At Christmas Eve Mass with DH, my parents, and our kids, moments before the Mass is going to begin. The lights dim a bit and a hush falls over the congregation just before the music starts, so it is momentarily silent.

My 3 year old stands up on the pew, looks all around, and shouts, "this is where we come when grandma is visiting!"

Anonymous wrote:My son’s school snack policy changed so that in 2nd grade snacks weren’t allowed but in third they were. I somehow missed the change and he never said anything (for months.) in-laws we’re visiting over the holidays we were talking about hopes for the new year and when it was my son’s turn he said (solemnly) “I hope mom will start sending me with with crackers (?) to school so I can like eat the other children.”

Hahaha this is truly amazing I am laughing so hard.

Anonymous wrote:Not my fail, this happened in a friend's family. They are a big family and lived on a farm. One of the brothers complained about abdominal pain, but the parents ignored it. His sibling was so concerned ( and too young to have a driver's license) that he saddled a horse and rode to the neighbors. The neighbors took over and, you guessed it, the kid's appendix was just about to burst. By all accounts, parents were more attentive to medical complaints after that.

This reminds me of a story from a good friend - he grew up with 5 brothers and sisters, and they used to play tricks on their parents like “oh you left Robbie!” when really Robbie would be hiding somewhere. And they had gotten really good at it, the hiding part. So parents were very used to this. One time on a road trip they left a gas station and when of the kids a few minutes later was like mom we John isn’t here. The parents didn’t believe them. And drove like.. an hour. Thinking the kids were just really playing it up. Until multiple were sobbing and they pulled over and realized John REALLY wasn’t there. Now they were an hour away and had to drive back to a very freaked out kid!

My son’s school snack policy changed so that in 2nd grade snacks weren’t allowed but in third they were. I somehow missed the change and he never said anything (for months.) in-laws we’re visiting over the holidays we were talking about hopes for the new year and when it was my son’s turn he said (solemnly) “I hope mom will start sending me with with crackers (?) to school so I can like eat the other children.”

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid went through a phase where when he was very mad at me he’d scream “I WANNA HIT YOU IN THE BUTT WITH A HAMMER!!”

Eventually I got so tired of hearing it, at the end of a long bedtime battle I went and handed him a hammer and turned around, presented my ass and told him to hit me with it. You know, in that kind of unhinged way a parent at the end of their rope can be. He was so confused and weirded out by my uncharacteristic leap off the deep end he started sobbing.

I just spit out some coffee this is pure gold.

I am rolling with laughter this is so relatable. “In that kind of unhinged way a parent at the end of their rope can be” is a perfect description that any parent can immediately picture.

omg this thread is everything i needed right now

When DD was a toddler we were out waking in the neighborhood. All of a sudden she made a move as though she was going to run into the street. I gave a stern “No!” and tried to grab her. She stopped suddenly and instead of grabbing her I ended up pushing her down right onto her face! A passerby looked at me in horror since I’m sure it looked like I was just slamming my toddler into the ground. Poor kid’s mouth was bleeding and I felt terrible.

Anonymous wrote:I forgot to bring home my daughters dinner one night. Picked up food for everyone else. She’s 14. Her order just slipped my mind.

We packed a wonderful picnic for the zoo and forgot DC's toddler food. I will never forget the look in those hungry eyes.

The summer before our youngest was heading to kindergarten he started ignoring us. He was a good kid but would not come in from playing in the back yard when it was time to stop playing. I noticed it, his older sister complained about it and so did the babysitter. Then I take him for his 5 year check up and he fails the hearing test. Turns out his tonsils and adenoids were so large that he could not hear us AT ALL. He could read lips but never heard us calling him in. He never complained and he spoke fine. When we took him to the ENT she asked how long he had been on a soft diet. I looked at her like she was crazy. She said watch this and got right in front of ds. She asked him a bunch of questions about which food he would pick. Mac n cheese or nuggets, yogurt or a cookie, apples or apple sauce. Turns out he had been choosing soft foods for over a month! He is a very laid back kid and never complains about much. He had his tonsils and adenoids removed and then 4 months of allergy nasal spray to get his hearing fully back. He is now 13 and a very laid back kid that rarely complains. We worked hard to teach him to speak up if he is in pain. The doctor assured us that we did nothing wrong....but I missed my kid losing his ability to hear. Parenting fail.

Right after we transitioned from crib to toddler bed, DS would climb out of his bed 15x a night and run into our room. After many nights of no sleep, DH put a sliding chain lock on DS' bedroom door. Cue pounding and crying and screaming for a couple of nights. DS finally got the message and stayed in bed, and DH removed the lock. But to this day DS will tell horrified people about the time mommy and daddy would lock him in his room all night.

Anonymous wrote:I joked with my daughters that singing is none of our fortes. While this is true, and should not have come as a surprise, it was definitely said in a joking manner at all of our expenses as we were singing in the kitchen. Anyhow, I went to the kids elementary school and every kid had written down some thing they wanted to overcome. My kids said: , even though my mom thinks I’m not a good singer, my dream is to be in a band one day. 😩

OMG sobbing…

Not my fail, this happened in a friend's family. They are a big family and lived on a farm. One of the brothers complained about abdominal pain, but the parents ignored it. His sibling was so concerned ( and too young to have a driver's license) that he saddled a horse and rode to the neighbors. The neighbors took over and, you guessed it, the kid's appendix was just about to burst. By all accounts, parents were more attentive to medical complaints after that.

Left my then 5, 3 and 1 year olds in the running minivan to pick our dog up from the vet. Instead of 2 minutes it took 15. When I returned they were all panicking and my oldest was crying bc his middle brother had to pee and he was valiantly trying to get him out of his carseat. Stupid stupid stupid stupid me

Anonymous wrote:My kid went through a phase where when he was very mad at me he’d scream “I WANNA HIT YOU IN THE BUTT WITH A HAMMER!!”

Eventually I got so tired of hearing it, at the end of a long bedtime battle I went and handed him a hammer and turned around, presented my ass and told him to hit me with it. You know, in that kind of unhinged way a parent at the end of their rope can be. He was so confused and weirded out by my uncharacteristic leap off the deep end he started sobbing.

I just spit out some coffee this is pure gold.

My kid went through a phase where when he was very mad at me he’d scream “I WANNA HIT YOU IN THE BUTT WITH A HAMMER!!”

Eventually I got so tired of hearing it, at the end of a long bedtime battle I went and handed him a hammer and turned around, presented my ass and told him to hit me with it. You know, in that kind of unhinged way a parent at the end of their rope can be. He was so confused and weirded out by my uncharacteristic leap off the deep end he started sobbing.