~ @ ~ Kids Corner - A thread for parents ~ @ ~ >>new poll<<

My favorite 'extra' baby item was....

Bumbo	8.7%	[ 6 ]
Car bottle warmer	1.4%	[ 1 ]
Wipes warmer	2.9%	[ 2 ]
Boppy/nursing pillow	18.8%	[ 13 ]
Bottle steamer/disinfecter	2.9%	[ 2 ]
Bassinet	7.2%	[ 5 ]
Diaper caddy/changing table	1.4%	[ 1 ]
Video monitor	4.3%	[ 3 ]
Other (please share!)	14.5%	[ 10 ]
...gold....	37.7%	[ 26 ]
Total Votes:			[ 69 ]

This poll closed on July 9, 2013.
No longer accepting new votes.

[Sammiifayse]

I'm sure if this is sad or adorable. Emmett is schooling me on manners.
I've gotten into the habit of asking for his spoon/sippy cup when I take it off him & saying "please" or "ta" when I go to take it. Lately he won't surrender whatever it is I'm trying to get off him until I say please/ta, but as soon as I utter those magic words, he lets go of it immediately. I forgot this morning, he just looked at me and grinned with a death grip on his sippy cup until I remembered to say Ta. Then it was let go.

[Sammiifayse]

xDD Emmett is so confused by his long onesie (romper iunno what you guys call it). He usually wears long overalls & a long sleeved shirt when it's cold. Because of the weather, I haven't had a chance to wash his overalls, so I'm having to put him in a long onesie today. It covers his feet (again, something he's not really used to as he only wears socks when he has shoes on). When I sat him down with his toys, he just sat there looking quizzically at the fabric on his legs, arms, chest and feet and pulling at it, testing it out. Once he was satisfied it was all one piece, he went about playing with his toys.
But the utter confusion initially was hilarious to watch

[Deliacroix]

Sammiifayse

Deliacroix

Why are there so many downvotes? Is this the kind of hyper liberal bullshit people were talking about?

I'm also amazed that the majority of people in LD who have such a pissy attitude towards children are still in their early 20s or barely out of school.

We talk about just about anything in here child related. You just happened to come in around a more casual time.

I'm 22. I hate kids, always have, probably always will, but I adore my son. Something is different when they're mine. I can control their behaviour etc, I know why they're doing things that upset others, and I fix it, rather than leaving him run rampant (figuratively at this point but yeah) upsetting people (god kids at the supermarket s**t me off for that very reason, and their apathetic attempts by their parents ugh!)

I meant in the sense that they don't really seem like they're mature, worldly, or have really explored life or even intimacy on such a level with someone else that children are brought up. For as long as I've been posting in LD, more often than not, I just see pissy attitudes about children and having them.

Also, I didn't mean that this was a hyper liberal thread. I know that LD has a lot of hyper liberals who tend to oppose or hate some really.. stupid things and this just seems like something they'd hate for one reason or another.

[MercyWild]

I think for a large majority of those in their late teens and early twenties the idea of being responsible for themselves is scary enough let alone being responsible for raising a child, and that fear is filtered through the arrogance of youth, ego, and bravado so it ends up expressed negatively as annoyance and dislike of children.

[Sammiifayse]

OMG I FINALLY found the article I've been telling you all about. The 2012 Cost of Kids Report.
I'll post the details shortly (I'm reworking a knitting pattern at the moment and don't want to lose track of the numbers I have and haven't adjusted).

[Digital Fiend]

Rayeia Aire

Digital Fiend

Rayeia Aire

Thats just how I feel about it. If others wanna name their kids after others then thats fine.

It can actually get a little aggravating, cuz my in laws like to call him "Lil' Bill". Which isn't a big deal, but I don't like it.

If thats the only thing that bugs you about your inlaws then you're golden cat_xp

Yeah, not so golden, but when it comes to my son that's the most annoying thing.

[Sammiifayse]

It's only a small article, so I'm going to type it all out (with as close to the same formatting as I can manage). When I can get a decent quality image of it, I'll send it through to Kitiky (I hope I spelt that right) for the front page ^-^

Quote:

$206 The average weekly family spend during the first two years of a child's life, according to the Suncorp 2012 Cost of Kids Report.

S/he may only be small, but when it comes to kids, your adorable under two-year-old is one of the most expensive models, outdone only by the mobile phone-using high school student ($237 a week). The least expensive age brackets are: three to four years ($167 a week) and five to 12 years ($163 a week). Here's hoe your priceless bub is spending your money each and every week:

$67 on childcare
$45 on food, including baby foods
$40 on bedroom furniture, including cot, change table, pram and car seat
$25 on personal care including nappies/diapers, wipes, shampoo and haircuts
$12 on clothing
$10 on health, including medicines, prescriptions and trips to the GP
$5 on savings
$2 on sports leisure and entertainment
$0 on education
$0 on transport
$0 on communications - mobile phones.

I personally found this to be pretty accurate, and I was able to eliminate some costs so as to tailor the results to better represent my circumstances.

[Sammiifayse]

I know based on those numbers, Emmett technically costs us $82/wk. That said, I don't spend $45/wk on food. He goes through a bit under 1 tin of formula a week ($21), probably 1-2 packets of Rice cereal a week ($2-4) and $20 of fruit & veg will make up enough puree to last him 2-3wks.

[Sammiifayse]

<3 Latest issue of Mother & Baby is here. I love this magazine. The two threads on Gaia & this magazine are literally the only real "Mother" things I do (aside from looking after Emmett). I don't have anyone to do play dates, or a mothers group, or anything like that.
I have Emmett, the Pregnancy thread, this thread and my magazine. Oh and the infant study we're participating in, but that doesn't really count for this.

[indigobus]

I think the down votes are from people who assume we're all teen parents because we're on Gaia. I'm almost 28. Lol

Cost of children - Beyond the medical bills, I haven't found the kids to really cost much. We buy diapers for Oscar, but that's it. He doesn't eat enough to really count yet. When I was pregnant the one thing I spent money on was to have my favorite wrap turned into a sling.

[Shima Shinji]

Our grocery bills pretty much doubled since the girls started eating mostly real foods. I've had to nearly double up all our recipes, the ones that used to make plenty for us plus leftovers is barely enough to split between the four of us. They're freaking weeds though, I would swear that sometime in the last two weeks they had a two inch growth spurt and I'm just now noticing.

All the women in my family are short, though, and the girls are so tall! They say that you double their height when they're 2 to get about as tall as they'll be as adults, and they were both half my height at their 12 month checkup.

[Sammiifayse]

Emmett eats a lot for his age as well, but apparently it measures up pretty well with his size (at his 6mo check he was 70cm/27.5 inches & 8.9kgs/19.5lbs). Being on purees, $20 of fruit & veg usually lasts us 2-3wks (with a bit of rice cereal mixed through most purees to thicken them up a bit). What really gets us is his formula. Before we started solids, he would go through 2 tins a week (that's $21 a tin!), and even though he's dropped back to 1 tin a week, it's still expensive. The rice cereal is fairly cheap, which is good.

Standard day for Emmett is:
8am: 4 formula sized scoops (about 4.4 grams a scoop) of rice cereal to 2 scoops of formula to 60ml (2 oz) of milk, followed by a 120ml (4 oz) milk sippy cup (his sippy cup is always this size & he drains it on all but rare occasions)
12 noon: 3 tablespoons of veggie puree, usually thickened with 1-2 scoops of rice cereal followed by a sippy cup
4pm: 3 tablespoons of apple & pear puree, thickened with 2-3 scoops of rice cereal, followed by a sippy cup
8pm: 3 tablespoons of veggie puree, usually thickened with 1-2 scoops of rice cereal followed by a sippy cup
Somewhere between 2-5am: 210ml (7 oz) bottle.

Basically, he feeds every 4hrs (so if he has a 5am bottle, breakfast is at 9am at the earliest & the rest of the times are adjusted). That said, I don't get his food until he complains for it. I won't be all "Hey, it's 8am, breakfast time" especially if he's happy playing. When he starts to grizzle, I'll check the time and see if he's due for food or not.

I don't think it costs us $45 a week, but that's largely because I cook all his purees myself. Our primary expense is the $21 a week on formula.

[Sammiifayse]

I feel horrible for laughing, but Emmett just bit down on his hand too hard and realised it hurt. He had the most confused look on his face as he stared at the finger he bit before starting to cry. I just lost it and laughed. It was the funniest expression I've ever seen him pull!

[Sammiifayse]

OMG! I just found the sweetest little vest to knit!
I'm so going to make one for Emmett, what with winter coming up and such like. I'll make one for my SIL when I know what she's having so I can pick colours.

[indigobus]

So apparently Dani can write her name now and write most of the other letters too. xd She signed all her own Spider-man Valentines and my mom spelled out the names of the people she was sending them to, so she wrote them totally on her own. Kids are amazing!