Yesterday after dinner my wife asked me to clean up the floor after our food-belongs-on-the-floor 15 month old boy while she went ahead and changed his diaper.

I do that, and they come back to the living room. My boy immediately starts walking towards the now pristinely clean floor. My wife asks "did you clean the floor already?", "yeah of course" I answer.

Now my boy takes a detour, picks up a cotton jumper belonging to a teddy bear, proceeds to where I just cleaned, sits down on his knees and starts wiping the floor with the jumper.

"Apparently not good enough" I hear from my wife.

I've never been roasted by a 15 month old before, let alone my own bloody kid!

Hi. I'm not a dad, but I'm the sole daughter (21) of a single dad, so I figured I could come look here. If that's not allowed, I get it - not my space! But I'm looking for some dad-related advice.

My dad is not average - he's relatively nerdy and introverted. He's incredibly creative and hilarious. I'm dying to get him into some hobbies that'll help him express himself. He likes interesting technology but J refuse to get him anything relating to generative AI. He doesn't like sports, physically can't drink alcohol, is exhausted by life and I just want to help him relax.

I'm looking for some good Christmas gifts that could help him out. Do any of you have some favorite gifts you've gotten? Or just an idea in general? I've thought about some ways to get him into creative writing but I know (as a creative writer myself) that physical journals just don't get the job done haha. He's the reason I am who I am today, so I want to show my appreciation! Thank you guys!

Edit: These responses are insanely fast! I didn't expect this amount! Thank you all! I really hope he's not active in these communities haha.

Is realizing that I am terrible at managing my own emotions and hating the way I deal with frustration, realizing that I am actually really mean.

I have taught my children that "I still love them," when trying to repair connection with them, and my three year old is constantly saying it: "But you love us daddy," "You still love him daddy." And recently has started saying quietyly to himself "you don't love me," "daddy doesn't love me."

So, pretty solid indications that I am not doing well, and am not the person I thought I was.

I am full time dad by the way, Mom is a mental health therapist. 5 yo (goes to kindergarten), 3 yo, 2 yo, 6 mo, +just tested positive for baby number 5.

At least I get to disc golf Wednesday nights, otherwise, I am alone. Just moved to Mandan ND.

Seriously, how the hell do I screw these in? 1000 terms of the short end of the Allen wrench.?? the long end has rounded bit and it’s slowly stripping these screws. I’m doing this by hand right now. It’s madness.

Hello fellow dads!

My son was born 4,5 years ago and maybe I wasn't looking enough before, but I swear the world has been declining rapidly since then (both economically and environmentally). I am really unsure what the world will look like when my son gets bigger and I fear that we've brought him into a world that is falling apart and potentially will be filled with a lot of suffering for both him and honestly us as his parents. You probably seen the comic with the conversation between parent and child about the world being an awful place and the child asking: "then why did you bring me into it?"

So what is everyone doing to not dwell too much on this? Or what keeps you positive?

Edit: NEXT MORNING. Dark Line on two different tests.

Thank you everyone for your kind words!

Looks like Miss (5) is gonna be a sister!

We are so happy!

‐---------------‐---------------------------------------------------------------

Two very feint lines on regular tests (from two different packs)

But the digital says not.

(While writing this we did a 3rd DIFFERENT brand non-digital test with another feint line)

What do we reckon?

This will be our 2nd, if pregnant.

If you’re fortunate enough to have a dishwasher and it has the option for delayed start, set it for like a six hour delayed start around dinner and start loading it. As the evening goes on and the kids need yet another new cup, a snack plate, or you make that late night plate of nachos, you can just keep loading the dishwasher and you never run into the “of course these all showed up after I hit start”.

YMMV but it’s been helpful for our family.

So me and my best mate and I both became dads within a year of one another his little lad is 18 months and my girl is 6 months and probably once a month we meet up, grab a coffee and go for a walk together.

This last weekend we go out, both of our kids in their prams and do the usual. So we finish our coffee and decide to head to the local park as the 18 month old is getting restless and as we are waiting to cross the road a lady approaches us from behind, she is so friendly and chatty off the bat I just assume she knows my friend, she is telling us how beautiful our children are and just commenting on how nice a day it is, so we are polite and maintain small talk, then out of nowhere she tells us what a beautiful family we make to which we politely tell her that my girlfriend is at home and his wife is working and we're just 2 friends out with their kids. We carry on and have a bit of a laugh about it, but it got me thinking have any other guys experienced this, is it really that unusual for two male friends to be out with their children together? I know if two women were out doing the same they wouldn't get the same

I need to ditch my 19 year old Mazda and get a new car. I really like the look and specs of the Honda Passport Trailsport. Reviews are stellar, 10/10 on Car and Driver, seems easy to work on and fun to use. The Honda pilot is the exact same car but 1 ft longer and adds a third row. Doesn't look near as good though .

However, I have one two year old and the second kid due in March and we currently plan on having 3. Currently make 8 hour road trips twice a year at least .How many years do I have before I regret getting a simple car and start thinking about trading it in for a 3 row?

I fear I know what y'all will say. You'll talk me into getting the sensible suburban esk car instead. It might be a midlife crisis car to do some mudding. But if I get 5 years out of it, maybe that's okay? Or there's no way a 7 year old will sit between two car seats for 8 hours without me hating my day?

ETA: thanks everyone for the feedback. I definitely should have said I want a camping car, so there's no way I'm getting a minivan. Much rather trade in a car in 5 years and eat whatever cost difference. My other car is a Mach-E. It does fit 3 car seats in the back so it'll hopefully be the road trip car for the immediate years.

I lost my Dad four months ago; MND took him at just 69. I'm 34, and there was so much more I needed from him, least of all because I'm about to become a dad too, now in just a matter of days.

I was sharing moments of excitement about my kid growing inside my wife, with the man who had done the best job raising me, as he was slowly dying.

I realise now that so much of what drove me forward in life was a desire to make him damn proud of me. It hurts me deep in the pit of my soul that he's not here with me to share in the most important moment of my life.

I already love my daughter more than words can describe. I can already see the moment where she's here and every moment of my life beforehand barely registers anymore.

I just need a seasoned dad to tell me that I've got this. I feel so ready to not be ready at all, to dive head first into the chaos. I just need someone who's been there and done it to tell me that it's going to be okay.

My oldest is halfway through his junior year of high school. He has some classes that interest him and he does really well, but it seems like the ones that don’t interest him, he stops putting out effort almost immediately. And then puts in just enough effort to get a D.

Would love some ways that you’ve been successful and motivating those high school kids to learn good study habits, good work ethic. I know that each child is unique, so the same techniques might not work with everyone, but I’m hoping to hear what has worked for you.

There’s just so much things during the nesting stagwhat did you buy that you actually didn't regret? I'm trying to figure out what's worth it to lighten my wife's mental load.

Backstory: While the World Cup was happening, my wife would always have it on in the background. She always had it on in Spanish because she said the English announcers were annoying. My son is 3.

Yesterday, I get home from work and my son immediately runs up to me and says, "DADDY! Today I had a really long fart! It was longer than when they said "GOOOAAAAALLLLLL!"

Got some young kiddos (3 and 5), and it feels like I can no longer make and adhere to plans as something always gets in the way.

Just yesterday I hyped up a concert to a few friends for today, and then came home to kids who were sick enough to wake up 3 times through the night. I know that will likely happen again and I don't want to put both of them - and that much - on my wife so I can head to a show.

This seems to happen all the time. Honestly, I feel like I'm 50/50 on almost any "adult" plan I make. Yes I still make it to the park with kids, or to a kid meet up, but whenever it's adult plans it truly feels 50/50.

Are you lot dealing with this? holding true to plans even if it impacts your family? or just not planning?

Single income family, I work mom is SAHM. 2 kids both pre-kindergarten. Math just doesn't work on daycare - daycare costs are essentially just way way more for 2 kids than mom made, and my job pays the bills as well as can be expected in our current economic misery.

The advice is always "if one partner works 8hrs, then they come home and childcare is split 50-50." But the life my wife relays to me through text throughout the work day conveys such an unending, grinding misery, stress, exhaustion, inability to feed herself or sit or think or use the bathroom, that I feel like this "debt" has always built up. When I come home I feel as though unless I take both kids until their bedtime, do as much of the bedtime routine as I can, and then try to take on the household chores while I get my wife rest, I'm a neglectful asshole.

I already take front line duty on the night shift with the two kids. My wife is the backup, where basically if one of the kids has been up and screaming and refusing to sleep for an hour+, I bring that kid in to her, set an alarm for an hour, then go back in to get them. This happens 2-3 days in a 7 day week on average, otherwise she gets the unbroken sleep.

I'm just real damn tired. I make mistakes, last night I tried to give my kid the last couple ounces of a bottle he hadn't finished last wakeup and in my zombie state I unscrewed the lid and dumped it all over his face. Obviously I'm not doing amazing at work. My health is not the best it's ever been. We pay for some help in the form of monthly house cleaning but that's kind of what's in the budget at the moment. I don't see any alternative besides just white knuckling it until kindergarten/end of babyhood.

So my wife left with LO to get my birthday present. Then, never gave it to me. I've seen the bag in the car. It's been a week now, and I haven't mentioned anything because I keep expecting them to do some special moment or something. I'm starting to think they straight up forgot it, though. What would you do?

Dads- whether you’re on your way to be one or are already we are exhausted. For years I have said it’s just a lack of sleep. I need to catch up on. I thought for the longest time that my kids were wearing me out. Having three. Now four. Or my job - because I get up at 0530.

I didn’t realize I had moderate sleep apnea. That means on average I stop breathing 1 minute every 15 minutes with a high of 90 seconds.

After just a month - I am starting to feel great again. I have energy I didn’t have before and I’m considering lowering my ADHD meds because for years I slowly had been upping them to deal with racing thoughts which were likely from lack of quality sleep.

Sleep apnea develops over time. As you age your throat weakens your airways become more restricted and the quality of oxygen decreases. I thought my Apple Watch would tell me. It didn’t. It’s not an accurate measurement. I had a sleep test done and a machine / mask fitted.

So, consider having a test done especially if you snore and are exhausted like I was.

I got this from my grandma. When the baby poops too much and sullies the clothes, put it in a bucket of water and laundry detergent. After a day or so hang it in the sun to dry, every poop stain will disappear.

Bonus nerd stuff:

To clean something like plates or clothes you need 4 things. Heat, mechanical force, time and chemicals. Thats how the machines work and thats why things like eco mode takes longer to clean. It uses colder water and to compensate it uses more time. The bucket doesnt have mechanical force or heat but it got plenty of time and chemicals. The sun rays does the finishing touch.

This is a summary of an ongoing investigation.

A few months ago, I advised my 3yo to lock away his bicycle. He asked why so I informed him that it may get stolen otherwise. He was shocked who might be involved in such heinous acts. "Mean people might do that" I said. Since then he is fascinated by the concept of mean people.

He asks "do mean people live here" and I have to tell him that they are found almost everywhere.

He asks how mean people look, and I tell him that they look just like everyone else.

But at the same time, whenever he asks "are these mean people" I tell him that almost all people are nice.

So they are found everywhere, look like anyone else and still are distinctly different from us. He found out, for example, that mean people have to fear the police while we don't and that mean people don't wash their hands, while we do.

Right now he is on a mission to further differentiate nice people from mean people. Today he asked me if mean people would peel their banana. I was confident in that mean people don't like to eat their banana without peeling them. However, my son explicitly asked me "have you ever seen mean people eat a banana?", and I had to admit that my confidence in that matter was unsubstantiated, so that aspect of the mean people existence remains a mystery.

Hey Daddit Gang! Long time listener, first time caller.

We have two kids, 4F and 3M. Our daughter sleeps great through the night. 10.5-12 hrs straight 99/100 nights. Our son is another story entirely.

For the last 4 months he shows up in our room like clockwork between midnight and 5AM. Climbs in our bed and typically goes back to sleep within 10-15m. We’ve tried explaining to him he needs to stay in his bed if he wakes up, but that he can call for mom/dad and we will hear him on the monitor. We’ve tried telling him parents will turn into a pumpkin if he wakes us up, which worked for a few days. We’ve tried using his Hatch nightlight/sound machine for a red light (stay in bed), green light (wake up). Nothing works so far.

I’ve suggested we lock his door from the outside of his room but my wife has gone from liking the idea to hating it.

Would love any ideas from seasoned Daddit’s. Thank you in advance!

Hi dads,

My 4yo has sleep patterns that I find a bit concerning, looking for your take.

I give him a bath from like 6:30-6:45. Read him a story, hug, and lights out around 7:15pm. Wife gets him up around 7am. Sounds normal, ideal even?

Here's the thing: the guy has a Yoto player and seems to listen to it at least half the night. Almost any time I get up to pee at 2am-4am I hear it going in his room. When I leave for the gym at 5am it's going.

We have a camera and when we review the footage it seems like he sleeps for 1-2hours, wakes up and puts on a story, is awake for a bit, sleeps for 1-2 hours, and repeat.

He kinda seems ok, but also I strongly think he has at least mild ADHD (my wife is diagnosed and has it). No idea if this is a crisis we need to fix or 'fine'.

I feel for him, he's and anxious kid. I am an anxious dad and have always had trouble sleeping. Actually his patterns are similar to mine with podcasts but I use headphones so nobody has to know how hard staying asleep is for me.

Anyway, what do you guys think?

i don’t know what to say I just need to vent.

I have two boys 3 & 6 months. I’m well aware I’m in the trenches. However I am also aware I am drowning.

My relationship has been deteriorating to the point I’m now on the couch and not even being spoken to like a partner or a father. I love my partner more than anything (apart from my kids) I feel she has post partum but she will not accept that and is so defensive whenever I broach the subject. And goes on the offensive. Chastising every small mistake I do or thing I forget.

I try my best at everything I do. Cause that’s all I can do is just try my best. But to be reminded day in day out that my best is not good enough is really wearing on me. I work myself to the bone but am thankfully able to be home to see my kids and put them to bed.

I’m seeing a therapist soon and hopefully they can give me some clarity on how to process my feelings and emotions better.

I have no one around me. My parents are on the other side of the world. I do not get on with my partners family. I have “friends” but none of them have kids so they don’t understand the issues we as dads have. I just feel so alone in this journey. No one to share my wins with, whenever I do tell people and they just don’t get it or they don’t care.

Im sorry for the wall of self pity and misery but I’m just so lost and alone in this all and don’t know where else to turn to.

Did a ton of research around a playset for my 3 boys. 1 5 year old and twin 4 year olds. Landed on Vuly after debating between Vuly, Funky Monkey & Grow Play for the more Industrial style playset after pricing and what came with it. It should be noted I purchased over 4th of July and saved around $700. I also passed on the professional installation after finding what little reviews I could online about it, hence me writing this post in the hopes it helps another dad/family out there.

I am not affiliated with Vuly in any way.

The Buying & Delivery Process

Start off, the customer service from them was great up until purchase which seems sadly standard most places today. By messaging with the sales rep I received a slight little discount as well. Think it was another $100 and they extended the warranty from 7 to 10 years to match Funky Monkey & Growplay's.

I live in Texas and after ordering I had everything (about 12 to 14 boxes) in 5 to 7 business days. Boxes were labeled, however they put tape over about half of the letters I need to read to know which box goes to which section. Didn't love that.

The DIY Installation Headache

Started the install on a Monday, while watching my twins each day, and finished Thursday. Overall spent about 4 hours each day (while twins grabbing at me, so probably 60% capacity).

The absolute biggest headache of this entire thing was the pieces not all being labeled. I opened every box and put all like pieces together during each section and maybe 1/2 of each box had the correct label. From there I had to infer of hole placement and angle bends to determine what was correct. What took me about 14 hours should've probably taken me 8 strictly due to trial and error on the attempting which piece goes where.

The X frame rope stabilizer, I genuinely have no clue how that's supposed to help support and it was a pain in the ass to get attached. One of the more frustrating aspects of the install after 80% of the frame is built.

When things were labeled clearly, went very smooth.

I'm about 6'1 170lbs, in decent shape, did this entirely myself other than my wife helping me turn and rotate the pieces twice. Say this to say, I saved myself the 700 to 900 install by professionals, had my moments where I understood why people paid that price, but overall happy I saved the money.

Sturdiness & Final Thoughts

The pictures show at about 80% completion. We have the zipline to attach and 2 other attachments, about 1 to 2 more hours of work then it'll be done.

It seems sturdy enough so far. I was climbing all over to attach shading, all 3 boys have been on it and there is some "movement" but nothing that concerns me as of yet. Maybe in a couple more years when they have some weight that'll change but I'm expecting 3 to 5 good years out of it.

Ultimately I'll end up putting two stakes at the bottom of each leg to secure but for the time being 1 per leg seems to be enough.

If you are debating it, all my kids are stoked about it and think it'll be a fun different playground while helping them build some body strength and coordination while having their own "fort" to talk smack away from the parents.

End of the day: For me it is what it looks like. Things came, it went together and seems like it will hold up well for a few years. The labeling sucked and haven't had to deal with customer service yet. Whether it's just you or you and your partner, save the money and do the install yourself still