School me on being a Dad

[haggis88]

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Summer, and spending the day naked in the yard, is the way. Kid too.

HahaOstritch.gif

[JustinL]

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My 3yo son is so stubborn it’s nuts. We can threaten him with anything, he just calls our bluff and moves on with his day. And yes, we follow through with threats. Latest was this week when he decided he didn’t want to participate in swimming, my wife told him if he didn’t listen to the teacher his Halloween candy was going in the garbage… well, he didn’t listen, when they got home my wife threw the entire bag in the garbage in front of him, and he just watched and moved on with his day. He joked about it when I got home.

Same goes with any other punishment. Take away his toys, no tv, you name it. Doesn’t phase him, he’s a psychopath haha.

Any tips? I’m all ears.

Same problem here. My son is so stubborn. Never had this problem with my daughter, I could look at her sternly and bring her to tears. My boy just DGAF. He even gets this mischievous look in his eyes and keeps doing whatever it was. Every once and a while I find something that works, but that then sets off an EPIC tantrum. I think it's pretty normal, but it drives me crazy.

[ExtraSlow]

Every kid has different motivations, pretty normal. Epic tantrums are ok, don't be scared of those.

[suntan]

My oldest daughter once had a mega meltdown because she was losing in a board game with her sister and cousins. Like just went ballistic.

[nismodrifter]

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My boy just DGAF. He even gets this mischievous look in his eyes and keeps doing whatever it was.

He enjoys this. He knows your blood is boiling.

[ExtraSlow]

Kids control anything they can, which isn't much, but sometimes includes thier parents emotions. If you can't control yourself, you'll never control them....

#zenmaster
#easyformetosay
#ihatekids

[suntan]

My youngest is a master manipulator. Like sociopathic level. It's disturbing when she activates her powers.

[taemo]

Curious to hear from other beyond parents with younger kids, what activities do you have them signed up for?
Right now our daughter (5) has been doing swimming and ballet since she was around 3.
We signed her up for taekwondo since last summer but not sure whether we want to keep it once she's 6 as then they expect her to come in twice a week.
We also want her to take music lessons too once she's 6 or 7.

She was doing gymnastics too this year but unfortunately the gym she was going is closed indefinitely due to building issues.

Ultimately we are thinking to have signed up to 3, max 4 activities when she has school.

[haggis88]

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Curious to hear from other beyond parents with younger kids, what activities do you have them signed up for?
Right now our daughter (5) has been doing swimming and ballet since she was around 3.
We signed her up for taekwondo since last summer but not sure whether we want to keep it once she's 6 as then they expect her to come in twice a week.
We also want her to take music lessons too once she's 6 or 7.

She was doing gymnastics too this year but unfortunately the gym she was going is closed indefinitely due to building issues.

Ultimately we are thinking to have signed up to 3, max 4 activities when she has school.

1, gymnastics

Kids need to learn how to be bored

If he wants to do something, grab a soccer ball and kick it against the fence like I did at that age

[SJW]

I feel as though I've been a good and thorough dad over the past 15 years. Then I look at my son who puts on flip flops with black socks to walk to school. I mean.....wtf? What kinda dipshittery is this?

[JustinL]

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Curious to hear from other beyond parents with younger kids, what activities do you have them signed up for?
Right now our daughter (5) has been doing swimming and ballet since she was around 3.
We signed her up for taekwondo since last summer but not sure whether we want to keep it once she's 6 as then they expect her to come in twice a week.
We also want her to take music lessons too once she's 6 or 7.

She was doing gymnastics too this year but unfortunately the gym she was going is closed indefinitely due to building issues.

Ultimately we are thinking to have signed up to 3, max 4 activities when she has school.

We have our 4 year old daughter in swimming, piano, and dance. She dislikes both piano and swimming, but tough cookies. My 2yo boy does music and swimming and similarly dislikes swimming. When swimming is over, we'll switch it up again to something they like better like climbing and sportball.

Also in today's edition of cold shit my kid says to me: "We could get a new daddy... if you died"

[schurchill39]

We usually stick with 2, maximum 3 activities and try to make sure at least some overlap between kids. Both kids have been doing swimming lessons on the weekend since they were little (except during the summer) because we think thats a life skill. They also both do skating lessons at the same time. My son plays U7 hockey twice a week and my daughter (3yo) goes between dance and gymnastics.

In the summer we did baseball for my 5 year old and will be doing sportsball for the 3 year old.

[suntan]

Swimming, skating and probably skiing lessons should be mandatory. They will help greatly later in life with socialization.

[bjstare]

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We have our 4 year old daughter in swimming, piano, and dance. She dislikes both piano and swimming, but tough cookies. My 2yo boy does music and swimming and similarly dislikes swimming. When swimming is over, we'll switch it up again to something they like better like climbing and sportball.

Also in today's edition of cold shit my kid says to me: "We could get a new daddy... if you died"

Hows your daughter doing in Piano? I have a piano teacher in my family that says it's kind of a waste of money before they're ~7. My 5yo daughter likes playing our piano though.

RE: general activities. Daughter is in skating, swimming, dance; in summer switch skating for soccer, and this coming year she'll do golf lessons. She did gymnastics up until a few months ago, but it's so costly it borders on extortion (we were with the same place that taemo takes his kid to), and I don't like the way they do business so we pulled her out.

My son (3yo) is in swimming and skating at the same time as my daughter, he still goes to gymnastics. Soccer in the summer, last winter did sportball. I think this summer we won't send him to soccer again since he didn't love it, will take him to the golf course more and teach him how to skateboard.

We spend too much time and money on kid activities, but there's worse things to waste money on than your kids haha.

[killramos]

My did is on her second year of dance ( just turning 3).

That’s the only structured activity she does, we did swimming lessons when she was 1 but honestly have just been taking her to the pool ourselves more lately.

I’m less into organized and structured sport than some. I know lots of people who book their kid of for a couple hours 5-6 days a week. Different strokes I guess. Even dance she skips a lot for various reasons, I don’t really like blowing up weekend plans so she can skip around in a circle for an hour while my wife has a coffee with her friends.

[shakalaka]

What is a good age to start considering putting your baby in swimming? We were thinking 6 months onwards, or is that too early?

[killramos]

Never too early

[SJW]

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Never too early

I concur. We live the boating lifestyle and i'm the only one in the fam that can't swim.

[you&me]

We've definitely gone through some 'scope creep' when it comes to activities... After a few years, as they advance and get better, there's always more classes, or competitive streams... All of a sudden, kids have activities 5, 6 or even 7 days a week. I think we might have to get more selective in what they do and dial it back as they get older and school becomes more serious. Between the kids, we have dance, soccer, taekwondo, gymnastics and swimming lessons in the summer.

And don't underestimate the cost of scope creep... Extra classes, equipment, travel, fund raising (fuck that, so you just pay up), etc, etc...

I also agree with Suntan that things like skiing are a great idea from the aspect of future socializing... Swimming is simply a life skill that everyone should have.

[JustinL]

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Hows your daughter doing in Piano? I have a piano teacher in my family that says it's kind of a waste of money before they're ~7. My 5yo daughter likes playing our piano though.

I think her brain is doing well learning theory and rhythm in the way a 4.5 yo can. There's very little actual piano playing for practice time, it's mostly understanding beats, pauses and finding the keys to match the letters. It's a bit more structured than I would like, but I can only play a bit by ear and I wish they would develop that skill a bit more. Yesterday I played a little rif and she said "daddy, that was really good, how did you do that?" She sometimes just hops up on the bench and gently plays and sings creatively and we really try to encourage that too.
My son then storms over and smashes the keys with some hotwheels.