1) the wonder week app is dumb, I'm always surprised by how many people recommend it. The only thing I like about it is that it seems to help parents feel better emotionally during tough moments which I can't hate on.
2) the idea of washing cloth diapers in a washing machine grosses me out.
3) kids should be taught how to swim. It blows my mind seeing all these kids age 6+ in life jackets at the pool that are completely helpless in water! Water safety and the ability to have fun swimming are some of the greatest childhood gifts.
@runsomewhere I don't even know what the wonder week app is! Yes, I love the idea of cloth diapers but would require a separate washing machine in my house for just the diapers. We have a really cool kids only pool close to us that does swim lessons early and we're planning on starting lessons as early as is safe/healthy because it is a safety issue for us. I'm married to Captain Outdoor Adventure, so usually we're hiking year round and if we're near a lake or pond I need my kid to at least be familiar with the concept of swimming because scary things happen!
@runsomewhere I agree on the cloth diapers...I don't love throwing out those giant blue bags of plastic diapers, but just can't get behind cloth diapers
I hate microwaves over the stove... I get wanting to get it off the counter, but when it's over the stove I hit my head on it and can't see inside the back pots... Yea I know i'm 5'11", blind as a bat, and typically use all 5 burners, so I'm not the norm...
@runsomewhere 100% on cloth diapers! Random story pertaining to washing machines, cloth/clothes, and poop. My 6 y/o nephew in a phase of holding his poop in fear of missing out on the "fun". He pooped his pants and got it partially on my bathroom walls, floors, etc. (Not even sure how). He proceeded to take my hand towels and clean up said poopy areas. He gets in trouble for all of the above. My sister throws my hand towels into the washing machine with our nephew's poopy underpants and shorts. I'm freaking out because all I can think about now is how my hand towels have had literal shit on them and I do not want to use them as their intended purpose. I actually bleached our washing machine after this, as well...twice! So the thought of having poopy cloth diapers in the washing machine grosses me out. I know I may be irrational because babies have blowouts and I'll need to wash the clothes, however...it just gives me the heebie jeebies.
Also, agree with swim lessons at an early age. we are a water family. We go camping every summer, we're at the pool a lot... My mom made sure we knew how to swim at a very young age and my siblings are also passing this down to their kids. As will we. Dh doesn't really know how to swim, so it is very important to make sure our little girl does.
Edit: cell phone likes to autocorrect everything, even if not actually correct.
DS is going in swim lessons as soon as I can find decent ones that are during a good time of the week!
Cloth diapers...I don't care about the poop. It's no different than putting clothes in your washing machine if there was a poosplosion or something...you pre treat it, unless its EBF poo then throw it in there! Its water soluble. Whatever you guys do to treat poosplosion clothes is what you do for the diaper, unless you throw them away, which I doubt anyone does!
@gingerbride26 I hate HOODS over the stove just as much as microwaves. I'm not that tall, 5'8'', but I cook like a crazy person and I hate having to duck under the hood to see the back burners. I think you can get down vents for the oven so you have no hood and that is on my list.
i fully admit my icky feeling of cloth diapers is totally irrational lol I think it's also a lazy thing...considering how dishes pile up I don't want to think about poop diapers piling up or tubs of oxy just sitting around for a week at a time...
@SmashJam I love fancy hoods :-) but agree they need to be HIGH enough. I think we're going to have like 3 ft of clearance between stove and hood. The whole microwave thing was my litmus test when we talked to designers lol as soon as they said "why don't you put the microwave over the oven" it was NEXT. My in-laws installed one when they redid their kitchen but didn't adjust the upper at all so it's barely 18" off the stove top!
Same on cloth diapers, I’m there in theory just not in practice.
Swimming is a blast but it’s also a life saving skill. I do not understand how some view it as optional. I learned so young I do not remember a time ever not knowing how to swim. We’re doing the same for our boys.
@SmashJam I get what you're saying regarding cloth diapers/poop but to me it's not the same as a poop explosion. Poop explosions while messy are still in a diaper where the bulk of the mess is contained, they're not the entire poop going in to the washer. Also, they happen occasionally instead of countless diapers each day that are full of human feces. I have thrown away a poop stained onesie of 2 before but I typically I soak it in hot water and oxyclean then tossed in in to the washer.
@gingerbride26 I hate microwaves over the stove! I think it looks cheap and it limits the quality of the ventilation. Also, for ours, when we have stuff cooking on the gas stove the handle of the microwave above the stove gets insanely hot. It's a good distance away but it still gets super hot. So dumb.
I do however love a beautiful and functional hood above the stove.
Dealing with poop and the thought of having poop in my washer is what stopped me from ever cloth diapering. Apparently infant poop is water soluble but I still don’t want it in there.
Confession: my 6 year old doesn’t know how to swim. He LOVES being in the water but I haven’t put him in lessons yet. He’s pretty immature and doesn’t catch onto things very quickly so idk that he’d have been successful at it before now. It’s on the agenda for this spring/summer
@runsomewhere haha, my kids have had full back AND front explosions...and since it was from an EBF baby, I just popped those onesies in the washer and forget about it. I feel in general, breastmilk poop is "cleaner" than solid food poop and it washes out so well with a little pre-treating.
I guess my UO is that I prefer the microwave over the stove, haha! It's less clutter on my counter.
We're cloth diapering and we got a spray hose that connects into the toilet water line so you can clean the diaper off before it goes in the washer!
And I have a microwave above my stove but it has a built in fan to ventilate and it kicks on automatically when it senses that things are getting too hot, I love it! DH hates microwaves and so if it wasn't literally mounted to the wall he'd make me keep it in the pantry and only pull it out when I need it (how it was in our apartment before we bought a house), so having it there makes my life a lot easier
Also I plan on signing DH and LO up for swim lessons when he's 6 mo. The YMCA near me does them and it'll be a nice activity for the two of them, and I won't have to jam my 6 mo. PP body into a swim suit lol
I wanted to do swim lessons this summer but I figured we’d end up missing too many classes with the new baby. I’m thinking fall now, when he’ll be 2. I think a big reason some kids don’t learn young is because swim lessons can be expensive (plus single working parents maybe just don’t have the time for activities). Around me it’s so common for kids to learn young, but I know in the city most kids don’t learn until they’re older and go to camp or learn at school.
Once you spray the diapers off there really isn’t much poop. I thought I’d have issues with it but it honestly isn’t a big deal. And this is coming from the Mom who if my 4 year old poops in her underwear I throw them out.
DD has had swim lessons since about 18 months. I definitely do not feel like she could manage in the pool by herself yet- hoping as we keep moving up it will get better. We only do 2 months of swim lessons during the year though.
Finally thought of one- the “mom” haircut i think is so stupid to even call it that. I honestly feel like it’s more maintenance because of the way my hair behaves in general. I love my long hair.
Also the NFL draft, I’m not into sports and i am stuck watching it right now (of course H has be in the laptop for most of it too).
I probably have the UO for being an NFL fan... before I had my daughter I used to watch almost every game I could get broadcast (the teams that interest me anyway)... then watch the others on NFL channel during repeats.
Now that I have a toddler though, I consider myself lucky if I can just make it through my local team's game (and last year they were awful, so no help there)
@cseley321 I was a huge NFL and college football fan (Big Ten all the way) before I had a kid. We watched football and drank beer all weekend, had people over, went out to watch with all our friends. We used to live in DC so finding a bar that broadcast all our games, NFL or college, was pretty easy. Now we watch basically no football whatsoever.
@wildtot funny you should bring up the mom haircut. I went and got my first haircut in about 6 months ( I always have to have DS with me, so we do bangs and eyebrows and he's done). I mentioned that a few of my friends had done the "mom" haircut, both to keep baby hands out of their hair and to force them to style it. She was like, IMO, that is the WORST time to get a haircut that changes your routine, because you aren't gonna wanna do your hair! I got about a foot cut off (it was down to my butt), but told her had to still be able to go up in a ponytail. So long story short, I agree with you, although mostly because I am so lazy and my face is fat.
@wildtot and @SmashJam I've gone back and forth from long hair to collarbone length hair since my breakup with my high school sweetheart lol I get angry about something and chop it off, then I grow it back out, repeat. I left it long when DD was born until her first birthday, then I chopped it, again partially because the long hair was just in a pony or bun all the time anyway and partially to try to make me style it as you said - figured by a year I needed to start trying again. Agree completely you should NOT do that right after birth - even a year in was too soon. They also don't warn you about how much your hair might change after pregnancy - not just the fall out of all the extra hair, but my hair is now so much frizzier than it was before pregnancy it's a PITA. Before kids I was blessed to be a wash and go kind of gal, now if I don't at least put coconut oil/gel in after a shower it's going to be huge.
@SmashJam i feel like i can do more with long hair and regardless of length i still won’t style it very often because my hair is thick and heavy. So it either down, braided, or in a bun. Ponytails don’t last from the weight. I do need to cut it before baby arrives but it’s more to thin it out. I never had an issue with DS getting into it.
Re: UO Thursday 4/26
2) the idea of washing cloth diapers in a washing machine grosses me out.
3) kids should be taught how to swim. It blows my mind seeing all these kids age 6+ in life jackets at the pool that are completely helpless in water! Water safety and the ability to have fun swimming are some of the greatest childhood gifts.
I hate microwaves over the stove... I get wanting to get it off the counter, but when it's over the stove I hit my head on it and can't see inside the back pots... Yea I know i'm 5'11", blind as a bat, and typically use all 5 burners, so I'm not the norm...
I can’t imago cloth diapers with baby poop. And yeah i need and extra washer lol more power to you if your successful with them!
Wonder weeks was nice and reassuring the first few months then it got boring.
Also, agree with swim lessons at an early age. we are a water family. We go camping every summer, we're at the pool a lot... My mom made sure we knew how to swim at a very young age and my siblings are also passing this down to their kids. As will we. Dh doesn't really know how to swim, so it is very important to make sure our little girl does.
Edit: cell phone likes to autocorrect everything, even if not actually correct.
Cloth diapers...I don't care about the poop. It's no different than putting clothes in your washing machine if there was a poosplosion or something...you pre treat it, unless its EBF poo then throw it in there! Its water soluble. Whatever you guys do to treat poosplosion clothes is what you do for the diaper, unless you throw them away, which I doubt anyone does!
@gingerbride26 I hate HOODS over the stove just as much as microwaves. I'm not that tall, 5'8'', but I cook like a crazy person and I hate having to duck under the hood to see the back burners. I think you can get down vents for the oven so you have no hood and that is on my list.
@SmashJam I love fancy hoods :-) but agree they need to be HIGH enough. I think we're going to have like 3 ft of clearance between stove and hood. The whole microwave thing was my litmus test when we talked to designers lol as soon as they said "why don't you put the microwave over the oven" it was NEXT. My in-laws installed one when they redid their kitchen but didn't adjust the upper at all so it's barely 18" off the stove top!
Swimming is a blast but it’s also a life saving skill. I do not understand how some view it as optional. I learned so young I do not remember a time ever not knowing how to swim. We’re doing the same for our boys.
@gingerbride26 I hate microwaves over the stove! I think it looks cheap and it limits the quality of the ventilation. Also, for ours, when we have stuff cooking on the gas stove the handle of the microwave above the stove gets insanely hot. It's a good distance away but it still gets super hot. So dumb.
I do however love a beautiful and functional hood above the stove.
Confession: my 6 year old doesn’t know how to swim. He LOVES being in the water but I haven’t put him in lessons yet. He’s pretty immature and doesn’t catch onto things very quickly so idk that he’d have been successful at it before now. It’s on the agenda for this spring/summer
I guess my UO is that I prefer the microwave over the stove, haha! It's less clutter on my counter.
And I have a microwave above my stove but it has a built in fan to ventilate and it kicks on automatically when it senses that things are getting too hot, I love it! DH hates microwaves and so if it wasn't literally mounted to the wall he'd make me keep it in the pantry and only pull it out when I need it (how it was in our apartment before we bought a house), so having it there makes my life a lot easier
Also I plan on signing DH and LO up for swim lessons when he's 6 mo. The YMCA near me does them and it'll be a nice activity for the two of them, and I won't have to jam my 6 mo. PP body into a swim suit lol
parents maybe just don’t have the time for activities). Around me it’s so common for kids to learn young, but I know in the city most kids don’t learn until they’re older and go to camp or learn at school.
DD has had swim lessons since about 18 months. I definitely do not feel like she could manage in the pool by herself yet- hoping as we keep
moving up it will get better. We only do 2 months of swim lessons during the year though.
Also the NFL draft, I’m not into sports and i am stuck watching it right now (of course H has be in the laptop for most of it too).
I actually couldn't care less about (American) football. Don't tell immigration ! Lol.
Re:cloth diapering, I like the idea but I'm not sure it's for me, I may try though.
Agreed on the microwave over the stove, I'd rather have it encased in the cabinets - makes sense? Love fancy hoods.
Now that I have a toddler though, I consider myself lucky if I can just make it through my local team's game (and last year they were awful, so no help there)
@wildtot funny you should bring up the mom haircut. I went and got my first haircut in about 6 months ( I always have to have DS with me, so we do bangs and eyebrows and he's done). I mentioned that a few of my friends had done the "mom" haircut, both to keep baby hands out of their hair and to force them to style it. She was like, IMO, that is the WORST time to get a haircut that changes your routine, because you aren't gonna wanna do your hair! I got about a foot cut off (it was down to my butt), but told her had to still be able to go up in a ponytail. So long story short, I agree with you, although mostly because I am so lazy and my face is fat.