The Parenting Thread • Page 192

we did it last year when holly was like 1.5 in charleston. obviously a bit of an age difference there but we had a small kiddie pool thing with a “tent” over it to keep the sun directly off her and then when she went down by the water she had a wide brimmed hat. tons of sunscreen obviously. didn’t really have any issues

 

An umbrella makes a world of difference. I used one of those beach tents for kids. Had windows for breeze, a bottom floor to avoid too much sand, etc.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DY69B549/?tag=absolutepunk-20

 

When my youngest was about that old we just took a spare pack and play with us and had him napping in it under our canopy we had setup. Also had a fan blowing on him

 

Yeah I think if it was just a normal 80-86 degree, normal humidity/dew point day I wouldn’t be freaking out or overthinking it at all and would just do that haha. I think we’re gonna try and the bath method, bring his baby tub to the beach and have him sit in it a lot. Gonna get one of those fan misters too

 

we took our daughter to the beach when she was a baby in Florida. Kept her screened up and under the umbrella the whole time, but she still got sunburned by the sun reflecting off the water lol

 

My daughter turned 2 today!

 

HBD

 

HBD

 

6 months!

 

H6MD

 

Adorable kiddos in here. H(H)BDs all-around.

 

Same question for the hive mind - we're doing VIP at Warped with my 8 year old (he's getting into a few of the bands, we'll take it pretty low key) but I wanted to grab him decent ear protection. Anyone have any recommendations for something over the ear?

 

I've just grabbed kids ear muffs from a sporting goods store (hunting/shooting section) and they've worked great.

 

Telling this not as a cautionary tale, but I guess more of a "anything can happen" scenario, or maybe I just feel like I need to talk about it and all of you are so kind and good parents.

Wednesday night before bed my almost-3yo son and I were playing in his room, messing around, playing musical instruments, the usual silliness. My wife and 6mo were in the living room, baby asleep. My son wanted to go see them and show them music but I was telling him we had to stay in his room and be quiet, but he was excited and started to run, he tripped on the normal bedroom floor and landed in a total bad-luck way and broke his femur bone.

We just home from the hospital yesterday, he's in a full leg and above bellybutton cast (called a spica cast) for 6-8 weeks and is unable to move himself anywhere. He's in good spirits, but I know it's going to take a toll after a while of just sitting on the couch and trying to find little things to do. He's so active, this can't be easy.

I've had a really hard time telling myself it's not my fault, and I know it isn't my fault, but it's really hard when I was the one with him at the time and it's my job to keep him safe. There was nothing I could have done differently, but I still feel terrible, like this could have been avoided if like, we weren't getting so amped before bedtime, or if I want trying to keep him out of the other room, it's just hard

 

I’m sorry that happened man. Seems like it was just a freak accident nobody’s fault

 

Don’t be so hard on yourself, accidents happen! Unfortunately sometimes fluke situations happen. My daughter fell while walking out of her school back in December and busted her finger open and shattered the tip of her finger, complete fluke

 

This happened to my oldest when he was about to turn 2. He couldn’t even talk yet so it was a really rough experience. He was also a stomach sleeper and had just been sleep trained, he didn’t sleep more than 2 hours at a time for the first year of his life so this started us right back at 0. Poor guy could not get comfortable and couldn’t tell us what he wanted. It was the longest six week period of our lives. On the bright side, it was only 6 weeks and when it was removed the doctor said don’t be surprised if he doesn’t walk for 6 months as he gets used to walking again. He walked that night, albeit completely messed up. Here we are 9 years later and he shows no effects. So good luck and stay strong

 

Really sorry to hear that Steve. The fact that you're so concerned tells me you're a great dad. Not comparable, but I woke up with a fever yesterday and spent the day doing everything I could not to give it to my wife or especially my son, while also feeling guilty about leaving him to take care of him by herself all day. All this to say, if I was worried about giving our son a mild case of the flu, I'm sure I would feel a lot worse about an accident like that happening. But it sounds like you did everything right. You guys will perservere as a family, I'm sure

 

I definitely keep looking on the bright side, that he's old enough to vocalize what he needs, that's 6 weeks isn't THAT long, and he's being super strong, but yeah it's a lot.

 

Yeah that sounds like those frequent nightmare scenarios I have in my head where, if I think about it for too long, it spirals out of control and just keeps getting worse. You’re a good parent, Steve, and like Aaron said above, the fact that you’re feeling this level of guilt for something out of your control just shows how much you love your kid. You feel all this guilt, but I guarantee that your kid’s only thought about you is “that’s my dad. I’m glad I have him. He’s good. I love him.”

 

We're also thrown into a loop with work and such, I just started work after half my paternity leave, and was going to save the other half for when my wife goes back to work, but now I think I'm going to have to use the rest of mine for this and then we don't have daycare lined up for when she goes back, what a mess

 

For as much as both of our political parties pretend to value families they sure don’t support them much. Not that much of anyone is supported by our government outside of rich people and oil companies. But just things like oh my kid is injured or sick suddenly and I have to stay home and take care of him, there’s no real support in policies or even culturally in this country. Everyone is expected to just figure it out and get to work. It’s like this “summer camp” after school ends, parents are just expected to be able to afford $300/week in child care for the summer. I saw a story where a woman got arrested for leaving her young kids home when she went to work and something happened to one of them. She looked devastated in the mug shot. Maybe she was neglectful I don’t know but I can’t help thinking she probably just didn’t have a choice. Go to work so you can have power and food to survive or stay home and lose your job. Thinking back, my parents just left me and my brother home and my brother would just leave and I would be home alone or just wander the neighborhood at 8 years old.

 

That 300 a week is also probably only 9-3 so you have to pay like 10-15 an hour for before care and after care.

 

Things could be worse, hard to complain

 

Haven’t been very active here, but hope everyone is having a nice summer!!!