The Parenting Thread • Page 160

My oldest starts in a couple of weeks too. He’s ready. I’m not.

 

Last night I was standing outside in my backyard waiting for my wife to get home while my kids were away at their grandma’s house for the night and I was having those same thoughts and feelings. My daughter turned six in July and my son turns nine in October. I remember how excited they were at the end of the school year, how they talked about all the things they were going to do with their free time and how that all feels like it just happened yesterday and now it’s just…over. They have one more week next week of vacation and then that’s it. I tried to console myself with the thought that there will be other things to look forward to and summer vacation will be back again next year, but that thought kept getting defeated by the next one, that I’ll never have another summer ever again where my son is eight and my daughter is six. That one is over. I remember being a kid and, on the last night of vacation, praying that I would wake up in the morning and it would be the start of summer vacation again. Just this once, I begged, but it never worked. Childhood is way too short lived and it’s really hitting me hard this year watching my kids grow so fast. Part of it is that right now I’m dealing with my own father’s rapidly declining health and he’s talking to me about DNRs and I’m remembering what it felt like to be my son’s age and to think that my own youth was forever and my parents were ageless and everything is eternal. Now I’m here and he’s there. I’m having a lot of pause these quiet days.

 

Oh man. I’ve been having similar feelings. Just heartbroken over my 5 year old getting older and losing her 5 year old self somewhere along the way. Watching her grow up is making me think a lot about my earliest memory years and I never realized how much I miss about them until now, even though I didn’t have the best life at that time.

 

It’s crazy how much we always want to see what they do next, what they grow into, what they learn, what they experience for the first time, but it never really hits until they’ve done all those things that getting there means leaving something behind. Another day gone, another week, another month, so on and so forth.

At the end of this past school year our district lines were redrawn and so the school board made some major changes. The school my son and daughter were attending was this adorable little building with a unique, circular layout that the kids loved and it was only for kindergarten through second grade. At that point you were supposed to move on to third through fifth at this other school, with the idea being that you consistently help kids adjust to change every few years rather than being in one place for years and then middle school feeling like such a sudden, massive departure. Now they’ve changed all the schools to the more standard kindergarten through fifth. As a result, we’re being moved to another school entirely and that’s been really hard on everyone. A couple nights ago we took the kids to their old school’s playground because they were sad that we’ll never get to be there ever again. When we got there though, the district - as part of the plan to “rebrand” for the new shift with all the older and younger kids being together in one place - had torn down their old playground and ripped out a huge section of the parking lot and everything was roped off to put up something new in its place. We had to tell them sorry, we couldn’t stay and play, and my son said - in the most dejected tone - “it’s okay. We can just go home.”

Lot of big feelings these days.

 

yeah that's gotta be tough especially at the age she is at

we had to get Ivan into day care at essentially 6 or 8 weeks old because we had to both go back to work so it was just ingrained in him. he still has mornings where he doesn't want me or Bri to leave him but he always warms up and has fun - I hope that happens for you all soon!

 

yeah Ivan is still going through it - he wakes up once a night and one of us lays with him for a while till he falls back asleep and then usually he is good the rest of the night

I can't believe I didn't know this thread existed haha

 

hi Drew

 

hello Steve

 

I feel everything you guys feel about the kids growing up. My son is 10 now and I keep thinking that, assuming he moves out at 18, our time living in the same house together is already more than half over. It’s so depressing

 

My daughter has only just turned one but I'm already sad that this version of her will be gone soon.

 

my wife will see a baby and be like 'see, don't you want another one???' and I'm like lady no I'm already sad that this one is a day older than she was a day ago, you think I can handle double that?

 

My daughter turns 1 next month and I still can’t believe it

 

lol

 

My daughter turns 7 on Saturday and my son turns 10 in 3 weeks and is about to start his LAST year of elementary school.

It’s unfathomable how fast time moves and it’s insane to think about.

 

same. He turned 5 in June and he starts kindergarten two weeks and I’m terrified. Socially he’s ready. academically I’m worried, I wanted to redshirt him until next year. And I’m worried about Covid being in a crowded classroom with windows that don’t open and etc. He doesn’t do respiratory viruses well unfortunately and it scares me.

 

Semi related but wife is pregnant with #2 and I wanted another boy and it is a boy and I’m really excited, but the other night Barbie was on HBO and I had it on in the background and the end montage where she turns into a real woman or whatever hit so hard like man it woulda been cool to be a girl dad too I guess. Obviously it’s a very idolized and rose colored glasses montage of growing up a girl but still lol.

 

Congrats! Hope it all goes smoothly

 

we’re only halfway through and it’s already been a little rough haha, some of that due to other stuff but have had some small scares the last couple weeks. But it was a years long process and scope surgeries and failed IVF and thousands of dollars only to end up doing it naturally after taking a break from IVF after the second failure lol. We’re about 3 years behind where we wanted to be but just grateful and hoping it goes smoothly from here and the birth goes smoothly too

 

TW first:
So after a year of trying using IUI, my wife got pregnant with our second in December. Unfortunately we lost the baby early on and my wife had to undergo some pretty terrible surgeries. We were unable to try again until April, and had a series of failed IUIs and one failed IVF attempt.
Finally, we received a positive test last week. We went yesterday for an early ultrasound and everything looks great for an April ‘25 baby. We’re both incredibly anxious about everything remaining okay, but there were no issues with the actual pregnancy with my son and all the genetic stuff was already screened for IVF. Fingers crossed, we could use a break after the past few years.

 

You got this!!! Sending all my positive vibes and more

 

hoping for the best for you and your wife @OhTheWater

 

It's a boy :) I was hoping for a girl, but we would both be happy with "healthy," so we're very excited. I am very nervous about him being indoctrinated by the internet via Aden Ross and Incel culture and predators on Roblox though.

 

Saw a heartbeat this week. We can breathe a little easier. It’s weird because the doctors already know what the baby is but we were too scared to ask during the IVF process. I am guessing girl. We think we have a boy name, but no clue on a girl.

 

God knows what the internet will be in 10 years

 

I watched a lot of extreme violence on LiveLeak as a pre-teen (usually unintentionally) and I turned out semi-normal ¯\_(ツ)_/¯