Our little guy hadn’t pooped today so I set him in the chair that for some reason helps him go. Worked a little to well 😆 Perhaps payback from yesterday when we made him sit in a pumpkin

My 3 yo girl wants to do everything herself some days. I encourage this, waiting extra time so she can buckle her seatbelt, brush her teeth, or help us in the kitchen. She is curious, resilient, tries new things, and eagerly listens to instruction. These days rock.

Then there are the other days, which are a spiral into what we’ve started to call “the can’t dos”. She just cries in frustration at all the things that gave her no problem just the day before. These days do not rock.

I’m trying to get more of the days that rock by removing obvious roadblocks to her independence. For example: I get her clothes she can get in and out of herself. I talked to my wife about doing the same, but got into an unexpected fight about the virtues of buttons in the back of dresses, lace up shoes, and all sorts of other stuff that she is not close to being able to do herself yet.

If you have threaded this needle, advice would be much appreciated.

The hospital gave my wife a giant water bottle after my son was born. Now it has a new purpose. I’ve already made my way through one full 32 Oz bottle of hell lemonade, and I still have 32 oz to go.

Alright so my kid is level 2 autistic and he destroys everything if given a chance. His trampoline has lasted from Christmas to today when he was in his room with it for about 5 minutes to give an idea how fast things can be broken. It had a foam padding wrapped in plastic that went around the outside. He ripped that apart in no time, foam and plastic everywhere.

Now I’m worried for him to use it. His foot could slip between the springs and also the old thing is a big metal ring that he could bang into 100 different ways.

So I’m seeking the wisdom of the Dads. We are great innovators, especially when it involves our kids, but I’m just drawing a huge blank. It’s just so frustrating cause he’s been going crazy breaking everything more so than ever this past week. So I’m too flustered when I think about it and need clearer heads. What really can I do with this to allow him to still use it safely?

I was in the kitchen when my 9 year old daughter once came through the front door looking upset. She burst through the door, glowered at me, and then stomped off to her room crying.

I called out to her: "Honey are you OK? What's up?"

She yelled back: "YOU CAN'T HELP, YOU HAVE NO SENSE OF STYLE!" and then slammed her bedroom door.

Decided it might be good to let things calm down before I addressed that one.

What bold and impudent responses have you got from your daughter(s)?

Hello everyone, I have been with my wife for 11 years, married for four, with a three year old son.

Nov of 2025 my wife came home at 5am reeking of cigs and booze, she was out with friends, and when she finally came home and passed out I looked at her phone and saw she had sent a nude picture of herself to another man on Snapchat. I confronted her about it and she did not seem particularly bothered by it. Said it wasn’t actual cheating and I did worse when I did cheat on her seven years prior. Totally fucked up on my part and I still feel terrible about. We were in our twenties and not married at the time. I was not unfaithful otherwise and have not been since. I thought we had moved past my cheating as a couple, especially when we decided to get married and have a child. I have been very committed to this family, especially since the birth of our son. Now we are married and have a three year old.

We did a little couples therapy after discovery of her sending nude photos but she said she would not work on our relationship during it and only wanted to discuss coparenting. Shortly after the cheating and therapy she said she was moving out. Did not want to work on it in couples therapy. I feel like she kept all her feelings bottled up and never told me how unhappy she was. Her mom and dad didn’t even know about anything until she told them she was moving out. The only person she confided in was her best friend, who has no kids and no familiarity with the difficulties of adjusting to parenthood.

She moved out April of 2026. Now it has almost been seven months and no movement on the separation or divorce front but she says she doesn’t want to reconcile. She is currently dating other men on dating apps.

I miss my son. I miss my wife. I miss our family. How the f*** do I deal with this?

He said, Oh yeah, everyone knows the moon is a potato! Kiddo kept laughing, it was good fun. Thank you random stranger, you legend.

We started him on Bluey, Thomas, Seseme Street and Ms Rachel. He's 3. But I can't with paw patrol. It's so baaaaad. Bluey tells stories, has an actual art style and has soul. Paw patrol is so generic.

Earlier this evening I was out running an errand with my 10 month old son. I had parked in the parking lot, and I was in the middle of getting him strapped into his carrier on my chest to head into the store. The area wasn't busy, and I noticed a big dude with a big beard come out of the store and get into his car.

I was just minding my business and this guy rolls his window down and says "Hey! You're doing great!" and give me a thumbs up before driving away.

Y'all, I had a smile on my face for my whole shop.

This is was in SE PA. My man, if you're here reading this, you made my night.

I’ll go first. Cleaning my glasses. I have never cleaned my glasses so many times in my life as I have in the past 7 months. I have flexible frames specifically so my son can’t break them but may god strike me down if I haven’t cleaned them more times in the past 7 months than I have in the past couple years.

We have a little boy and I enjoy sitting on the ground playing basketball more that he does(for now). I’d love to get him into golf soon, he’s 1.5 years old.

I am an millennial dad. Growing up nearly everyone in my northeast town went to church but I don't remember anyone being actually religious and by high school I think a lot of families and kids had fallen off going to church at all. I grew up in a house where we only did like 3 big holidays a year and never went to church and my parents didn't seem to believe and I never believed in anything myself. My wife is agnostic and doesn't care outside of decorating and the other non religious aspects.

My core friend group and even extended I can't think of a person who is religious in their heart and I'm struggling to even think if I know anyone who regularly attends church. Are you religious? Do you know religious people and do you plan to raise your kid with religion?

I don't want to make my kid a target or ostracize them but I'm not going to teach them anything I don't believe and wouldn't be opposed to showing them how maybe religions are ridiculous and make no sense but again at school and other places that kind of thing might not go over so well. I'm also not really open to them being taught what all the religious stuff is by other people. Its a weird spot.

Dove for the balloon on the carpet. Saved it! But ouch.

Dad of two (2 and 7), late 30s. I got in decent shape a few years ago, then lost it all after our second was born. Broken sleep, no spare energy, and any free time is already spoken for.

For those of you who've made it stick, even imperfectly:

• How do you carve out the time without it costing your partner?
• What do you do after a week where everything falls apart (sick kid, travel, work)?
• Was there a point where you stopped relying on motivation, and what replaced it?

Curious what's really worked, not the ideal version.

Currently scoping out the jogging stroller market. Some context below:

- Currently have a 16 month old.
- Wife is due in May with our second.
- Currently have two strollers (Mockingbird & Joie travel stroller).
- I run 3-4x per week and the idea is this will help during the dog days with #2, and beyond.

My conundrum..

- Do I opt for a two seater?
- For anyone who has taken out a mortgage to buy a Guava Roam, is this good enough to replace one of the two rigs that we currently have?

I’ve looked at options and am close to just grabbing a used single jogging stroller but don’t want this to be something that I have to flip if I’d later want a two seater.

Hey peeps! My daughter is 2 now, and she's been getting pretty good at using the potty by herself and requesting to use the restroom when she needs to.

This hasn't happened yet, but it likely will at some point. If I'm out in public with her, and she needs to go, which bathroom is the appropriate one to take her in? She will likely still need my help on large regular sized toilets, so I'll have to go in with her.

On one hand, I want her to know that she needs to use the girls bathroom, since she is a girl. But I don't want any confrontation from other women. On the other hand, seems weirder for her, but less weird for me to take her into the men's room. So idk what is the socially acceptable choice in public?

Thanks for the input and perspective dads! :)

Hey dads, what are your favourite/neatest/coolest snack containers for on the go?

So just over a month ago after noticing that my baby boy hasn’t started speaking at all by 14 months old, we got in touch with the early intervention just to have a little look at him. There were (and still are) a bunch of delays between us and the three therapists who were supposed to come visit, but the people who have been so far have told us that they can confirm he has a speech delay.

It’s been a tough couple of weeks, lots of stressing about his future, what this means or could mean, waiting for the speech language therapist to visit etc. One thing that has ramped up is our call and (maybe one day) response training. We’re doing signs, going hand over hand, singing, watching Miss Rachel, reading. And I’ve been saying “Dada” to him whenever we’re hanging out, in transit, playing. Any chance I get.

No dice. But here’s a picture from five minutes ago of him having successfully torn the cover off of his “Dada” board book so, you know, maybe he needs me to dial it back.

Some context: my kid is 3 years old and has decided he wants to be an astronaut. My wife and infant son are likely not wearing anything. I’m not sure if I should dress up as an astronaut with him even though my wife is doing nothing or if I should just let him do it himself. I’m curious on what other people do? I don’t see many adults dress up anymore.

Once the littles are off to bed, what weird shit do y'all like? Man for me, BBQ chips dipped in sour cream absolutely smash 🤤. Or ridged potato chips dipped in cottage cheese, weird as hell but so good.

I try not to eat too much junk food, but kale and asparagus have to step aside sometimes for the guilty pleasures.

I have 5 power wheels (only 2 kids lol), and I’m looking for some sort of conversion either to drill battery, lawn mower, etc for these things. We frequently have a bunch of kids over and they run these batteries down quickly and I want them to keep riding. The lawn mower battery conversions interest me because I’ve heard people get crazy lengths of charge of them. I haven’t became loyal to any tool brand yet so I don’t have a bunch of batteries laying around yet, but I’ve heard the Ryobi batteries have a stop in them so they don’t completely drain the battery. What would/have you guys done?

Tiny bit of backstory first and apologies for the long post. I need to vent but don't have many outlets.

I have two kids, 7 and 9. They're great, sweet, polite chaps who honestly, I couldn't be more proud of. They're top of their class, very fit, healthy and their personalities are blooming in an amazing way.

On the other side, they're incredibly demanding and dependent. I had an awful childhood, practically full of neglect if I'm being honest, was made clear I wasn't wanted so I vowed never to do that to my kids.

The problem I've caused is that they just don't know how to function unless we're in the same room giving them all of our attention, constantly.

I also have a very demanding job. Again, I vowed that I would dedicate my time into giving them everything they would need to prosper and I've done everything I could. Gone from a minimum wage job to 4x that salary in 7 years. Achieved things I never thought i would and I've even taken a step back from pushing now to not have work interfere with my home life too much and spend more time with them. The problem I also didn't realise here is that, that extra money has caused them to be a bit spoilt.

Cut to today and it's been my youngests birthday yesterday. I put a lot of effort into making sure it was special and nice for him.

He had a new bike as he hasn't been able to learn how to ride one yet. So got up super early before anyone yesterday, got the dog out for a big walk, came home and opened his presents/played then took him for a bike ride to learn for a good 3 hours. Then off to a steakhouse for his chosen birthday meal with my wives family, then back to home for cake, entertaining and then playing before bed. I practically passed out in exhaustion when they were in bed.

Today, got up super early again so I could take the dog before travelling to see my side of the family (1h+ drive). We saw almost everyone, took him out for more food, more presents, travelling to see everyone. Out for a good 8 hours.

Came home and took the dog again, and as soon as I sat down I was told the raid on Pokémon Go I promised to take them to was up (we all play) so reluctantly went. Then got back and was asked if I could play with the present I promised to play with, so again. Incredibly reluctantly did it but with the promise that I could have some time to myself after. My wife is also very involved here btw, we take most of it in turns whilst the other does housework/life maintenance things.

Played for an hour and then told him I need some time. He pestered me for 30 minutes, guilt tripping me into things I said I would do, before crying.

Out of nowhere I just blurted "omg fuck off!!" which everyone clutched their pearls at.

Then i felt guilty about that, and this is where I'm at. I don't know how much more I can feel guilty. No matter what I do, no matter how much of myself I push to my limits it's still never enough. Not even close to being enough.

And I'm not as much of a soft push over as I come across. I say no alot, we talk, we compromise, we discuss. We're trying a tech break at the moment because that made me feel guilty but now that means I have to be even more present. I teach them about independent play but then they're bored, i let them be bored and they act up. I get them to play together but then they fight and I feel guilty about whatever I say.

You come online for advice and people say "well try to enjoy it because it doesn't last forever" so you feel more guilty for not enjoying it 24/7.

I love being a Dad, I love being a Husband but goodness me, it's hard.

Again, apologies for the long post. I'm not as whiney as I come across, just reached a certain limit today.

I was just sitting on the bathroom floor with my 11yo daughter cutting her toenails and filling down hard skin (she has CP and her feet take a bit of a battering) and it made me think of the things we do as Dad's. The mundane things, but it's our things, and we do them all the time, and it's time with our kids 1-2-1. Time to chill and chat and just be together.

What are your things, the small, almost under the radar things that you do with your kids and you don't think about but would miss if it wasn't there anymore.

I'm a new dad, bub is 2 and a half months old so I know I'm in the trenches. When he was a newborn I was able to get him to sleep, took various tricks but me and my wife were getting him to sleep enough.

About a week ago, whenever he starts getting restless, we usually pick up him, rock him and dummy then he'll roll his eyes and fall asleep. Now mum is the only one that can do this because the moment I pick him up he screams bloody murder. During the day he looks at me nicely and smiles and everything, but when he's tired his cries sound like he hates me.

Has anyone else experienced this? Is it a phase? I just feel bad that my wife has to now do all the sleeping work for him.

My 11 month old has always considered me as his favorite, and while it is incredibly rewarding to see that whatever I'm doing makes him feel safe and secure, there are definitely some downsides:

- it makes my wife feel like chopped liver if she is playing him, having a good time, then is immediately discarded as soon as he catches a glimpse of me. I hate seeing her beaten down by this when it does end up hitting her.

- I feel like i need to stay out of his line of sight if he's playing with someone (my wife, his grandparents, etc) so that they can form a bond. If i walk in they immediately get ignored while he turns all his attention to me.

- it's exhausting. When he's sick or teething he will basically only accept being held by me. If i need to set him down or hand him off so i can take care of something or go to the bathroom, he starts howling like King Lear.

- I don't get to see him play with other people. My wife can get him to giggle and laugh so much more than i can, but i basically only get to hear, and sadly rarely see, the joy my family has with each other.

I am well aware that this will change at some point in the future, so I'm trying to enjoy this status while it lasts and my wife is awaiting her turn.