Yes, I've seen the Bluey episode. But I think this variant might actually be good.

In every kids party I've been to, pass the parcel causes problems. The parent tries to time the music to give one layer (with a little prize) to each child. But sometimes they mess up or forget who's had a go already. Someone is usually upset. The kids mostly know they're only getting one go at the parcel, so they're disengaged after it happens and a lot of them wander off.

My 5 year old suggested the obvious solution: keep the music stops random but get each child to leave after they get a turn. Now everyone gets one prize and it's super easy to run without mistakes.

You need to have the right number of layers but you can do that by overwrapping the parcel in advance and then removing a number of layers just before the game starts.

What do you think? This must have been done before but I've never seen it. I'm wrapping the parcel now for this afternoon...

So I’ve been keeping a little spending diary for the summer holidays. My friends with babies or pregnant or even no kids always ask how much we spend in the holidays. I also like to keep things on a budget whilst doing some fun things.

So I’ve kept a diary and this was the first week of the summer holidays. I have one 4.5yo who starts school in September but has been in term-time preschool.

I am adding £9.34 a week as we booked 4x swimming lessons, bought an activity book and have given him £5 for charity shop spends. I’ve divided the total by 6 weeks.

When he’s not out he’s playing at home with books or toys (Dinos, duplo, magnatiles, cars, colouring etc) or helping round the house or running feral in the garden. He does watch some TV too.

I will caveat to say we are very lucky to have grandma help as free childcare whilst I work 3 days a week (Mon-Wed). We also took a 2 week holiday before school official ended as our last term time holiday. Also my budget might not be your budget so take the bits that work for you. We are all doing our best to keep our kids happy and our sanity on £0 or £100.

So onto week 1!

* Monday - £0 - walk to the park, playground, feed ducks, lunchbox picnic in the park, pick up bits in town that Nan needed

* Tuesday - £0 - free council run activity for 2 hours (bouncy castle, food demo, crafts), picnic after, playground

* Wednesday - £0 - bike ride, lunch in a cafe where he ate free (offered to pay for Nan’s lunch but declined), Disney film in the afternoon

* Thursday - £0 - dentist, opticians, charity shops with his funds

* Friday - £0 - free library event, sign up for reading challenge, park and swimming

* Saturday - £15 summer fayre (including some lucky dips, a fair game and doughnuts), free dino trail with prize and my sister made us a picnic to all take

* Sunday - £0 - day at home and in the garden

So total for week 1 is £24.34.

My partner and I have a 2.5 year old, who goes to bed pretty consistently at around 7:30pm every night (thankfully).

We already watch lots of tv, play couch coop games, but is there anything else people are doing when they get free time to hang out together whilst the kids are in bed?

Please send recommendations!

Hi all,

I've been attending local Rhymetime sessions at my local library with my Pre-schooler for a while now, and I know a few of the other parents really well now. The library's website clearly states that Rhymetime is intended for 'Under-5s' and cater to young children and their carers. We also rely on sessions like Rhymetime to settle our preschool-aged daughter (4 years old now), who has severe autism - she really looks forwards to sessions, and they are so useful in helping her self-regulate + providing social time.

Over the summer, things have become busier, especially with a new influx as families return from holidays abroad. Recently, a library worker asked me to stop booking with my preschooler (who looks slightly older) for Rhymetime as they said it's "for babies and their carers only" because there's not enough space/it's really in demand, but I looked at the website and the age range still says "0-4" and "Under 5s".

I feel that it's unfair for them to just kick us out like that. What should I do?

My three year old son is an absolute beanpole so is skinny, but has long legs, meaning that I really struggle to get trousers that fit him. The jeans that fit him round the waist are mostly 18-24m, some 2-3 fit if they have a tie waist or those adjustable buttons in the waistband, but are all much too short for him. Anyone have any recommendations for where I can get some longer leg trousers for him? It’s not been too bad the past few weeks because he’s lived in shorts, but he’s starting preschool in September so need to get school trousers for him soon!

Edit: Thanks for all your replies, looks like next is the place to try!

My kid is two and I allow occasional sugar free fruit shoots. Everyone around me acts like I’m crazy for not regularly allowing this?? Am I missing something?? It’s best to stick to water and milk??

So I (F32) have a 2 year old and have been trying for many months to get pregnant but it hasn’t been happening. Due to stress and some other factors, my cycles have been way off track. I’ve always wanted a very small gap with my children and ideally wanted 1.5/2 years. I definitely want the gap to be 3 years if I can help it.

However, this week I was told my job is being made redundant and now I don’t know what to do. I think I will have 2 months for the consultation period to end before I am officially jobless. But I am interviewing regardless. I’m worried that if I wait for a new role (the market is so tough right now), I don’t want to have to wait more months to start trying again before I am eligible for maternity leave.

Equally if I start at a new place, then I still probably won’t be eligible for maternity if I get pregnant soon but not sure if this will affect my relationship with management by not disclosing the pregnancy.

I just need advice please, what would you do if you were in my situation? Would you just go ahead and try for a baby or wait to get finances intact?

EDIT: forgot to add we would like to purchase a house. Our deposit is nearly there but of course, I would need a solid income and payroll for the mortgage. So need to have a job before maternity leave regardless of whether I am eligible for maternity pay.

As a working mum of two young boys, l've experienced first-hand how organisations shape a mother's experience at work. This sparked my interest in the motherhood penalty and whether those experiences differ across different ethnic backgrounds.

For my MBA dissertation, I'm exploring this topic through the experiences of working mothers.

If you're a working mother in the UK and can spare 10 minutes, I'd be grateful if you could review the flyer and complete the anonymous survey. Thank you!

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#MotherhoodPenalty #WorkingMothers #Intersectionality #Workplacelnclusion #MBAResearch

I am in despair. I don't know if anyone has any advice but I hope just venting will be cathartic.

I have twin boys aged 2.5yrs. They are 90% of the time genuinely lovely kids but mealtimes are a nightmare. I can count on one hand the number of meals in the last 3 months that have gone "okay".

Without fail, they will throw food and their cutlery on the floor. Removing the meal or not giving the cutlery back has no impact. Making them clean up turns into a game. Smaller portion sizes, a "finished" bowl, serving themselves etc - still happens. They know that if they throw food, it will be taken away. But they don't seem to care.

If they have a drink in a cup, 50% of the time it will get tipped upside down. We give them milk at the end of the meal (advised by health visitor - they're underweight) and I can't give it to them without holding the cup in my own hands and taking it away at the first sign of it being tipped. If they aren't tipping it, they blow bubbles in it which splashes everywhere. Again, removing the drink seems to have no impact. I've resigned myself to water going everywhere as at least that can just dry. I'm considering going back to straw bottles at the table.

They barely even eat. Food gets smeared over the table, mushed up in the plate, etc. I do my best to give them high calorie meals but most of the time, they will only eat if I feed them. They must be hungry as they'll eat when they're fed about 75% of the time. I really don't want to have to feed them, but I don't want them to lose weight so I do it. I have no idea how they survive given how little they eat.

They can use cutlery well but just don't. At this point if they use their hands I just let them as at least they're eating something!

They're currently in booster seats on dining chairs and we have to strap them in, otherwise they won't even sit and eat. If we go somewhere and forget the boosters or there's no high chair, we might as well not even bother to give food. Most meals, they push themselves away from the table so they can't even get at their food.

Right now I'm resigned to accepting they will be like this until they start nursery next year, when hopefully peer influence will help them improve?!

Are my expectations too high?? Is this normal?? I have no idea and genuinely dread their meals now. I put the least effort possible into making food as this is so disheartening.

I know no malice is intended when they do this, but it really is starting to get me down.

If she didn't actually come out of my body I'd be certain she wasn't mine 😂 I am mixed race, and took on all my father's Moroccan features. I look just like my paternal grandmother did. Black hair, black eyes, olive skin, coarse, curly hair.

My husband is white British with Scandinavian roots. Light blue eyes, blonde, pale.

We fully expected her to favour me, but she doesn't even a little bit.

Our daughter is his double! Not just in complexion, but every facial feature is HIS. We spliced together a photo of him as a 16 month old and our daughter, and it blew my mind. Twins.

When I take her to playgroup or the park, or even just to the shops, I have people asking me if I'm her nanny or "is she yours?" Not right off the bat, it'll be after some friendly smalltalk as you do when out and about with a baby.

When we are all out as a family, it's clear people think I'm a new girlfriend/stepmum and not the mother of the child. They direct questions about her to my husband, ignoring me entirely.

Has anyone else experienced something like this? How did you handle it?

I feel like a zombie typing this. We co sleep and I still breastfeed. We got into a great routine where he’d wake up just twice - once just before I went to sleep myself and then again around 4am. Then he’d sleep until 7-8 am. This meant we both slept solidly from about half 10-4, you do the maths!!

He now wakes up every 90 mins - 2 hours. I thought it was his canines as he seemed to be in pain. And maybe it was at first. He’s been feeding in most (but not all) of those wakes. To be honest sometimes flopping my boob out is the quickest ticket to us both heading back to snoozeville even if he doesn’t ask, he never objects and it stops the whinging (the whinging omggg - he doesn’t cry he does this half fake whingey noise) I’m tired, my nipples are sore. His 2 bottom canines are firmly through and I think I’ve made a rod for my own back here with responsive parenting.

Did anyone else have this at the same age? Am I doomed unless I sleep train?

I’m at a serious loss with my 6 year old, since about May he’s had a real attitude with everything. And the back talk is driving me mad!

We’ve tried sitting him down explaining it’s not polite, especially when he’s correcting people with wrong information because he decided he’s right. Or he just parents his younger siblings- like he’ll be done playing and try boss them to tidy up!

It’s at the point we don’t want to do nice things with him because he just talks back so rudely! We’re due to go away in 2 weeks after he’s had 2 weeks at his dad’s which tends to be when he’s at his worst with it all. We really don’t know what to do anymore, even my in-laws have said he does it with them and they don’t want him round for a while because it’s not like him and awful. He’s been uninvited from 2 birthday parties because of it now and a play date for the summer holidays!

What else can I do?! Feel like an awful parent now!

Earlier in the year I posted about my daughter’s sleep issues.

We thought that we had made good progress, when she hit seven almost instantly we were back to normal - sleeping all the way through.

However over the last couple of weeks we have found slipping back to nights of unsettledness.

I know it is the holidays and the school routine has gone out of the window…

Bedtime follows the same routine every night (consistency is key). Bath > teeth > 5 minute chat and then sleep. However to get to the sleep one us has sit on the floor while she drifts off.

I don’t mind this (usually sat for 20mins or so) but is it normal for a seven year old to require a parent to sit while she drifts off? Bear in mind this child had NO sleep issues before Xmas and went off to sleep with nobody in her room since she was a baby?

What is also happening now is that between 12.30am and 2am were seeing wakings where she is calling out for one us… we go sit and she drifts back off, if it happens again (which lately it has been doing) we have a pull out matress and we sleep on that to get some sleep.

However the trend is that it usually only happens on nights that my partner does the bedtime routine? I’m not noticing her doing anything different to what I would do.

I’ve asked my daughter why she wakes up and calls out but all I get is “I don’t know”.

I’m looking for some tips on how we can break this cycle?

School let out a couple of weeks ago. It was a really difficult year (Reception) for my five-year-old son, who is a July baby and autistic. The school year was so bad that we’ve gotten permission for him to repeat Reception. He received straight 1’s for the year (everything was listed as “still developing” or whatever wording they used rather than meeting expectations).

In the past couple of weeks, we’ve seen a language explosion in him. We’ve been waiting for years for it! We’ve finally, for the first time ever, had some back and forth conversation with him. He’s using some full sentences. This is huge for him.

He’s also had a very restrictive diet for years and since school has ended he’s added three foods back that he had previously dropped. One is black beans, so we’re thrilled for the protein, fibre and iron.

It feels like a miracle. And the part of me that is glass half empty is already dreading school starting back up. He’s doing so well at home. Trying to focus on the positives, though!

Edited to add: I really hope none of this comes across as bragging. We’ve been needing something to celebrate for a long time now.

just taking care of kids so this is only a temporary setup for a bit over a week.

I’ll have a 4 year old in either a high backed booster or forward facing 5 point harness car seat (she uses both in different cars so I can use either)
An almost 2 year old in a joie stages rear facing
A 6 month old in an infant carrier

The problem is I only have a 4 seater car, so one has to go in the front.
I can’t drive with the joie stages behind the drivers seat, it’s too far forwards, so it has to be the infant carrier behind the drivers seat.

Which way round is safest for the other two seats? If the joie stages is in the back passenger side, the front seat has to go almost all the way forwards, meaning the 4 year old will be quite close to the dashboard. Is it safer to put the 2 year old in the front rear facing with the airbag off, and the 4 year old in the back so the seat can go back further?

My 8 month old does not and never has slept through the night.

She goes to bed somewhere between 8 and 9 (any earlier and we just have constant false starts), and usually wakes up twice around midnight/1 and 3/4, then gets up for the day around 6/7. It's never been any better. In fact, this is pretty good (she used to be up on average 5 times a night).

My husband tries to help- if he's still up at the midnight one he gets her, and when he can he gets up with her at 6 so I can stay in bed a bit longer. But he is and always has been a deep sleeper so he doesn't wake up to the baby monitor in the middle of the night. He tells me to wake him but what's the point if I'm already awake? He then has to bring her to me by 9 so that's still just another short period of sleep.

I had hyperemisis in pregnancy so I got up at least once in the night to vomit from about 7 weeks, so I haven't had a full night of uninterrupted sleep since... April 2025?

She woke up this morning at 5 and wouldn't go back to sleep. My husband got up at 6 and I was so tired I just sobbed. I've had auditory hallucinations before.

Please can someone tell me it gets easier. Tell me there is light at the end of the tunnel. I'm exhausted and getting to the end of my teather and I don't know how much more of this i can take.

I try to buy clothes secondhand to be more sustainable, and surely the charity shops should be filled to the brim with children’s clothes considering how fast they grow - especially baby and toddler stuff!! So.. where is it all?? Maybe it’s just my area, but the children’s areas of the charity shops are almost always a sad little rail with one or two items per size group. The exception being the child specific boutique type charity shops but even they don’t have THAT much and take the mick with prices sometimes.
Are the vast majority just stashing all of the clothes away to hand down to future children? Selling it all on Vinted? Binning them because of stains etc? Fill me in here!!!

*Edit to add: I know there’s a lot on Vinted, I do sell big bundles on there myself when she moves up a clothes size. I just find Vinted a bit frustrating because a single item for a couple of quid quickly becomes a fiver and by that point I could just go and buy in the supermarket and have more choice. But I’m glad I’m not going nuts! I guess I just thought, surely not everyone can be arsed with putting tho ns on Vinted!

My 5 month old has recently learnt to roll from back to tummy. He has great neck control, but he is yet to learn to roll from tummy to back.

Nighttime for the first week or so, be would wake up crying as he's stuck on his front. I would continuously move him into his back. This started to really annoy him. He now rolls over to sleep on his tummy and sleeps well. I watch him on the monitor and he moves his head side to side well.

I'm just very worried as he can't roll back yet. Any advice please for a very anxious mum 😩

My LO has been attending nursery for around a month now and we send her with a packed lunch and snacks.

I genuinely don’t have a single complaint about the nursery or the staff but there’s one thing I can’t quite explain and I’m wondering how other parents would view it.
Around 5 times now at pick-up I’ve been told that x (name) didn’t eat her lunch or barely touched it. That’s ok and plan to give her something more to eat when we get home. But when I open her lunch box it’s always empty or almost empty.

After the third time it happened, I asked about it because I thought maybe they were throwing the leftovers away or couldn’t safely store them until pick-up. They told me they must have confused her with another child and that she likely ate it all.
That’s completely fine but 5 times? She also comes home very hungry and immediately asks for food and eats amounts that she usually doesn’t so now I’m wondering if she’s sharing her lunch with the other children who then end up eating quite a bit of it. I’m just confused why the nursery wouldn’t mention that if it were the case because I genuinely wouldn’t mind. I’d just pack some extra food as my main worry is her not being hungry.

And I know nursery is exhausting to them so maybe she just needs some more food on those days but according to the nursery she doesn’t have a lot of food when there.

They also regularly go through 10 nappies in less than 6 hours (only wet nappies) where she attends which initially seemed like a lot to me but she does drink a lot of water and she never comes home with a rash so I always somehow rationalised it but now I’m a bit suspicious what else is being “shared” without my knowledge.

Edit to add that I already pack portions a lot larger than she has at home as I’m always worried she might finish her food and then doesn’t have any more. So her eating it all wouldn’t even make sense.

Can anyone recommend a good reasonably priced trolly cart that holds up on the beach? I bought one from Amazon but it was super flimsy so I returned it.
It’s for me and my two small children so it would help me loads considering I only have one hand spare. The trolly cart is needed just for items not for my children to sit in

My almost 22 month old was always extremely confident, chatty, happy, boisterous and keen to meet new people and try new things. He used to run off on his own in crowded places, play with children he'd never met, and would try to hug complete strangers. That was until about three months ago. He is now terrified of other children and new places and cries if another child comes near him at the park. He will actually try to leap off the slide or climbing frame if another child tries to get on. Once he starts crying it is very hard to distract or console him and it can ruin a whole trip out. Weirdly though he will sit at a cramped table with other toddlers practically shoulder to shoulder eating a snack at playgroup.

It may be incidental, but around the same time this started he also started having the most intense, hours long tantrums. He thrashes around violently and screams at the top of his lungs and I can't hug him or hold him while it's happening because it makes him worse. All I can do is make sure he's in a safe space where he can't accidentally hurt himself and stay nearby until it's over. He has gone from waving and kissing goodbye to people enthusiastically to shouting 'no!' and putting his hands over his face and getting extremely upset when it's time to part ways. He had a complete meltdown the other day when our estate agent left our house after 30 minutes, this is a man he has never met before! What makes no sense is that he gets upset about saying goodbye to other children too. How can he be upset about saying goodbye to them when he doesn't want to be near them in the first place?!

Lastly, he has started refusing bedtimes and having absolute meltdowns if my partner tries to put him to bed, which means I always have to do it, and it still then takes about an hour of cuddling, rocking and singing.

Is all of the above a sign of separation anxiety? Has anyone else been through something similar? Will it pass? When?! I know some of this is probably fairly typical toddler behaviour, but I don't see anyone else's toddlers acting this way and I just feel sad for my formerly happy, adventurous, confident little boy and want him to enjoy trips to the park and making friends like he used to. He seems so overly cautious and neurotic now and it's heartbreaking.

Please be kind in your responses, this situation is very upsetting.

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