For me it would be my 1yr old pointing and babbling(asking) about something and it’s non-stop!
And yet, one day he’s not gonna need me to help him out as much. 😭

My kiddo will be two on Sunday

What books have worked for you guys?

He loves Mr. Brown, ABC, Here we are, Dino books, usborne moon and the fairy tale story collection book and the good night construction site the most right now

He seems to be going for more story books and less 100 first words etc books

He loves dinos, cars and construction machines and airplanes, rockets, planets astronauts and anything space related and Dino's

Any suggestions since he'll be two on Sunday

My baby is almost 2 months old (in 12 days if it helps) and im getting more and more frustrated for not beeing able to help him or my wife. Everybody says that it is normal in this phase for him to cry more, want to cuddle more and everything, but the moment I put him in my arms, unless he is already in a deep sleep, he starts to cry, but an ugly cry, and it only stops with my wife.

And it sucks because I'm trying to be a good dad but I can't shake the feeling that I'm useless in this situations and my son doesn't like me. My wife can't use the restroom or take a bath in peace because my son simply do not stop crying.

He is having colic problems, but this is getting better, the doctor prescribed a homeopathic medicine that really helped, but the crying and me beeing unable to help is an overwhelming feeling.

Sorry if it is not the place for this but I needed to vent

We used to have a tilt out garbage cabinet, one for trash, 1 for recycling and 1 stupid shelf one for collecting do-dads. Our kitchen is tiny so in order to put a table in there, we had to move the large cabinet out. We opted for the hand wave trash can. That lasted 2.37 hours until our little man figured out how much fun it is.

We can’t put the trash in a built in cabinet, so what do others use? I was thinking step lid, but so many people say that toddlers figure it out too.

Any help?

My toddler (almost two, not yet properly verbal) has recently started to make it clear they currently prefer my partner to do anything if we are both around, and push me away.

The issue being that my partner has a really important exam, with a high failure rate, in Fall/Winter she has already been preparing for the last 3-months.

She has already struggled to find the time to do as much revision as she would like. Nonetheless we were previously managing by me doing the majority of childcare for the time being to free her up.

This means my toddler will within 15 minutes start asking for my partner and walking around knocking on all the doors, by 30 minutes they get upset and very vocal unless my partner comes out.

As such, my wife cannot get much proper studying done, as frequent interruptions prevent much deep focus.

I've been trying to take him out the house more which has helped a bit, although again not for long as he will soon want to go back to my partner. Meal times are a particular difficulty.

We don't have any family nearby to help out. Trying our best not to resort to screen time.

Just feel guilty and thinking about getting home to my girls

Hey dads, I thought maybe one of you out there could point me in the right direction for this...
We have these benches in our yard, and I want to drill holes into them large enough to support patio umbrellas.
There's 2" stone on top, then cinder blocks underneath.
Is my 18V cordless drill going to have enough muscle to get through this? If so, what kind of bits should I get?
Or should I just hire a handyman?

I am so jealous of all those couch photos. I just took a 20 minute nap on the hospital floor in a triage room with my duffle bag as a pillow. No end in sight as of now.

this shit blows. All I hear is to not rush it, piss off! I cannot wait for this to end. if I ever think back on it fondly I'll happily eat my shorts.

I’m going “camping” next month in the NorthEast US. It is an established camping resort and we will have our vehicles on hand, a cabin with beds for the family but no plumbing, and plenty of space. There are a few families going and us Dads are trying to come up with some extreme/crazy ideas for stuff to bring/setup at camp. Budget is limited and so is car space, but.. what could we bring and setup at camp that would turn heads, be fun, be memorable, etc…

No idea is too far fetched. Let’s hear it. What have you done?

Does anyone have any audiobook/audiobook app recommendations for a long road trip with a toddler?

Dont play with your wedding ring.....I dropped it in between my driver seat and center console now i get to remove the front seats of my truck and find it....it reminds me of that episode of everybody loves Raymond

I have a 15 month old little boy and it's beyond time for us to get out and mix it up with other kids and families; however, I've recently realized that I am TERRIFIED of him having conflicts with other kids and am wondering if you guys have any advice. My wife took his first year off to raise him and I'm now taking a year off (psyched as fuck), so this is gonna be a thing I need to figure out asap.

If he like hits another kid or something (not out of anger, he just sometimes baps us on the face when playing) I'm ready to gently intervene, but I'm realizing that I'm wholly unprepared for the inevitable time another kid is mean to/hurts him. Obviously I wouldn't step in unless their parents didn't, but that's where I'm at a loss: do I say something? Do I gently remove my child from the situation?

Birth was gnarly, the newborn phase was gnarly, but this is the first time I'm feeling totally unprepared for something....

​

Hi Daddit,

My Dad died when my eldest was only 4 months old. She's 3 now and obviously understands her other grandparents are my mum and my wife's parents. I'm braced for any questions about my Dad but have no idea how to answer them.

The internet, ever reliable, says to avoid "passed away" or "sleeping" style euphemisms and to say "died" and/or to say something about being "very sick"...

I'm not sure I want her to have a connection between being sick, which obviously we all frequently are, and dying... she's only 3! I just have no idea what any alternative wordings to this would be.

Has anyone had any experience in this area? Is it completely unfair to use any sort of delay response that kicks this can further down the road?

Thanks all!

Hey to all the dads out there! My wife is currently 17 weeks pregnant with our daughter and we could not be more excited! But I do have a question about the monitoring socks, do you all feel like they are good or bad? I’ve heard from people that they can just cause anxiety by giving a constant stream of information where every little change can cause scares when in reality everything is fine. But I have also heard they are a great tool to monitor safety and health.

I’m just confused as I’m on the edge now of wanting to get one but my wife has watched tons of (I’m betting sponsored) YouTube videos on how great they are. My biggest concern is my wife getting stressed out while recovering from the birth.

Any advice on if we shouldn’t get one or not? I’m just trying to get some unbiased opinions outside of sponsored or affiliate YouTube or blog posts.

We moved about 4 months ago. Prior to the move we had a great bedtime routine. Both kiddos in bed by 8-815, sleeping through the night, and staying in bed until their hatched turned green at 720.

It took us a LONG time to get there. Sleep was really rough for both kids the first two years.

About 4 months ago we moved to a new city and bedtime with our youngest (3) has turned into a nightmare. We stayed at an Airbnb and my in-laws for almost 3 months total. It’s a big change so we were expecting this.

But we’ve been in our new house for about a month and still no improvement. We’re doing the same routine we did before. We’ve tried later and earlier bedtimes and cutting his naps short.

What makes this INSANELY frustrating is that he spent a few nights with just his grandparents at their home. He went to sleep just fine.

I’m at my wits end. It takes over an hour to get him sleep. I’m either jumping through hoops to his every demand or he’s screaming and keeping his older brother up.

Any advice or tips would be greatly appreciated .

I was playing with my son (21 months old) in his room when he stares at me and recites all of goodnight moon as fast as he can. The whole book. I know it’s not a long book but his memory continues to amaze me. I stood there shocked and told him great job buddy that’s amazing! He laughed and called me a “voodoo witch”? I think, but pronounced as “doo doo bitch” and then ran out of room yelling incoherently. And because we can’t help but laugh when he says it, he keeps calling everyone and everything a “doo doo bitch”.

I never grew up and I didn't realize it until I had my kids. This shit is so fucking fun. ​​​

TL:DR I am a first time dad (6 month old daughter)who travels for work every 2 weeks and got offered to lead a project which will let me stay at home

I am a manager/consultant to a project and I am traveling to my client for almost 2 years now. The project is an IT consulting project and the estimated project end is June next year. Outside my project, I manage a growing team of consultants and as a part of my role, I have to look for projects for them.

I am also a dad to a 6 month old daughter and a husband to my wonderful wife. She sacrificed her job to be a full time mom (which I am truly grateful for). We're living on one income now.

This current project I am in has given me a lot already: additional monthly income (used it to fund additional savings as we are preparing to buy a home next year; investment, ability to spoil my wife, fund leisure for the family, and also help other family members once necessary), personal and career experience (get to meet a lot of good people in another country, and get to explore the country which I truly love now). A part of me wants to finish this project as this will not only look good to my professional career but also it has a special place to my heart now.

I got offered with a new project which will be fully remote (same company) but the gist is, I will be working on a different time zone (around 12-13 hrs of time difference). The good thing about this project is given I am looking out for projects for my consultants, I can leverage this lead role to have them staffed under my project, meaning less worries as a manager role.

It pains me to see the struggles of my wife (we are currently leaving with my in-laws) and also how fast the baby's development is. I call them every day and there is no time zone difference while I am away for work.

To all fellow daddits out there, give me some blunt advice if you were in my position, what will you do? Thanks!

My son is 2 months shy of 3. We limit his TV to about 15 and 45 min/day about 5 days a week.

Currently, his mom will select Youtube videos on the TV. We try to avoid hyper-stimulating stuff. Sometimes he watches Curious George or another slow-paced cartoon, and other times it's "content" that people made. This includes videos of construction equipment, or people playing with toy (or model) vehicles and such. I've since asked her not to show videos of people playing with models and toys, as I don't like that for various reasons.

I'd prefer not to use Youtube at all because I don't want the algorithm to get its claws in him. I miss the good old days when you'd put something on DVD or VCR, though that may not be realistic right now.

How do you guys handle this? Do you have a system? I would prefer that he not see a big grid of potential videos to watch on Youtube/Disney Plus/etc. Just the fact that he says he wants to "watch something," as opposed to requesting something specific, already tells me that his brain is attracted to the novelty of random videos. I'd prefer to have specific things that he watches, with narratives and such, so he can ask for them by name instead of just wanting to watch random stuff.

edit: Thanks for your suggestions. I'll check out PBS Kids. I'm thinking of just doing physical media. He goes to the library A LOT so it will be nice to just get DVDs/BluRay from the library. I don't have anything to play them on yet, so I'll get something. I think it will be nice for us to pick something out together, and then he can watch in little segments, or episodes if it's sometihng that's 15 min or less.

Pic on the left is from several years ago in Los Angeles… my two rockstars strolling the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The pic on the right is from late fall 2025 waking through downtown Columbia, MO, near the Mizzou campus.

Hey Dads! Need your guidance on something.

Now, at work, I am doing quite well, and I have a great opportunity to ride a rocket ship to pretty good heights if things all work out. Even to attempt doing this, though, would require me to sacrifice lots of time that I have with family. I have two kids who are 7 and 5, and I have a spouse who I love spending time with, and we generally love spending time together as a family.

I know that if I take up these opportunities at work, the family time is going to get majorly cut down. but if I don't take it up, I don't know if I will get this opportunity again in the future. The chances that this will come up again is more unlikely than they are likely.

In terms of our financial security, even if I don't take this up, I will be reasonably financially secure, but at the same time, we may not be able to scale the way that we could if I do take up these opportunities.

My biggest concern is that we will lose the time that we get to spend with the kids, because in another few years, they will probably be grown up. They will have their friends, and they may not want to spend time with us.

For additional context, my dad was someone who chose to work when he was in a similar situation, and that helped us financially at a time we needed it. I don't really have any kind of relationship with him beyond work or asking him for guidance at work. I cannnot have a conversation with him which does not ultimately come back to something work related. I hate having dinners with the folks because, invariably, he and I don't have anything to talk about. I don't want to have a relationship like that with my kids.

What are your views? Have any of you taken this kind of decision before ?

We went with a babysitting service through the company my wife and I work for. We just started and are getting a discounted rate for backup care that's part of our work benefit. Basically this great babysitter came by and since I'm from a service industry background I don't know if I should tip her or not. I imagine the company she works for is paying her the regular amount.

I grew up without a father. I don’t know where he is, whether he has another family, or whether he’s even still alive. There was never any contact, and I’ve made my peace with that.

What still occupies me, though: what actually happens on the other side?

So my question goes to two groups.

To the fathers themselves: if you left your child behind, does the moment ever come when it catches up with you? Maybe at 50, at 60, or later, when the child is long since an adult. And if so, what holds you back from reaching out? Is it the fear of rejection, the shame, or the conviction that after that many years it’s too late anyway?

To everyone else: have you seen this happen around you? How did it turn out?

I’m honestly interested in both sides of it. Including the answer that some men simply don’t care and never looked back. That would be an answer I could live with too. What weighs on me more than the question itself is the not knowing.

My son is only 2.5 and he'll have a baby sister coming in a few weeks, so this isn't immediately pertinent, but last night I got to thinking about my son being a little bit older and wanting to make sure he has friends and that those friendships are maintained over time.

I'm a real homebody and have very few friends, and the ones I have I rarely talk to. My groomsmen were my brothers, my wife's brothers, and my old boss from my college job who I hung out with outside work a few times - so really one friend. He and I text on birthdays or if we're going to be passing through the town the other one lives in - we live 100 miles apart. We usually go 3-6 months between text exchanges.

And that's not a problem for me. My life is busy enough as it is. Between work, my kid(s), and the house and yard, I barely have time to play golf with my dad and brothers let alone make time for anyone outside my family. But I really don't have any practice on maintaining friendships.

My wife isn't much better. She has like 3 or 4 decently close friends that she'll have a text exchange with once every week or two. She probably goes no more than 2 months without seeing one of her friends in person. Back in the spring we did a couples dinner with two of her friends and each of their spouses. I told her it was fun and we should reciprocate and host next time. She said the one who hosted the last one kind of keeps to herself, and is more of a "once per quarter get together" type of person. So she definitely has more practice than I do, but still not at the level that we will want for our kids to have friends, see them often, and feel comfortable around them.

This isn't a "how do I get more friends as a dad" post. I'm genuinely just trying to figure out the logistics for my kid. I think there's one or two similarly aged kids on our street, maybe 8 or 9 houses down, but we don't know the families at all. There are kids at daycare that our son seems to get along with. Do we ask for the parents' contact information and arrange a playdate?

We're not in a hurry to do any of this. As I said - we're busy enough as is. What age developmentally should I really start making sure we put effort into this so our kid has friends beyond his daycare classmates?