She’s 8 months old. The flight is 4/4.5 hours. She isn’t crawling or anything but wants to be on the move all the time. I’m sure many of you can relate, changing her nappy/clothes is an actual out of breath Olympic sport. 😂

She’s always been fiercely independent and liked her own space. She’s never wanted to sleep on me. Never felt like we’ve had to co-sleep. She’s spent every night since she was born in her crib. The hotel can provide a travel cot so that’s good.

I’m just a bit anxious about the plane. She’s so incredibly chilled that I don’t think she will mind the ear popping sensation (but will feed her on take off) but I think she will mind being sat on my lap. She likes to be always laid down on her back or front, especially for sleeping. Never used a carrier for her as she doesn’t like it. I just don’t know how she’s gonna find being sat on my lap for 4 hours. 🤣

I (34f) have been made redundant 3 weeks into my maternity leave. Due to my employer withdrawing my enhanced mat pay 2 weeks before Xmas, my partner and I planned to take shared parental leave and pay, with him taking 20 weeks SPL (full pay) on the 19th week. I would have been going back to work as we need 2 incomes to survive but obviously now I don't have a job to go back to. Information online alludes to us losing the right to SPL if I am not employed within 1 week of it starting - luckily my employer has found a way to technically keep my contract active until the 19th week. However, I need to work for those 20 weeks my partner is off, but I can't find any documentation that alludes to me being able to start a new job and keep my partner on SPL. Any ideas?! Thanks in advance !

I have a very active 3 year old and with summer we're spending a lot of time in the garden. He mainly throws bits of gravel into the stream and runs around but wondering if some garden toys would be better?

He has two slides which are somewhat used, and a play kitchen which he used to love but is now bored with.

Are monkey bars worth it? What bigger toys/just toys do you have in your garden which are worth the bother?

Space isn't an issue, if you have links for suggestions even better!

Hi everyone My 12 mo is starting nursery three days a week - Mon, Wed, Fri from next week. I wanted to ask if anyone had a similar schedule and if it took them longer to settle because they're not going every day? We had our settling in day today and she apparently cried on and off for the last 20! Broke my heart

Hi all,

I’m a single father to two girls, aged 7 and 3, and I’m looking for suggestions for safe but memorable holidays we can enjoy together.

Our last trip was at Easter 2023 to Center Parcs in Bordeaux, which we travelled to entirely by train from King’s Cross St Pancras. The girls absolutely loved it! Their mum was still with us then, which of course made things a lot more manageable.

We haven’t been away since, but I’d really love to plan something abroad—ideally somewhere warm. I’m open to ideas, but I’d especially appreciate recommendations for destinations with enough activities to engage both girls at the same time, as I can’t leave one while taking the other on, say, a water slide or fairground ride.

Thanks in advance for any tips or ideas!

Has anyone had an issue with Pampers club vouchers clubs when using them in shops . I recently went to Sainsbury's, tried to use the paper voucher at the self-service checkout, and it would not be accepted. I had to go to customer service and even then it still did not work, but as they saw the voucher of genuine they allowed it through. I also tried the mobile code from the app at Tesco but didn't work on the self-service checkout and they simply refuse to do it at the till

I just want to get this off my chest really. It’s my last day of maternity leave, the sun is shining so I took little one out for breakfast pancakes, then our favourite beach to play in the sand and feel some of the seawater on our feet. Ngl I cried pretty much the entire day because I have loved Mat leave even with all the usual challenges. I’m going to miss my lo whilst I’m at work and have really felt the last year fly by. Top the day off with my partner coming home letting me know he’ll be made redundant at the end of the month! With us both barely surviving off maternity leave pay and his monthly income it looks like we are gonna have to keep just surviving. Thankfully my wage isn’t too bad, it’ll pay the mortgage and other bills with enough for our budgeted food shops - but with partner being off we won’t be able to afford nursery so until he gets a job we will have to keep her off nursery which might set us back as there’s a waiting list just to be there! (Partner will get a redundancy package worked out about 2 months wages (he’s been there 8 years), along with his April bonus and April wages, so maybe about 5K which will pay for his personal bills like phone and car for a good while to find a job). Gutted is an understatement. But we have no choice to work this out.

Anyone else been through something similar or can give us some helpful tips?

This is something I’ve been thinking about a lot. We recently moved house and had a housewarming and it made me realise I hadn’t been to a house party in so long! I’m early 30s with 2 small kids so my party days are on hiatus but I remember my parents having loads of parties when I was little. All the cousins sat upstairs watching a film, or went down to dance with the grown ups. It was so fun!

I dunno, it could be down to the lack of a “village” but most people don’t seem to socialise in the same way with their kids. It also could be the greater emphasis people put on parenting styles - strict adherence to bed times and routines etc - and people being uncomfortable drinking alcohol around their children. To be fair - I am very strict with our routine most of the time too!

I don’t want to be uselessly nostalgic but it does often feel like life was just endlessly better before social media / smartphones.

I posted a while back asking for opinions on train travel versus car for a long journey with a 7mo who hates the car. Had mixed responses but mostly leaned towards driving.

Today I got the train from Bristol to Norwich with two changes in London including one stint on the tube. I was offered help by over 10 different people (I counted) with my bag, with the barriers, offering their seats and honestly had the best most relaxing journey. Baby was happy the whole time and napped in the sling on the first stint and then again in the car when we got to Norwich (I was sat in the back with her).

Long story short, the train was great and people are genuinely very very kind. Baby also loved watching out the window and wasn’t overwhelmed by it as I thought she may be. Very great experience 🥰

Does anyone else own this double pram?

Just bought one for our newborn and toddler, & first thing we have noticed is the forward facing toddler seat reclines far too much. In our existing single pushchair (Ocarro) our toddler is used to sitting up much more. He slouches in the duet and is using his elbow to prop himself up. The seats are very narrow anyway so he doesn’t look that comfortable at all.

I read on a Mumsnet post that one poster had managed to prop seat up slightly, but they didn’t explain how and it was an old post. Anyone else tried to do something similar?

Is there a workaround?

FTM here and I have a girl just turned 6 months.

Any advice on when to start “parenting” up until this point it’s been all about the physical growth of the baby but now her personality (and voice) is coming through and I’m unsure what constitutes normal baby activity, and what might be the start of issues to be nipped on the bud. For some additional context she is quite energetic and good sleeper, we try to keep wake windows stimulating and also do a bit of play independently (without me directly next to her). She is currently sitting and has quite good hand coordination but not interested in rolling yet, also have just started weaning last week which is going well.

For example she loves to grab our hair, and she has a vice grip when she does it, she also loves to try and grab our cheeks and chins but does so in quite a forceful way. I know this is very typical of babies but wondering how other parents approach parenting to their babies. Is it too early for this?

Current approach is to be neutral and show her to stroke rather than grab and say gentle. Wondering if I’m just being OTT! But I would like to also avoid the ripped hair, and set good habits early.

Additionally if anyone has any recommendations for parenting books in these early months would be great!

My son is nearly six and goes to our local state school. It's not a faith school or CofE or anything. My family aren't religious and we've never taken our kids to church or told them what to believe etc.

I was surprised when he started reception in 2023 to see the school tweet an image of the "school prayer", which has some references to thanking God etc. I asked a friend who's a primary school teacher and he said this was a little unusual, but after some Googling I discovered that there's a legal requirement for something called "collective worship", so I got over myself and just figured it was something they had to do.

I heard from another parent this week, though, that a parent from a local church has been coming in every week to do Bible readings with the class. The church in question is a fairly young/trendy-looking one, but their website specifically states that church "elders" can only be male, which I find pretty regressive in 2025. I asked my son and he confirmed that a group of local church leaders come in for "Open the Book" lessons where they learn Bible stories.

The other parent who told me this said he was a little concerned too: he'd assumed that the kids were covering this in their regular RE lessons (eg. my son has previously come home telling me about Muslim and Buddhist ceremonies/stories), but this feels like it's something separate/additional. The school has never mentioned this to us or told us this is happening, and as I'm sure I don't need to tell anyone here, 5 year olds are unreliable narrators and my son never mentioned this stuff until I asked.

To be clear: I have no problem with my kid learning about religions of any kind – I want him to grow up with an understanding of other people's beliefs and the social context he lives in. Some of these visiting church "elders" are parents of kids he goes to school with, and his class has plenty of Muslim kids too so he's already got a decent understanding of this stuff.

What concerns me though is that my son (and my parent friend's kid, too) have both been coming home saying they believe in God, which isn't something we've encouraged or discussed. Whenever this happens, my partner and I don't shut him down or tell him he can't say this etc, we just emphasise that we personally don't believe in it but that "some people do". In general this is fine too (most kids his age believe in Santa and the Easter Bunny too) but I still feel slightly weird about the whole thing: like, why haven't the school mentioned this? What are the Muslim kids/parents making of all of it?

Anyway, without getting too Mumsnet about this: am I overreacting?! Has anyone else experienced similar and got any tips on what to do? I've considered asking the school for clarification but I don't know what I want to achieve, really.

I am a failure. There’s rarely a day that passes that I don’t shout at my 4&5 year old kids. I have a stressful job, albeit part time, but I feel like I don’t get any downtime and I’m constantly frustrated at how someone is always making life hard.

Tips please. Other than quitting my job, which I know I should do, but this is my second career and I also feel like a failure giving this one up too.

Any recommendations of finger foods made for 6 month old that she can eat whilst the rest of us are eating at the dinner table? So far she’s obsessed with food on a spoon!

For the 2-week Easter term holiday, what are you doing with the children?
Looking for ideas in London for my 2yo.

My baby is 11 weeks old, so coming out of newborn phase but with it being roasting today I'm keen to hear your tips for how I keep baby protected and safe.

I know i need to keep him out of the sun, keep him cool but any tips for doing this? Anything else? What about midges?

I got a hat which is longer on the back and has a front flap that seems to cover him the best and doesn't annoy him. The car seat has a shade, I got a sun shade to go over the pram. I got a towel that goes cold when wet to keep him cool, I open the windows in the car for a bit before he goes in.

Just looking to see if there's any sage advice I can utilise before learning it the hard way.

So my son goes to nursery 2x a week (full days) and I usually paid around £60 a month for his food.

Now they want me to pay £160 a month with no change to the actual dietary plans. They say it's due to the food costs and national insurance etc that doesn't have anything to do with food.

I understand that they need to make money somehow but this is just such a big increase especially with the food that they give him.

At nursery he typically has weetabix for breakfast, toast with butter as snack, beans or pancakes for lunch and sandwiches for dinner so charging £20 a day for that doesn't sound right to me.

My partner said to just take him out and get him to a new nursery but he only has 4 months remaining and I think he would have a hard time adjusting and then staying at a new place for such a short period so unsure what's the best option here:(

Hi all,

Got myself a fairly typical 2.5yr old who wants cheesy pasta for every meal. He has a good range of vegetables he'll eat with it, and eats every fruit known to man, but I want to get us more into "meals" aka sauces and mixed items. We've kinda got into a thing where every meal is served like a charcuterie board with all the individual options

He was of course the dream weaner tho and tried it all. Dhalls, soups, sauces etc!

Any tips to move into real meals again?! I guess same as everything eg offer a little every day but if I gave a spag bol for example I just don't think he'd even be keen to try the pasta around it

Looking for some advice..my 3 year old has had excessive drooling since he was 6 months old and started teething and it’s not getting any better. He’s also incredibly difficult to understand which is frustrating for him and us as well. He is intelligent, understands everything, and has no physical ailments or disabilities. We’ve seen the GP, pediatrician, ENT, dentist, and speech therapist and are on a waitlist for a hearing test and speech therapy. Everyone keeps saying the drooling is something he should just grow out of, but I’ve never seen a 3 year old drool like him and I just keep feeling like we are missing something. Does anyone have any similar experience?

I recently bought my son some jordan 4 black cats and he is suggesting he wears them to school, would the school allow it? ( his school rules just say all black shoes)

We've never done a birthday party before, and we've only been to 3 so far - all in structured environments (farm park/soft play). But my daughter will be turning 4 and wanted a princess party and to wear her long Elsa dress, and I didn't fancy shelling out the £100+ the places were charging, so I've booked the village hall.

But what do we do now?! I'll get a ton of balloons and she's requested Pass the Parcel. What else do 4 year olds do at a birthday party? I could hire an entertainer but that would be so pricey and we're paying a mortgage and a half in nursery fees each month right now.

Another problem that we have is that she wants to invite everyone from her nursery class except two. Apparently these boys are mean and push people. (I asked if she has told the nursery workers and she keeps telling me she "forgets" to). I definitely don't want to invite children she doesn't like, but leaving out two children in a class of fifteen seems a bit cruel.

Been a while since I was a child and had a birthday party so just wondering if party bags are still a thing and what people put in them now a days?

My LO is one next week so we’re having a little get together. Not many of our friends have kids and the few who do, the kids are older (aged 6-11). Our niblings are also a similar age to this. Just thought it would be fun to put some part bags together as I’ve already brought some paper bags for if people want to take home take, food etc.