Parenting is tough. What might seem like a mundane little parenting mistake to a parent could very well negatively affect a child's behavior for years to come. Not gonna lie, when I read u/tycjy 's post inquiring whether he was an a-hole for secretly eating cupcakes before his 10-year-old daughter could get to the frosting, I thought, “what's the big deal?” But what do I know? I've not yet been blessed with the miracle of children. Plenty of parents didn't hesitate to critique OP's parenting sk…

Sometimes you just have to allow your child to wreck the place so you can get a moment—don't worry, every parent has done it.

If you don't have a list on your phone with potential baby names for your future children, what are you even doing? At press time, I am kind of ambivalent about whether I want to have kids, but so help me God, if I come upon a child, I have the perfect name waiting in the woodwork. Having baby names with no intention of having children is kind of like wanting to get married because you want to throw a party. It's all of the fun with none of the hassle. Anyone who has actually raised a child kno…

Intending not to have kids has become much more socially acceptable for millennials . It used to be that if you were a person who didn't have kids, you were an old spinster, a nun, or a deeply ashamed closeted person. These days, a much larger chunk of young people are vehemently against bringing another life into this world. This can be for various reasons, from not wanting to financially support another human being to not wanting to push another person through their body. While these reasons…

Happy Thanksgiving, parents! Today might not be the most leisurely parenting day of the year, but I believe you all will get through it. You're about to enter prime “threatening your kids with Santa” season, and I support you all the way. Nothing will whip a kid into shape better than their fear of the naughty list.

"It's a little OK"

It worked in the moment, but then after the 100th time it starts to feel like maybe it was a bad idea…

Not to brag, but my parents are extremely rad. I know that not everyone has great relationships with their parents and that some of the readers of this piece might be orphans, but I, for one, am in neither of those camps. My dad is literally one of the funniest people I know. He is a master songwriter and has been singing and writing his original jingles for as long as I can remember. When I was a kid, I used to wake up at 5:30 in the morning to sit at the breakfast table and read the funnies w…

That mom overstepped the mark

They're poets

Maybe have some responsibility for your own children?

One of the most prominent stereotypes about parents is that once someone has kids, something shifts in their brain that makes them feel like the most esoteric bearer of ancient, once unknown knowledge. They smugly remark on how different the world looks now that they've got kids, implying that they've got something far more important in their lives than anything a childless person could be doing. Although I understand how annoying this can be for those on the receiving end of these takes, I kin…

Where are the parents

School > corn

Sex Education is one of those topics that some people have a challenging time breaching with their kids. My parents were never the kind of people to try to tell me some hogwash about a stork and a baby; They were not in the business of baloney. I don't remember the exact moment when I realized what sex was because it was more of a gradual conversation throughout many years and, therefore, not so shocking to me. The one thing I do remember about our most memorable birds and the bees talk is that…

Being a parent during the days following Halloween is an insane exercise in self-control. A bag or multiple bags of assorted candy is sitting dormant in your house at this very second. Surely, nobody would notice if you took one fun-sized Snickers bar , right? There's no way stealing some Dots would make you one of the worst parents in the world pertaining to the aftermath of Halloween. Parents out there make their kids give away all of their candy to the local dentist's office! There are paren…