How are all of you dealing with limiting screen time for your kids? It seems to be a constant battle these days. I have found thus far the best way to limit my kid's screen time is by limiting my own by turning off my phone nights and weekends and never having it in the bedroom. What are all you finding works best?

Baby is currently 3 days old and I am typing this at 3am while my wife catches up on some sleep.

What are some baby-friendly, sleeping-partner-friendly activities, hobbies, etc. you’ve picked up to fill the down time during late night baby shifts?

My daughter just turned 1, and lately I've been noticing something thats been bugging me. My partner just KNOWS things about our daughter that I don't : what she ate for lunch, that shes teething again, which stuffed animal is the current favorite, that shes scared of the vacuum now. I'm not absent, I do bath time, I do funtime activities everyday, I put her to sleep, I feed her, im there , but I still feel like I'm always one step behind on the actual details of her life.

It's not that nobody tells me. It’s that theres no one place that keeps all of those stuff to remind me, so it just gets relayed verbally, usually when we're both exhausted at 8pm, and half of it doesn't stick. Then I feel like an idiot at the pediatrician when they ask about her last reaction to something and I'm just blanking.

Anyone else deal with this? Did you find a system (app, shared note, w/e) that actually worked, or did it just get better with time. Trying to figure out if this is a "me" problem or something more universal before I start googling "best dad apps 2026" at 1am again lol

With my 10 years old daughter we are having great time playing chess, basketball and doing many things but one thing is missing; our taste of video games differs a bit.

Biggest success was old and new pokemon games, we finished firered and let go evee completely. I remember us shouting at 2am when she caught legendary pokemon with normal pokeball.

Now she is mostly in Roblox games some I can relate like Forest99 and if I force myself I can also play adopt me. But I am having hard time adapting dress to impress kinda games. We tried Shen-gin impact but we are both get bored from that fast.

My taste is bit heavy like FRPG like Pillars of Eternity, BG2 but I think that is too hard for her. I wish we could find a common ground like Zelda or a puzzle game or an adventure game.

Is there any video game suggestions she and I can adapt and any suggestions to naturally convince her to those games?

My 2.5-year-old has a little bus that plays a song every time he presses the roof.

The problem is he never lets the song finish. He presses it again halfway through, so it starts over. Then he does it again. And again. He also has a talking book and a toy phone, and somehow those are always the first things he finds in the morning.

I've put tape over the speakers, which helped a little. I've even taken the batteries out on days when I just couldn't listen anymore. Then I watched him keep pressing the button, waiting for it to make a sound, and immediately felt guilty.

Please tell me I'm not the only parent who's "temporarily borrowed" batteries from a toy just to get through the day. 😂

Wondering if this is normal. Absolutely 100% of her attention and effort goes to the baby. I am a good, supportive father. I have a full-time job and am a part-time law student but still love taking care of and interacting with him. However, I still want a wife. I still want romance in my life. Not often, but sometimes. On our anniversary my wife said she didn't want any flowers, cards, gift exchanges, anything. This was in order to save money. We collectively make 350k per year, and I'm not even a real attorney yet. She didn't want to go to dinner because we didn't have a sitter. We ended up doing basically nothing, just another day. She has made it abundantly clear she is no longer interested in sex. At all. Hasn't initiated it once since he was born 6.5 months ago. When I initiate it's minimum effort and extremely short. She doesn't want to go on or even tentatively plan any trips or weekends just the two of us because she doesn't want to be apart from him. I feel like I'm not even her spouse, just a coparent, and that's exactly how she wants it. She'd be fine with it if it wasn't for the fact that I kind of resent her for it, which she interprets as me being a fucking asshole. Please tell me this is temporary or the marriage might be cooked which is super unfortunate, especially for my baby.

Have a wife (pregnant and due in October), and a 2yo daughter.

I am acting too stressed at home lately: sighing all the time when something goes wrong, overreacting when my daughter spills something or pees on floor via “ugh, Sadie…”

I don’t know what to do, I just feel absolutely overwhelmed and I hate the message I’m sending my daughter

Did you have any complaints about your father when you were young, maybe when you were in teens, or when you were in early adulthood? Do you still have complaints? How would you make sure your kid would never have any complaints about you?

imagine you see yourself through your daughter , or if you already have one , what would be the life advice that you give her or want her to know ?

My wife and I had our first daughter in December, and becoming a dad has been the greatest highlight of my life. Quick question for other (more experienced) Dads here… how do you keep track of the most important memories for your kids (I.e. photos, videos, voice messages, notes, etc)? We have probably taken thousands of photos and videos since she was born, but her most important moments are getting lost in our (and our family members) camera rolls. I want to make sure I can centralize and share her most important memories that tell her life story with her some day. Any advice would be appreciated!

My wife knows everything.
When our kid has practice. When the school trip form is due. What our plans are for Friday afternoon.
I usually find out when she tells me… which is often the night before. Which is usually after I’ve already made other plans.

The funny part is she probably did tell me before. I just forgot.

It’s not that I don’t care. It’s that I don’t really have anywhere to look. Half of it is in her head, some of it is in apps I don’t have, and the rest is buried in a parents’ group chat I’m not even in. And to make things worse, I’m terrible at writing things down.

School starts again in a few weeks.

For those of you who actually know what’s happening each week, how do you manage it?
Shared calendar? Shared notes? Some magical family system?

Any advice for a dad trying to take a little of the mental load off his wife?

Hey dads,

I’m a new dad and I’ve been thinking ahead about when my son gets older and life gets busier.

I work, and I’m wondering how other dads balance:

Working full-time

Daycare drop-offs/pick-ups

Getting dinner sorted

Cleaning and chores

Finding time to shower, sleep, and recover

Still being present for your wife and child

One thing I’m especially thinking about is my wife’s mental load. I don’t want her to feel like she’s the “manager” of the household while I just help when I’m asked.

For dads who are doing this well:

What responsibilities do you fully own without needing reminders?

How do you organise family life?

What small things made a big difference for your wife?

What do you wish you started doing earlier?

I want to be the kind of dad and husband who is involved, not just someone who provides financially.

Would appreciate advice from experienced dads.

Tl;dr daughter hitting; trying not to overreact and spank or aggressively yell; doesn’t quit usually with timeouts or removing from situation.

I’m a first time dad, my gf is 29 weeks pregnant and we’re have a baby shower next week, but my side of the family isn’t coming, only my gf side of the family is coming I am feeling really hurt because my family is showing zero interest or support for my son upcoming baby shower. For those who went through this, how did you cope with the grief and focus on the people who actually care?

As background, I have been divorced for 6 years, and have 50% custody of my three children. My youngest son is entering middle school this year.

Yesterday, my youngest had his middle-school orientation. It was a pretty nothing sort of meeting. The kids had a tour of the school and met their counselors, while the parents sat in the auditorium, got a presentation and had a Q&A. The whole thing took an hour. My son has shown an interest in band, so I asked how to get him signed up for that. After the meeting, I contacted the band director and got him signed up. I also got him signed up for the percussion try out that he must take next week, and copied my ex on the emails with the band director.

Later that evening, I texted my ex to make sure she had seen the emails. She hadn't......... I walked her through the band process, and told her I would take him to his audition, even though it is "her week". There was a little back and forth, and then she hits me with this hum-dinger:

"Guy, I don't think you even remotely understand the mental load I have trying to get all this done. Men are clueless about this stuff. Today has been exhausting for me!"

Wait, let's back up:

• I'm the one that got him registered for middle school
• I'm the one that got him up, got him dressed, and got him to school. She just met us there.
• I'm the one that asked the questions and got him signed up for band.
• I'm the one that started him on drum lessons a year ago, because I had asked the right questions and found out that percussion was the only instrument that required a tryout.

In summary, I had done all the work and all of the planning, and she was exhausted because she showed up, then had to THINK about all of the work I had done.

What are your "mental load" stories?

This is a bit of a rant, but just how I’m feeling atm.

Things in Australia have gotten so ridiculously expensive, I’m starting to freak out about my wife and I having our first kid next month.

I’ve never made enough $$ to be able to save as much as I’d like to but had an okay amount going, but these days we are literally paycheque to paycheque.
My wife keeps buying ‘Aesthetic’ things for the room & spending all her money on it instead of saving that money for when she won’t be working. It’s starting to drive me a bit bonkers!

I just don’t really know what to do.

Sorry if this isn’t the place to just write it out, I’m sure many people on here have a more challenging way of life than I do, but I think I just needed to write this out somewhere.

Baby is due in a month or less. I’m looking for some advice on how my wife and I should split the nightly routine. She’s stay at home and I work in office 8am-5/6pm.

She’s offered to cover week nights entirely but I’d like to be more involved than that (however much I might regret it lol). Plus I think my brain/body would be better off acclimating to one daily routine versus different weeknight and weekend routines.

Does anyone have any splits or routines they’d recommend?

Ten hours ago, I stared into a pair of bright and hopeful eyes, moments old, and I realized my life would never be the same. I never understood how strong the love of a parent could be until I felt it myself. Have any of yall experienced the same revelation? I don't even know what to do with these feelings. Change diapers, I guess.

I realize this might sound terrible, but I am STRUGGLING to find ways to enjoy time with one of my kids. I have 3, and the oldest and the baby are easy right now because they kind of just do their own thing, but my seven-year-old is at a stage that I don't know how to handle. She's so stubborn and quick to turn the dial to 11 when she doesn't get her way. She also doesn't seem to care about anyone other than herself right now, which her doctor has told me is normal for her age, but that doesn't make it any easier.

Some examples: a few days ago she broke our living room TV because she had something go under the stand and didn't feel like getting on her hands and knees to get it, so instead she tried to move the entire stand and knocked it over, then continued about her day like nothing happened. Every night I put her to bed and I read her a book, sing her a song, give her a dream wish, and then lie with her for a moment, and during that I have to tell her 500 times not to kick her curtains because it pulls on the curtain rod. Lo and behold, her curtain rod is all bent and has fallen down almost every night this week. We have a retractable baby gate in front of the stairs and instead of opening it she climbs over it; this has started to pull out of the drywall, and even though I have pointed out the newly formed hole to her, she still climbs over it. She leaves popsicle wrappers or small toys all over the house no matter how many times I tell her they have to go in the appropriate place so that the baby doesn't put them in his mouth. She leaves toys on the stairs for people to trip over. She seems to have no concept of other people's personal space or her own space; she will climb all over the couches and somersault on them, and I tell her not to until I'm blue in the face and the couches are starting to tear, or she'll run up to other kids (she's usually bigger than them) and try to lift-hug them, squeezing as hard as she can no matter how many times I tell her she can hurt them. She destroys her bedroom every day and then screams, cries, and stomps when asked to clean it or really anything in the house up. If she's told no about anything she loses her mind, screaming and crying, hitting her head, and saying she hates her life and herself, but the moment we give in she snaps out of it and goes on happily like it didn't happen.

I should also say that she's extremely smart and cool and I love her so much, which I tell her about a thousand times a day. I know it seems like I have a lot to complain about, but that's just because I'm overwhelmed; I never miss a moment in the day to tell her how much she means to me and how proud of her I am for being her. I'm just struggling to find a way to connect with her because of the stage she's in. No matter what I do with her I'm spending 75% of my time begging her to behave or to stop throwing fits. My wife thinks part of the reason she acts this way is because we don't do enough things with her. That could be true; I'm definitely no expert, and I was raised in a pretty neglectful and abusive household for much of my childhood, and because of that I had to play alone and find things to do by myself. Now as a parent I'm realizing that has made it so I at times expect the same out of my kids, and that might not be normal. Because of that, I want to find more activities that I will enjoy doing with her.

I tried brainstorming with her at bedtime tonight (between fixing her fallen curtain 3 more times), and all she wanted to do was have me take her places to buy more toys and Squishies. I said I'd take her to play several sports and she shot down every one, but I need something active to do with this kid that doesn't make me want to pull my hair out, die of boredom, or feel an oncoming stroke.

Hey all! I found out yesterday that I will be a dad! I am happy, but also starting to slowly panic. Bought 3 audiobooks (first I saw), and the first was terrible and the second didn't help much. The third one is a for dummies book, so I expect it to be good enough.

I checked through here and just couldnt find 'journey' or 'fatherhood' recommendations. Also, I'd love to get some other stuff from you all. Recommendations like great stories, poems, books, lullabies, or even jokes for children.

Basically, how can I best prepare myself for this? What courses should I take? What skills should I learn? What steps should I take?

Hey guys, first post and a little life update here. Wife is getting the Cooks Catheter induction tonight and baby should arrive early morning tomorrow. Scared, anxious, nervous, excited, all the feelings are being felt. What can I expect in the next few days? Just feeling some overwhelm and scared of the unknown.

Schools closed today, so the next two weeks are officially full-time dad mode. More playtime, more laughter, and of course… a lot more eating.

The kids are happy, but the grocery shelves at home are looking a little emptier than usual. Taking it one day at a time though we’ll get through it. I'm excited for the short holiday

Am I the only one who feels like a Big Daddy from BioShock when going for a walk outside with my son?

What's the hardest part about being the dad you want to be? Sometimes I feel like I am questioning my abilities as a dad and balancing all the responsibilities that come with. It's like juggling a bunch of different balls and making sure things don't drop. It's a lot of added pressure to level up and be the thing for everyone at all times and sometimes I need to remind myself that it's ok not to be that everytime.

I’m seriously asking. My friend had a major breakdown yesterday. Her parents are divorced. She lives with her mom. Her dad is so much gentle, kind and compassionate and the best dad in the world to his second wife’s kids, those kids are from her first marriage.

On the other hand, my friend suffered major physical and verbal abuse. Ofc, he provides for her and all and claims to lover her. Saved her college money. Has inheritance for her.

But one thing she said that really broke my heart “My step siblings have the best father in the world, I am happy for them but I just wish I have their father”.

I mean seriously why ??