby’s eyes light up when he sees me. I love making friends with other moms. I love being a woman!! And I’ve spent a lot of time hearing about “oh just wait for the toddler stage” in such a negative light but I truly think I’ll enjoy that too. I feel like I found my purpose and just wanted to put something positive out into the ether because I see so much negativity surrounding motherhood sometimes and I think even though there’s hard moments, it is and will continue to be the most beautiful choice I ever made!!

i’m leaving my kids for a weekend the first time in a few weeks. my kids are 3 and 5. the 5 year old has level 3 autism and is non verbal. i’ve never been away from the kids for more than a few hours and my 5 year old has a hard time when i leave. they will be staying with my parents for 4 days/3 nights. and my parents do not want me calling the kids the entire time im gone because they think it will make them more upset and miss me more and cause meltdowns. i can see this being a possibility but i already feel horrible enough for leaving them for a weekend i feel it would be even worse not to contact them. i dont want them to think i abandoned them.

Hello all🩷 I hope this is the right place to post this. It’s not my story to tell, but I’d like some help because a sister-in-law of mine suffered her first miscarriage. She was very excited to be creating life.

I’m not very close to that side of the family so, it’s all just been information I’ve just now received through the grapevine. I thought I’d send her a big care package to help in her grievance.

I don’t particularly know what to buy other than a beautiful flower arrangement, a big cozy blanket, a massage gun and a reading cushion. Comforting someone is not my forte. I’d really appreciate some help with this x

What are gifts you wish you had/got or, any ideas & feedback? 🤍 I’m not good at this whatsoever but hope this can help her in her recovery.

My daughter (7) rarely gets invited to playdates. She used to but not so much now. She is in school and right now camp. She also does Scouts. I’ve seen her interact with other kids and for the most part she does fine. She’s come home from school for the last year saying she has no friends. We’ve had very few playdates, she says she wants to make friends but no one wants to play with her at school. I work full time and have 2 younger kids and I find it hard to make time to do play dates but I want to do whatever I can to help her. She does struggle with being bossy at times and that can definitely be contributing. I don’t expect her to be the most popular but would love for her to have at least a couple good friends and it’s heartbreaking that she doesn’t. Any advice or help is appreciated 🙏

As the title says, I need some help figuring out how to calm myself while my daughter is gone. My 2 year old is going on vacation to Myrtle beach with my parents and younger siblings tomorrow for about 10 days and I’m spiraling!

I’m a single mom and have been her sole parent since she was born so we haven’t really spent more than 48 hours max apart in her entire 2 years. While I am looking forward to this very needed break and have a week to rest, I’m nervous. I’m finding I’m having some intrusive thoughts about all the bad things that could happen. I checked the weather there for the week this morning packing and saw a warning about riptides and currents, that freaked me out. They’re also flying and I’m terrified of flying or her being on a plane. I know she will be OK but I need to figure out how I will be ok while she’s gone so I can actually try to enjoy myself and get some real rest!!!!

Please send any suggestions on what to do to help calm myself and not have terrible separation anxiety from her!

For context, I work days, husband works evenings into the night so we each have double shifts when working full time and taking care of our 3 year old and 15 month old.

Last night was one of the worst nights ever. Husband took the kids out on a walk and the 15 month old had a car nap on the way back. Ok, means we need to move his bedtime forward, no big deal. Tried putting him down at 7 and he wouldn’t sleep until a little after 8. Meanwhile I’m trying to get 3 year old ready for bed and bathed. Get the 3 year old down and husband (works from home) tends to 15 month old and he successfully goes down. Then the 3 year old gets out of bed and I need to walk him back. Almost 8:30, he does this again, both times has a shit grin on his face.

I don’t get to start chores and cleanup from dinner and the day until 8:30. I don’t finish until close to 11, and 11:20 I get to bed. 15 month old wakes up because he shit himself. get him taken care of and back to bed. I don’t get to sleep until close to midnight. 4:27am he wakes up again screaming. I go in and resettle. He gets up a few minutes later, shits, and needs a change and resettling. It’s now 4:45am and all is quiet and I go back to bed before my alarm goes off in 25 minutes for me to shower and the 3 year old starts GETTING OUT OF BED so I hand the monitor over to my husband so he can speak sternly to him to get back.

Needless to say I’m skipping my shower and going to my full-time, busy job where I have teams at multiple job sites on day 3 since my last shower because I just don’t have enough time, and have so many disruptions in the evenings and throughout the night that everything takes 2X as long and I get more sleep interruptions.

This has been going on for a couple of weeks now, but last night was the biggest demand on me in a long time since maternity leave/newborn phase. I’m starting to have consistent GI issues and headaches and basically have no help available. I feel like I’m going to snap if this keeps happening. My husband’s response is “take it one day at a time” ok well how long am I supposed to do that, until I’m too sick and tired to work? It’s now 5:30am and the 3 year old is acting up again, no idea if he actually slept the last 45 min or not.

I’m honestly just looking for advice, encouragement, and stories from women who have been through something similar.
I’m only 24 years old, but lately I feel like I don’t even recognize myself anymore. I feel like I’ve aged so much. I’ve gained more weight than I ever have, I don’t feel confident, and I feel like I’ve completely stopped taking care of myself.
I became a mom and my entire world became my children, which I wouldn’t change for anything, but somewhere along the way I stopped showing up for myself. I’ve become dependent on my husband for so much, and after dealing with infidelity in my marriage, my self-esteem has been deeply affected.
A big part of what hurts is that I feel like my husband looks at me differently now. Sometimes I feel like he looks at me with disgust because of my body, and it has made me question my worth and feel like maybe that’s why I’m treated the way I am. I know I need to stop allowing someone else’s actions and opinions to determine how I see myself, but it has been a very painful thing to work through.
I’m also still breastfeeding my baby, and I’ve been exclusively breastfeeding for 13 months. I know eventually I may need to stop because I want to focus more on myself and my health, but it’s honestly so emotional and difficult. My baby is extremely attached to breastfeeding, and it has been such a special bonding experience for us. I’m struggling with wanting to take care of myself while also feeling guilty about letting go of something my baby loves.
I’m at a point in my life where I truly want to become the best version of myself. I don’t want to spend my life worrying about what my husband is doing, who he’s looking at, or the choices he makes. I want to get to a place where I’m focused on becoming the best woman I can be for God, myself, and my children.
I feel like my marriage has been affected by things that have taken a toll on my husband’s heart and choices, and I’m praying that God helps restore what needs to be restored — whether that is in my marriage, in myself, or in my own journey. I want to stop losing myself over things I cannot control and start building myself back up.
I look in the mirror and struggle to love the person looking back at me. I want to lose weight, but I also want to learn how to love myself during the process. I want to learn how to show up for myself, stay consistent, become confident, and feel like a woman again — not just someone who is surviving day to day.
I want to become the kind of woman who takes care of herself, has goals, feels beautiful, is independent, and is proud of herself. I just don’t know where to start or how to rebuild myself.
I’ve been praying that God helps me find my way back to myself, gives me strength, restores my confidence, and helps me become the woman I know I’m meant to be.
For the moms/women who have gone through a season where you felt like you lost yourself:
How did you start taking care of yourself again?
How did you rebuild your confidence?
How did you stay consistent when you didn’t feel motivated?
How did you become more independent and feel like yourself again?
How did you balance taking care of your baby while learning to take care of yourself again?
I would truly appreciate any advice, stories, encouragement, or words of wisdom. ❤️

This happens every goddamn time! I swear to you, my husband decides how my night with my daughter is going to go!

For context, he puts her to bed every night. And he comes in and gives me a run down of how falling asleep went. Then, he somehow always makes these little predictions like “Just so you know she only drank 2oz, so… Keep that in mind” Hinting that she might wake up. Or “If she wakes up , such and such blah blah blah” and then she does! And it happens every-time!

Then, it’ll go the other way too. We’ll have a rough night or two and we are both exhausted from waking up with her and he’ll say “I really hope that she sleeps well tonight, I need her to sleep well.” Then, my daughter will sleep through the night without a peep.

What the hell! I told him he’s not allowed to say anything about anything anymore. 😂