My oldest asked me yesterday why God lets bad things happen if he loves us. I froze. I gave some answer about free will but honestly I don't think it landed. How do you guys handle these conversations with your kids? I want to give them real answers not just the Sunday school stuff.
The first month was survival mode, month 2-3 was anxiety mode, but my daughter is 5 months old and honestly? I'm starting to enjoy this. She's giving me real smiles, she recognizes me, she's sleeping better, and I've finally got at least 30 minutes a day where I'm not actively stressed. I think I ca...
My 11yo is asking constantly. He's in 6th grade and apparently like 70% of his class has one already. We're in Portland and I feel like we're being weird about it, but I'm genuinely not sure when the right age is. He's responsible with his iPad for homework but that feels different somehow. What age...
Honest question. Today I found my 4yo in the backyard at 8am in full Spider-Man costume (in 75 degree weather) trying to "web" the fence with our garden hose. He was soaked. There was mud. I'm pretty sure he thought this was the best morning ever. Meanwhile I'm over here trying to figure out if wet ...
My son's on the 10U team and honestly the parents have gotten way too competitive. There's this one dad who's literally yelling at 10 year olds about their swing mechanics. Like buddy, they're still learning to tie their shoes half the time. Just let them have fun. Anyway, my kid's actually pretty g...
My brother offered to take the kids for a few hours last weekend so I could rest and I literally almost said no because I felt guilty. GUILTY. Like, my brother OFFERED. He was happy to do it. But my brain was like "you should be able to handle everything, asking for help means you're weak." So stupi...
My custody modification just got approved but holy shit, the lawyer bills. $6k later and we basically just formalized what we've been doing anyway. I know people say "don't go to court" but sometimes there's no choice. Wondering if I should've done more DIY stuff or if that would've been messier. Al...
My 9yo has been asking for more iPad time and honestly I've been saying yes more than I should because work's been crazy and I need him occupied. He's not addicted or anything—he still plays outside, does his homework—but I see these articles about brain development and now I'm paranoid. Is like 2 h...
My 8yo has decided his life's work is collecting rocks. Not special rocks - just rocks. We have a container with approximately 8 million rocks in our garage. GARAGE. I asked him what the end goal is and he just shrugged. How do I gently explain that we don't have space for a rock collection that riv...
He watches woodworking videos on YouTube and keeps asking me to teach him. I'm not a carpenter or anything—I can do basic stuff like build shelves—but he's genuinely interested in making something with hand tools. I'm thinking maybe a small cutting board or a birdhouse as a starter project? Should I...
Remember me from 6 months ago asking if anyone had switched careers after kids? Well I did it. Took a teaching job at a local high school that pays about 40% less than my finance gig but summers are mostly mine and I'm home by 4:30 every day. We had to tighten our belts but honestly? Best decision e...
Thought it would be a fun activity to have my son pick what we'd eat on our camping trip. Seemed reasonable, right? Wrong. The menu was basically just hot dogs, Doritos, and cake. I should have had parameters. We still did some actual vegetables and normal food but he was genuinely confused why I wo...
Tried making chocolate chip cookies with my youngest on Saturday. Kid wanted to do EVERYTHING. Cracking eggs took 15 minutes, he smashed like 6 of them directly into the bowl with shells. I found eggshell in the batter THREE TIMES while cooking. The amount of flour on his face and the floor was genu...
Not trying to be dramatic but seriously. My wife was completely burned out, I was working 60-hour weeks, we hadn't had a real conversation in months. I had some PTO saved up and just took a month off (negotiated the last two weeks unpaid). Spent time with the kids, actually cooked dinner, did housew...
Like, "does she have a spelling test" or "what time is soccer" - things that I would know because SHE'S WITH ME. It's constant. And when I don't answer right away, she calls and leaves voicemails. I get that she cares but I'm trying to be present with my kids and I'm not her personal assistant. How ...