As of today, I have a 1 month old. She is amazing and I love her so much, but she's boring! Don't get me wrong, she's difficult and my wife and I haven't slept a good night in a month, but all she does is eat, sleep, and poop. There's basically no interaction.

I'm so looking forward to being able to laugh with her, play with her, and generally start teaching her the world.

How do you feel? What's your favorite stage of child development?

There's a big protest being organized across Canada to protest SOGI being taught in schools, and I'm fed up with it. There are so many vulnerable students who need to know that what they're experiencing is normal, and right-wing extremists are politicizing human rights and spreading manufactured controversy about children being shown pornography in schools.

The linked article is just one of many anti-SOGI protests happening across Canada on Wednesday.

Anyway, the reason I bring it up here is that some of these right-wing anti-SOGI [redacted; unkind] are parents of kids in our kids' classes, and a couple of them are close friends with my kids.

How do you handle that? Kids shouldn't be held accountable for their parents' beliefs. But what about playdates and birthday parties and such? Should we discuss the friendship? It feels wrong to ostracize the child. They deserve to feel safe and have friends.

Also, I'm thinking of taking time off work to counter protest, and making a sign like this one:

Not really related to parenting, but I think it's important kids feel supported and bigots are told their archaic world views are unwelcome. It'll be super awkward if a parent I know is standing on the other side of the protest.

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As my oldest goes into pre-k, in a formal school, it's a big transition to how we approach our family's relationship to the teachers, administrators, and the school as an institution. It's clear that the other parents are also in the same boat, with some unspoken undercurrent of competitiveness that I don't personally want to participate in.

Parents of older kids, what do you think other parents should know as their kids transition into elementary school?

My kid (8) isnt enrolled in any summer camps, and we've been doing our best to keep him active and entertained both at home/outdoors. But we're always looking for ideas for new fun stuff to do.

How do you and your kids do for fun summer break activities?

Our 2yo has sensitive skin, so we've always been really particular about drying his butt during a diaper change before putting the new diaper on, and we haven't had much problem with diaper rash since he was only a few months old.

But sometimes when he comes back from an afternoon with grandma and auntie, he'll have a good bit of diaper rash - well when we watch the change him, I noticed they don't bother to use the drying rag we include in the diaper change kit, just wipe clean and then strap up.

We also got some friends with a similar age kid, and they also don't dry, but they are big fans of baby powder, and out some of that on with every change. Their kid is a little bit younger but it sounds like they deal with rash fairly often (despite less sensitive skin generally).

So that brings me to the title - are people just really out here not drying butts? Is it weird that we always do? Is this not a normal part of the diaper change process?

What do yall think?

I'm not sure if this is the best place for this cross-post, nor do I know how many users here occupy the parent+tech-savvy/sysop intersectional space. But for anyone with a child and privacy focused, this webapp made by Rikudou_Sage might be of interest?

Keep in mind, it doesn't come with any instructions on self-hosting. It seems to leverage the serverless framework, though.

If this post is a bad fit, feel free to remove!

The github repos and the link to the Play Store app (it's a wrapper) can be found under the original post spoiler section below.

Our little one (18 months) started swim lessons about a month ago, so we're learning all about swim diapers and trying to avoid an accident until we get to the pool. We've changed in the locker rooms and got in the habit of just putting the swim diaper on in the trunk upon arrival. With a wiggly kid, that's just a pain but we dealt with it.

Last week, my wife was in the water and I stayed in the chairs where I overheard two of the other moms talking and one had an awesome suggestion we hadn't thought of. Put on the swim diaper at home, then put a regular diaper on over the swim diaper and take off the regular diaper upon arrival. Keeps everything contained, makes changing a lot easier, and we're in the pool a lot faster.

Curious to see what the community has and see if we can get some knowledge sharing in! What else have you got?

My partner and I are expecting our first in December and very excited but not quite sure of what to expect or… how to do any of it, really. What resources helped you when you were first diving into parenthood?

Let's hear those classic one liners that only a toddler could come up with

I am a parent (stay-at-home dad) of two boys (10 and 14 years old). Best advice that I can give is 'attachment parenting' and teaching/encouraging 'emotional intelligence'. Those two were the most recommended by the top child psychologists on Earth.

Both boys have been in gifted and talented programs (without any parental pressure) for many years and are on track to receive full scholarships.

In short, we have talked to them about everything...talk talk and more talk...encourage them to talk about their feelings/emotions...if they feel ashamed about talking to their parents about something, then find someone (friend, family member, school counselor, etc) to talk about it.

From infancy until around the age of four, we would read to them. We'd sit in a chair, place them on our lap, hold the book open right in front of them and read. As they grew older we explained that there is a direct relationship between reading comprehension skills (critical thinking) and the amount of money one could earn in a career. Basically, we asked them: Do you want this type of mid-sized house/property, two cars, time off of work, pets, etc? -> Read and understand what you are reading.

I'll start!

My son is 14 months. He learned to walk on his own 2 weeks ago and now I just chase him non stop. It doesn't help that it's 90+f outside. 💦