FreedomFanBoy

We have a 3 year old little girl and one of the ways I connect with her is to ask her about her dreams. Almost every day I'll ask. I think it's important to show curiosity, show we each of different experiences and connect over them.

Parent Effectiveness Training

Asking for a button to stop a baby from crying is like pushing a button to stop pain somewhere in your body. If you push it and don't treat the cause of the pain, you are doing your body a disservice and not treating the root cause, which could make the matters worse. The crying is your baby's only way to communicate, learn the language. He's yelling at you for not understanding his needs.

Thank you very much! That's really nice to hear.

I remember what it was like to realize that Santa wasn't real. I felt like I was a fool, that my parents and older brother were just tricking me and treating me like I was stupid for still thinking that there was a Santa. I was genuinely hurt that they kept the stories and lies going. Years later, I found a letter I wrote to Santa, and it re-awoke my anger. I can't do that to my child, lie to them, trick them for the sake of going to bed early. To tell them that an illogical man, they've never met, will sneak into their home, where they find comfort, and give them goodies based on a behaviors, something subjective like whether a stranger thinks they are "good" or "bad". And, when you think about it, Santa must love rich kids more than poor kids, no matter how "good" poor kids behave in a year. It's insulting to the intelligence of a child.

Is it not possible to pump some breast milk and have some ready and waiting for times like these? From an non-Professional (unless you think being a parent is the most important job in the world, then I would have been in this career for two years now) I would say that it would be important to comfort him as his cries are a plea for help. He probably is thinking "the big person with the sometimes scratchy face doesn't know what he's doing! He is stopping the big person with booby food from getting here, and I need to yell so she can hear me!" Try to have a bottle set aside in case of emergencies and comfort with slow left to right swings. Alternate, walk around, lay him on his belly in your arms, etc. I would be concerned if the up and down "anti-grav" thing would be too jerky, but I'm not there and can't see, obviously. Oh! And Congratulations! It's an amazing experience, being a father.

That sounds really nice. I like the idea of giving gifts to neighbors, seems like a good way to build a relationship with them. How did you explain holidays, or your lack of participation? We don't want our daughter to be "shunned" by her friends as the weird "Jeahovas Witness" type. Did jealously ever become an issue with your children and the perceived riches their friends received?

As enlightened, peaceful parents, how you do handle holidays? We are constantly asked "What are you dressing your daughter up as for Halloween?", "What is Santa getting her for Christmas?". etc. We don't do Halloween for 2 main reasons, #1, she's only 2 years old. She doesn't eat candy. It's bad for her. We have diabetes in our family history. and #2, she's only 2 years old! She doesn't understand that it's kinda weird to dress up in some commercialized cartoon character (we don't watch tv), go to neighbor's houses we've never met, begging for something that not good for you, for reasons we can't explain other than "tradition and culture". When it comes to Christmas, we don't talk about Santa because he's not real. She already has everything she wants, because she's 2, and "tradition and culture" again. It's an arbitrary religious day. Do we give her the gifts that her cousins and grandparents sent her? Yes. But it's not a big deal in our house. What are your thoughts? What do you do in your homes for the Holidays? For full disclosure, we do cook a big meal for Thanksgivings, but that's because we love food.

Sums it up nicely.

I just private messaged the CNN Opinion article (http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/22/opinion/mackenzie-spanking-effects/index.html?hpt=hp_t4) to my High School friend, then started to read it. This quote stood out to me: "Changing people's minds about something they care about by presenting data is a tough thing to do, particularly around something so emotionally laden as spanking" Hopefully she gets that far into it without dismissing it.

I used to cry watching them. Now I feel disgust at the abandonment of the child and the glory searching and youtube view counts they put at a higher priority than spending the childhood with the child. This behavior is worshiped and praised and the child comes out damaged and alone because of it.

Brian, I do regularly share photos. Constantly and probably annoyingly. She and I are friends on both Facebook and Instagram so she definitely sees what kind of amazing child that had come into our life.

I like to think that the "seed" I planted that day was the knowledge that it's not alright. That people can give reasoned arguments as to why either the apathy, ignorance or willful abuse is wrong.

Your niece sounds a lot like my daughter in respect to her language skills. How old? 2?

I live 1000 miles away from where I grew up. It had a lot to do with why my wife and I are peaceful parents. I can imagine how hard it would be to try to raise a child peacefully when your parents or siblings are around spoiling your self-knowledge and commitment to peace. Luckily we only see family once a year, if that and for only a weekend. I will follow up with her as she gets further along in the pregnancy. I just ordered P.E.T. and plan on reading through that. Once done with that, I'll recommend it to her. I just can't imagine waiting your whole life to meet your child, be there when she/he is born, look them in the eye and promise to protect them and in a few short years feel like you have the right to physically assault them. It's sick. By the way, I came across this in the FDR Facebook group and donated right away. If you have chance, please look it over and consider the same http://stopspanking.org/

Everything Ribuck said is golden.

With our daughter, we tend to stick to a few foods but mix it up. Buy a Food Mill (http://www.amazon.com/Norpro-Grinder-Mincer-Pasta-Maker/dp/B0002I5QHW/ref=sr_1_32?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1382391147&sr=1-32&keywords=food+mill) Grind up a variety of vegetables and mix it with cheese and put into a quesadilla. When ever we give her quesadillas we add extra ingredients. She usually does a great job of eating it. We give her a ton of fresh veggies and fruit too. And cheese and yogurt. The only thing you can do is give her a variety. She is old enough (I'm assuming. How old?) to tell if she is hungry. Also, if anything, if she doesn't want to eat then, don't force it. Try again in an hour. This way, she will learn that she needs to help manager her hunger and food intake. That you or her parents aren't going to do it for her. That teaches her some responsibility to self. Oh, and don't forget to add fiber.

I was pretty much going to say the same thing Ruben. We read a lot, and play, but if housework needs to be done, we are sure to include her. She can help put things away, and she loves to help sweep the floors or clean glass. When it's just me and our daughter, we often go to the park or for a walk around the neighborhood. When it's just my wife and her, they tend to water the trees or do some light gardening. In our opinion, the most important thing is to keep them involved with the housework in some capacity, even if it means you are not getting anything "done" because it is helping develops skills in them and that's productive.

We our 2 year old has never watched tv, except for videos of the family or pictures and videos of wild animals. We have a tv with an AppleTV hooked up to it. We got rid of cable about year before she was born and haven't looked back. Our position, regarding television and parenting is, she has be able to discuss with us what she saw on the television to be able to watch it. Since she is two, she can't communicate with us what she would be viewing, we can't have a dialogue, therefore we withhold it until she can. When she is in a place that we can have conversations, we will watch it together, then discuss it. We want to be sure that she has the ability to view something, then tell whether it is real or fiction. Tell us her emotional state while watching, etc.

A friend from high school has had a lot of problems conceiving a child and she and her husband has been very open about it. She is now 20 weeks along and everything looks good from a health standpoint. Then she shared one of those e-cards. So I had to say something. How did I do? *Ok, how do I post and image?* http://imgur.com/XIbJgpr

The top photo looks like a Nazgul. :)I love it.