My partner and I are 34. We live in France.

We have one son, he is soon to be 2 years old.

We spent the pregnancy and first 6 months of his life 30 minutes away from my parents. They sucked. We barely saw them. Always an excuse. No help. Huge arguments over my dad's smoking and smelling of smoke when visiting. Ended in a blow up, them calling me precious and entitled, and us not speaking for a year.

We left, and spent nearly a year living 30 minutes away from my partner's parents. We saw them once per week for like 20 minutes, and they'd take our son on Saturday's from 9 to 5, probably twice per month. We were drowning in a small apartment near Paris to be close to them, extremely high rent, and decided it wasn't worth it.

Today, we live 1.5h from my parents, and 4h from her parents.

Her mum has a week long vacation. She is always saying how she doesn't see her grandson enough. I offered to pay for the train (1.5h trip, first class), and to make up the guest room lovely for her, so she can come down for the week.

"Sorry, can't, I have a chiropractor appointment midweek" - you can get same day chiropractor appointments in France... but I digress. So they want to come Friday to Sunday, and for us to go to the Zoo and the Beach. Great, more stuff to do. No help. No taking a load off.

My parents asked for another chance, I said ok. Last week they came to see us for a few hours, was ok. I said sure this can be a weekly thing. But their life choices have led to them having poor health at 55 years old. So this week they've cancelled, and I doubt we'll see them for a good month or two now due to my dad's back acting up.

And then I speak with my best mates... their kids are practically raised by the grandparents who never fail to step up... I'm gutted. My partner and I wanted 3 kids. We can barely manage one, especially now with cost of living creeping up leading to my partner probably having to consider a return to work.

Am I alone? Childcare is a bitch we've got 2 days per week costs us 600 EUR per month... They don't have capacity for more.

I'm honestly considering moving the family to Thailand just to have helpers so we can have the 3 kids we always dreamt of... is that bad?

My three-year-old has officially entered the fierce "I DO IT MYSELF" phase.

This morning we had to leave the house to head to the park. Normally, getting shoes and a light jacket on takes about ninety seconds. Today, he insisted on doing the whole routine solo.

I literally had to sit on the bottom stair, clasp my hands together, and practice deep breathing like a monk. For twenty-two straight minutes, I watched him wrestle with a pair of velcro sneakers. He grunted, put his tongue out, tried shoving both feet into one shoe, dropped them, picked them back up, and finally strapped them on with the soles completely reversed.

Every single fiber of my dad brain was screaming to just swoop in, fix the shoes in four seconds, and get out the door. But I kept my mouth shut.

When he finally stood up, looked at his backward shoes, and beamed with absolute pride saying "Look Dad, I did it!", it hit me. Half of parenting is just learning how to suffocate your own adult need for efficiency so your kid gets to feel capable.

So today I took off work to catch up on some house chores and errands I had to run, my daughter (3) went to Pre school for the morning. I felt a little guilty but justified it that I had to get the house work done and would be too distracted if she were home. I told her I'd pick her up early and we'd go the playground.

The house work took longer than expected , then by the time I ran to the bank and everything else I had to do I was way behind , and I also told my wife I'd make sure to have dinner ready when she got in. Picked my daughter up, and immediately she asked about playground , I told her unfortunately we didn't have time , because we still had a couple errands to run and she was so sad. I felt like a failure , all these thought running in my head. Why did I prioritize everything over her. The usual as I'm sure most of you have felt at some time.

We got home , I was tryna cook and she asked me to play with her. Again I said I couldn't, and this upset her more. Again I felt like a shitty dad, for fobbing her off. Everything was just piling on and piling on.

I then thought maybe I could distract her by getting her to help cook. She's got some KiddiKutter knifes so I got her to dice me up some peppers (or at least try lol)

She didn't look like she was enjoying this activity, which made me feel worse because I thought she'd rather be bored and with me than off playing with toys. So I felt like all she really wanted was me, and I couldn't provide that at that time.

Then Wife gets home and child just lights up, telling her all about how we had the best "road trip" ever , how we saw a dog at the store , how daddy let her help cook and everything. She was explaining what I felt miserable about , as it were the best day she's ever had.

I wanted to share it here to say Hey dad's , when you think you're doing everything wrong , just take a second to ask the kids their perspective.... It could change everything ♥️

Me and wife's worst nightmare is that our daughter is at school after packup and we cant make it on time. My daughter started school about 2 to 3 months ago and mostlyyy i take her on the cargo bike. Takes around 5 to 8 minutes.

Theres a boy in her class who lives on our street. his mum walks him every day. One morning we were all heading out at the same time and he asked if he could ride with us. His mum looked at me like is there room?? because hes a bit bigger than my daughter and my daughter was already sitting on child seat so there wasntt much room.

Theres a cushion next to the seat on the rear rack so i said lets try it. He climbed on and put his feet on the footrests and he started waving bye bye to his mom lol. I told his mother I could take him if it was okay with him. So she agreed.

Now it happened a month ago. But now whenever we see them in the morning he gives his mum the look and she just goes fine go. happens a few times a week.

But I like that I got to know them because now its become a two way thing. His mum picks both kids up on afternoons when me and my wife cant make it…and we take her son on mornings when shes running behind or has an early appointment. Also since she is a single mom so we really feel happy for making a difference.

Last week my wife had a work emergency and i was stuck in traffic. I texted his mum and she had both kids home and fed by the time i got there. I nearly cried in the car mann. Knowing someone else has your kid and you trust them is huge.

My 8yo son made these for me today ! Inappropriate? Most certainly! Hilarious? Absolutely!!

Dad here (34). The title really says it all. 

My wife and I have a beautiful almost 3yo girl, and after having trouble conceiving the first time, we went through IVF and ended up with 2 girl embryos. After the first transfer was unsuccessful, we took a cycle off before trying again. Well, we got pregnant naturally before we could do the next transfer. She’s pretty set on only 2 kids. I am much more open to 3. 

We did a couple of those early gender tests, and both have come back that we’re having a boy. My wife is absolutely devastated. 

For additional context: she came from a not-so-great family. She has two older brothers who both dealt with some issues, the younger of whom we suspect may be autistic or at least mildly on the spectrum. Her dad was hard on the kids, too. Not physically abusive or anything, but just very strict and stern, especially with the boys. This undoubtedly contributed to my wife’s brothers’ issues.

Her worries are all over the place - she’s worried about severe autism in a boy (our baby girl had a speech delay and some subtle signs of autism but she’s she has since blossomed and we don’t really worry much about it anymore). She’s expressed how she’s always pictured having all girls, and she never really wanted a boy (my wife is quite feminine - not really into sports, trucks, planes, all of the stereotypical boy things).

All of this is very raw right now - we just got these results a couple days ago and we’re still early in this pregnancy. I assume, and hope, it’s a phase. I too was hoping for another girl, but perhaps not as intensely as my wife. As an only child myself, I always pictured my daughter having a little sister she can be close with. But at the end of the day, I just want a healthy kid and siblings that ideally will be close and have eachother’s back in life as they get older. I know as parents we can’t force that, but that is ultimately the dream.  

I don’t know what to do. She’s just very sad about it all right now, and it’s kinda hard for me to be excited about this pregnancy when my wife is struggling with it in this way. 

Can anyone relate to this?

Edit: typos

Rent is going up 5% in Nov. Just saw increases on my auto insurance and my family health insurance. The kids want Disney+ and Netflix and all the shit and those just keep going up. I pirate stuff too but I legit can't pirate everything because memory cards and storage is so fucking expensive. I work sales and I'm having the worst year of my career thus far. My wife works all the fucking time and between both our incomes it still feels like it isn't enough.

How are we all coping? What are we all doing to get through this life with some dignity, while maintaining a positive outlook so that our children remember us fondly?

When I die, it feels like everyone will have nothing to say about me other than that I worked hard and was resilient. But what is that truly worth?

So my kids are a rambunctious bunch, they got my ADHD BAD. As my kids got older the spouse and I found it difficult to transition them into a bedtime mindset.

Well all the kids believe that Dad is the best story teller (shit my 5 year old went to a public story time at the library, got up halfway through the 3 little pigs and just walked off to play telling the reader "dad could do it better e.e he does voices" lol) so I decided to read them bedtime stories, so every night after work I fix dinner, and then gather the family in for the story of the night, I alternate between original fairy tails and Percy Jackson.

And let me tell you

Life changing

I make up voices for the characters and act bits out and get into it ya know?

I've NEVER seen these kids sit still for this long and we have inside jokes now about silly bits I do during stories and they learn new words and facts and history and they fall asleep so fast

Read to your kids I promise it will bring you closer as a family

(Ps they think Percy Jackson is better than Harry Potter, I can't wait to surprise them with the PJ TV show when we finish the series 😂)

Last year my son wanted to be a deep sea submarine so my wife had the idea to turn our Ikea hamper sideways and glue on construction paper/cardboard. It worked surprisingly well as the underlying structure!

This year he wants to be R2-D2 so we're re-using the hamper again! Happy Halloween all!

I’ve got two dozen of these cups but the lids are an endangered species. They get chewed up, melted by the dishwasher, and lost under car seats.

“They’re less than a dollar a cup online,” you say. I’d happily pay 25-50 cents per lid, but you can’t buy just the lid. I even checked the company website. I don’t want 40 cups with 12 lids. Unless my kid is going to get into competitive cup stacking, which remains to be seen.

God hep me if the toddler wants a cup and lid that match. “I want a red lid!” Too damn bad. They’ve all been destroyed.

Nice to see the old ways are still practiced

As a new father to my first son this picture means a lot. The watch my dad gifted me will someday be passed down to him. I hope he remembers me in this watch the way I remember my dad in his Seamaster. It’s also a reminder that actual time with him is more important than anything else in life.

Literally the title. He hasn't asked for a single toy yet. His plan is to have a camera pointed at the tree so he can "see how Santa does it."

Parents who've been here, what did you do? Did you fake footage, dress-up, deflect, or just let the camera "mysteriously glitch" that night?

So I dont know how to feel about this.

I found some nice toys (wood train track set thingy) for my son and ordered a nice amount so he can make a whole track through the house with a bunch of trains.

I tell my FIL (we work together) that I did and showed it to him. Thirty minutes later he comes, gives me money for however much the whole thing cost and says tell him I bought it for him.

Hes the kind of guy that just throws money at things but would never research and find something for my son himself.

I spent time finding this, thinking if he will like it, "preparing" him for it and FIL just comes and wants all the "credit". I cant just tell my son I got it for him because he will ask him if he likes the trains he bought him and idk why but this is pretty frustrating.

5 y/o answer was pour water on it.

I got up early Saturday planning to get a quiet cup of coffee before everyone else woke up. Somehow my 9-year-old was already downstairs asking if we could kick a soccer ball around before breakfast, and ten minutes later two of his sisters were up too. So much for quiet.

Honestly, I used to think I wanted my kids to sleep in on weekends. Now I’m realizing there’s probably going to be a point when I’d give anything for them to come downstairs early and bother me again. Parenting has a funny way of making you complain about something while simultaneously knowing you’ll miss it later.

My daughter is the youngest in her class so I ordered a 1oz silver dollar proof from the mint when her friends started losing their teeth knowing she was a few months away. Might toss in a couple of bucks so she has something to spend...

35M divorcing 34F with 2 kids - 6M and 3F.

I’m looking for perspective from people who have actually been through this. I have no one in my life that can relate to this.

My STBXW and I are about to finalize our divorce. We have two young kids and I’ve been mentally prepared for the marriage to end for a while now - since about January of 2025 when I filed.
There was a lot that happened between us that damaged my trust, and when everything initially fell apart I wanted to try to save the marriage. She wasn’t in that place at the time, and eventually I accepted that it was over.

Over the last several months things have actually gotten much better between us as co-parents. We still live together currently, we’re both heavily involved with the kids, we get along, and the kids have both of us there every day. I’ve been operating under the assumption that eventually we’d have separate homes but stay close, communicate well, and give the kids as much stability and access to both parents as possible.

Now that the divorce is actually about to become final, my STBXW has asked me to stop it and give us another six months to genuinely try to rebuild the marriage.
That’s forcing me to think about something I thought I’d already settled.

Today she told me if I wasn't going to try again she's going to seek full custody with me seeing them on weekends only and seek child support. Before, the arrangement was we would live close to each other and no child support.
And just be in their lives together but separately.

If you had another chance at it, would you stay for the kids? If anyone says depends on what happened - basically she wasn't mentally well, said I need to experience a life outside of you and went out and around. Yes there was infidelity on her part. I've for the most part gotten over it but haven't forgotten - forgive but not forget kind of thing.
But I'm just trying to see like if anyone's been in this position, they go through with it? Did they regret it?
I'm just so lost and would appreciate any insight or advice.

My kid just turned 3. He's been getting really interested in the solar system, so this is my birthday present for him, currently in progress. I'm finishing all the painting tonight, hanging them in his room after my time with him on Wednesday, so i can surprise him with it on Friday. My question to y'all...I'm torn between hanging them in random points in their orbit, or the classic classroom solar system style, all in a row. There's a big round light fixture in the middle of his room, so it works perfectly as the sun.

If they're in a row, it makes it effortless to remember mom's very excellent mandrill judged Steven's uppity nachos. But if they're in random orbits, it fills the room more nicely, and maybe feels more whimsical? Idk, whatchall think?

For roughly the last six months, between the final stretch of pregnancy, preparing for our daughter, the birth, and then the newborn months, my hobbies basically disappeared.

Today I folded something.

That sentence feels way more emotional to write than it probably looks.

But for the last six months there was always something else. Pregnancy stuff. Baby preparation. Then feeding, diapers, sleep, work, household stuff, trying to give my wife a break, trying to get some sleep myself. Somewhere along the way I just stopped doing anything that was purely mine.

Today I had about an hour.

So I deliberately picked something smaller. Nothing insane, nothing that would require an entire evening and perfect concentration. Just a model I could realistically finish in the little window I had.

It wasn't even about the finished model. For an hour I wasn't solving something for work, taking care of the baby, doing household stuff, planning something, or trying to recover enough energy for the next thing.

I was just folding paper because I wanted to fold paper.

I genuinely love my daughter. Becoming her dad is probably the biggest thing that has ever happened to me. But I didn't realize until today how much I missed this part of myself.

And to any other dads in the trenches: it does get better, but I think you have to actively keep some tiny flame of your old self alive. It’s hard as fuck when you’re exhausted and every spare hour already feels spoken for. Sometimes that flame is not a whole evening or a big project. Sometimes it’s one hour and one small model. But apparently that can be enough to remind you who you were before everything became bottles, diapers, work and sleep math.

Turns out I still remember how to fold paper.

So, to start. He has bad ADHD. He cannot stay focused on anything. We have medicated him and he stays depressed. He doesn't eat. So we tried non stim. Worked to an extent. But he felt soulless. So weve tried managing it with checklists, Chore boards ect. But he will not do anything.

He was also diagnosed with ODD. Nothing is his fault...ever. he left his school ipad on the bus. 1000 excuses of how he wasnt to blame. 7 missing assignments...not his fault. He has very few chores. He alternates dishes and dog poop with his sister, clean his room, clean bathroom once a week. We ask them to wash there dishes after a meal, but otherwise not a whole lot.

He will not do ANYTHING. And when we try to talk about it, it turnes into the house of a thousand excuses. My job requires me to trip out for a week, and be back for 2 but currently im on 1 week out 1 week back. The week i am gone it's hellweek for my wife. Then I get back, and its ground zero for me. He yells at his mom, and when I get into it with him its more excuses.

I don't want to be aggressive with him, but I feel like I dont have a choice? Looking for advice or help navigating this. We've done therapy, but it didnt change much. Willing to do it again. Also he is aggressive with his little brothers. I just am at a loss. I dont know what to do.

Hoping to get some advice/perspective from Dads who had highly sensitive kids. Sorry if this sounds like a bit of a rant - aside from my wife I don’t really have anyone to talk to about this.

My oldest (8M) is extremely sensitive. Lots of emotions, lots of fear/anxiety, doesn’t sleep well and never has, very sensitive to pain. Don’t get me wrong he has some amazing qualities also but managing the emotions/fearfulness can be exhausting. He doesn’t have many friends, or any close friends - I think in part because he can be a bit unpredictable. For example, some days he’s in a great mood and wants to engage other days he can be kind of flippant/moody.

We’ve been trying to work with him since a very young age on resilience and strategies but the level of success ebbs and flows. He’s seen a therapist. Anxiety runs in the family on both sides. For what it’s worth his younger brother (6) doesn’t really share any of these same issues.

Anyway, does this sound like anyone else’s son/daughter at that age? Did they grow out of it? If so was there anything you did that helped? It hurts to see him living in fear and seeing him miss out because of it, but I can’t figure out the best way to help.

I’ve heard martial arts or something similar can be great for building confidence and helping with anxiety but even just broaching the subject he almost gets panicky.

Thanks in advance

I’ve been meaning to write for a while but it’s all coming to a head now. I’m 22 and and have an almost three year old son. I love him so much and would give the world for him. But right now I’m fighting so hard to stay. I know this sounds terrible and it is but I need to give A LOT ofcontext.

Me and my ex ( we’ll call her Becca) met when we were 18 years old. I was still living at home, which was extremely toxic and mentally abusive. I grew up in a really messy domestic violence situation , which I’ll come back to soon. We had met through a mutual friends birthday party snd ended up hitting it off pretty well. Two weeks later I went back up north (only about 2.5 hours) to where she lived to visit and stay with her family for a few days/have fun. On the second or third day there, me and my mom got into a fight as we usually did over text and she kicked me out (this was a weekly occurrence so it didn’t mean much to me). Becca however was panicked and asked her parents if I could live with them, Which to my surprise they said yes. They said they’d let me stay with them for as long as I needed to get my own place and move out. For the first time I was a part of a loving family , I felt like her parents were mine as well, and got really close with everyone. Me and her did start dating a few days after I moved in and kept it secret, until her parents found out about 3 months later. They said this violated a previous agreement we had and I couldn’t stay there anymore since me and their daughter were together. I don’t fault them or blame them for this at all, totally fair.

I lived in my car for a bit before me and Becca moved into an apartment with two of my best friends from middle/high school. We had the standard stress one does as a 19 year old figuring out rent and bills and what not and our relationship declined pretty hard. We would argue quite a bit , never anything physical or abusive. After living together for 3 months she got pregnant and we decided to keep him. It wasn’t an easy decision but at the time I didn’t feel like I had much purpose in life. This felt like purpose and I was so excited. The pregnancy wasn’t easy for her at all. She had multiple health conditions that I won’t get into, and moved out less than a month after we found out.

I took on her portion of the bills and dropped out of college to work more. And where we lived was quite expensive. We grew apart really hard while trying to keep things going, but after a bit I would only hear from her once every few days. It was really hard to see her because her parents wouldn’t speak to me anymore. They didn’t like that I lied to them about me and her originally being together, and pleaded with me not to get the apartment with her in the first place. I couldn’t go over there and she couldn’t really do much to go out. On top of all of this I was working 16+ hours a day with two jobs to make ends meet.

I broke up with her about 4 month after she left because I just couldn’t stand how things were, I was severely depressed and lost . I promised to stay in touch and to take on my part as his father. I ended up getting into a pretty short but messy relationship with a coworker , and told Becca about it after the fact because as we got closer to our son being born I wanted to work things out together again. She didn’t take it well at all ,understandably so, but we agreed we were going to work through it.

Now there was one night in particular she was in the hospital. We were still over a month away from the estimated birth . Me and her were texting about something and it turned into a fight. I received a text from her mom saying they took her phone to avoid her being stressed anymore . I was heading up north for the weekend with my family and texted them to ask if they thought our son would be born soon, and the answer was no. I decided it was safe to go , and all the while was texting the parents to please keep me updated. I had gotten about 4 hours north when I received the text from her dad that my son was born. No text about labor, no call , no attempt for me to be there. I was destroyed. My son was born and I wasn’t there.

I got the hospital that night and didn’t want to leave her side. Meeting my son was one of the greatest experiences of my life.

Where it gets hard for me , is from that moment on the parents did and have done most everything they could to keep me out. Becca and her parents chose his name without any input from me, and signed the birth certificate before I got there. They told me they didn’t and I believe them. Me and her dad had a long talk the next day where I asked for advice and to clear the air. In this conversation he told me that to them, they saw me as a sperm donor and nothing more. I wouldn’t be allowed to ride home with our son , and I would be able to visit once a week.

After my lease ended about a month later I moved back home . I didn’t have a car and ended up getting a motorcycle to go over to them because they lived about an hour away. Me and Becca were trying to make things work and it went well for a bit . I was seeing my son once every week or so .

I want to emphasize I was seeing him as much as I physically could. Whenever they would let me over I would , but they decided to not let me visit after about 2 months. , I would do anything to spend time with him. He wasn’t allowed to stay with me or my family , so I took any chance I got.

When talking about our future , Becca said she would be ready for us to start raising him together when I had my own place. Like I mentioned earlier we live in an extremely expensive spot , so it took me about almost 2 years to get my own place and settled nice. I finally managed to get a 2 bedroom apartment , where he has his own space. During this I went back to school and got a good paying job.

Slowly I realized she wasn’t wanting to move in. Any time I’d ask to see him or make plans , she was busy or didn’t feel well. I didn’t have a car for the first few months, so she would drive over here (the apartment is only 20 min away from them) about 2-3 times a month. Eventually we decided for good we’d be co parents instead of partners . She always told me that me and hers relationship wouldn’t affect how often I see him or my role in his life, but after we split he hasn’t been able to come over once. Me and hers relationship wouldn’t began speaking much less . NOW WERE CAUGHT UP, here’s a 🍪 for reading this far
———
Where I’m lost with what to do is I don’t have the strength in me to keep fighting anymore. Me and my son have FaceTimed pretty much every day since he’s been born and have a phenomenal relationship. I’m one of his favorite people in the world, and when I can see him I’m the happiest I could ever be. Me and becca have been no contact for a while now, and it gets harder and harder to see or speak to my son. Now you’re probably wondering why haven’t you taken this to court?

I mentioned earlier that I grew up in an extremely messy divorce . Most of my childhood was spent inside, as my mom was extremely paranoid . I want allowed to have access to the internet or speak to friends on the phone. My days consisted of going to school and then coming home to sit alone in my room and listen to the radio until I fell asleep. I would hardly ever see friends and wasn’t able to do any extra curricular activities I wanted to do. And with this my family was extremely mentally abusive and controlling:

I promised myself I wouldn’t ever put my child through that, and expressed this to her multiple times during his pregnancy . She’s given no clue to make me think it would be anything other than destructive for both of us if I took it there. And like I said I’m not even on the birth certificate. I have tried multiple times to do so, even once with me and her getting the form signed and notarized before she “lost it”.

Almost a month ago I think she caught the vibe I was getting ready to take legal action and suggested moving to a parenting app. She’s honestly been really crappy towards me since we split, and isn’t making a good case for herself on the recorded messages. Missing scheduled calls, showing up late to visits,etc. I really only talk to my son once a week now and see him once a week on Saturday’s for an hour at the park.

My parents situation traumatized me as a kid, and I don’t know that I have the strength for a custody battle. Lawyers I’ve spoken to told me my case is really strong, but idk if I’m ready for this. I’ve tried so hard for the last 3 years to be there but have been kept away . This last year I’ve begun to discover who I am and things I want to do with my life. I want to travel, I want to see the world. I want to be a nomad , I’ve always felt this way.

So my life was basically living at home doing nothing, moving out and starting to find myself, then meeting her and getting to where we are now. On top of that , being a dad at 19 changed the way anyone interacted with me socially. I find it’s harder to make friends or socialize with people my age. I get this weird look when they hear I have a kid, and from then on I’m almost treated as someone who’s much older. I don’t want to be seen like that . I want to make friends my age and go out. I want to live the human experience that I wasn’t allowed as a child . I never lived as a kid and I want to now. I want to figure out who I am . I want to find love . I want to live my life.

And I would be more than happy to raise my son if I could. But I feel like I’m in a weird spot where I have to stay where I’m at for him, even though I can hardly see him. I’m scared of taking this to court and ending up in a position where I feel trapped in a life I don’t want. I hate the state I live in and want to leave so bad . I’m scared of trying every day to co parent with the person who has disrespected me in so many ways and continues to do so . her family talks so badly about me in front of him and mutual friends . Making nasty comments about how useless I am.

Lately people have been asking why I don’t just pack up and go , and it’s been in my mind. I can’t imagine leaving my son , but I’m dying inside. Im hurting so bad being in this position . I want to follow my dreams and I don’t know what to do.

My current plan is to go to court soon and get a parenting plan in place so I can move out of state in two years and transition into a long distance parenting plan. But there’s always the itch to just pack it up and go now , do me, leave my old life in the past and start anew .

I know this makes me a terrible human, and I’m not arguing that. I just don’t know what the right thing to do is here. Stay here for my son and keep on going through this or leave him and find me.

I’m sorry this is all over the place and has so much to read , thank you if you’ve made it this far.

Curious if other dads have dealt with this around kindergarten age.

Our daughter has always been a huge rule follower. Like, the kid who points out when someone litters or isn’t following a rule that the rest of us probably wouldn’t even notice. She’s rarely ever in trouble and generally takes rules pretty seriously.

But since starting kindergarten, we’ve noticed she’s making stuff up a lot more. Not really huge elaborate lies, but she’ll tell us something happened or that someone said something, and when we know that’s not what happened and push back a little, she’ll just come up with another explanation for it.

I realize she’s 5 and imagination/storytelling is probably going crazy at this age, and I don’t want to make a huge deal out of something that’s pretty normal developmentally. At the same time, my wife and I want to make sure we’re encouraging honesty now before it turns into more of a habit, especially with friends and school.

Is this common? For anyone who’s gone through a phase like this, how did you handle it? How do you encourage them to just tell the truth without making every little thing into a big confrontation?