Greetings, parents of kids under 5! I imagine many of you are jazzed by the news that Pfizer has just applied for Emergency Use Authorization from the FDA for its vaccine for kids 6 months to 4 years old. Fingers crossed everything goes well with that!
I’m excited to be bringing more parents together with these threads. To start off today, why don’t you introduce yourself and tell us a bit about your family/kids (including anything you’re particularly struggling with right now, if you’d like to share)? Beyond that, free to also ask each other questions, vent, tell funny stories, etc. This thread is yours and you can take it wherever you’d like — however I do expect you to adhere to my thread ground rules, which are outlined here. So: Off you go! Please comment below!
I suspect nobody wants to be the first to comment here, so I'll do it for you. :) I do not have kids under 5, but I remember those days well, and I just want to say that I feel for all of you who are having to navigate this pandemic with little kids. It must be SO HARD.
I'll be that person! I'm Allyson, I have a nearly-3-year-old daughter and a 9-month-old son. I work fulltime (remotely) while my husband is the SAHP. We moved to a new city/state just before the pandemic (like, put an offer in on our house in mid-Feb 2020...) so are struggling a lot with isolation and never getting a moment to ourselves.
On the kid side, currently struggling with my son not yet figuring out crawling--he wants to go places so badly, but he just gets so frustrated! And my daughter is an incredibly picky eater and we're worried she's not getting what she needs to be healthy. And a million other little things, of course
Hi all - thank you Melinda for setting this up! I really appreciate your work. I work full time (remotely for the past 2 years) and have an almost 3 year old and a 3 week old newborn. I am happy that it is February - getting through January has been an achievement between giving birth in the omicron surge, being out of care with COVID, and awful cold and snow (for DC, Midwesterners wouldn't blink twice). Isolation has been tough but necessary. I'm hoping that things will get better.
Hi everyone! I'm Meghan, I have a 13 month old who is in a small, in-home daycare (that has only closed down for one week in January due to covid in the family that runs it, so I know we're lucky for not having the back-to-back closures but it's been a stressy time nonetheless) while my husband and I work full time.
I think my biggest-picture struggle right now (besides the small-picture stuff - just surviving each day as a family with two working parents, getting the right and "acceptable" foods into the right mouths at the right time, and being vaguely worried about everything toddler-related as the toddler years begin to crash upon us) is that I really do have no idea what parenting outside of a pandemic looks like. We live 3-4 hours on both sides from family (though my mom has come a couple times in the past year to give us a little getaway time or provide childcare help when daycare falls through for one reason or another) so we don't have a ton of support locally. We've been really covid-cautious all the way through, my husband perhaps a bit more than me - I'm ready for some measured risk-taking (but would really like to see a vaccine for our son first - I'm less concerned about him from an individual health perspective but the toll an illness - any illness - takes on our working lives and access to daycare is huge and largely borne by me, the one with the more flexible job.)
But, all I see in the future is continually saying no to social events (that we've largely stopped being invited to because people assume that between covid and the kiddo, we won't come anyways), not being able to hire a babysitter without second-guessing everything about it (are they vaccinated? are they being safe? will they flake last-minute?), staying out of restaurants and stores, etc. Will we ever feel safe enough to do these things? Even when objectively the risk is safe enough (and has probably been for some time, aside from the omicron surge)? It's just...a lot to process.
Otherwise, very grateful that we're all healthy and have jobs that let us stay that way (and grateful to live in a beautiful, albeit expensive area of the country with winter sunshine - truly do not know how the people living in the cold places are coping right now!)
Hello! I’m Lauren, mother to my almost-4-year-old and wife to my husband of 15 years. We live in a large city near where we both grew up, after years of moving cross-country for education and career. I have been a stay-at-home parent since birth, while my husband works in healthcare (I used to, as well). We have been quite locked down throughout the pandemic, so I’m struggling with the whole being at home, usually alone, with a small child 24/7. My kiddo is spirited and high-energy, while I am introverted and easily overstimulated, and it’s hard to balance our needs. Both sets of grandparents live here (a big reason we moved back to our home state), but they’re rarely able to provide childcare. There are so many challenges to parenting in isolation! In addition to the exhaustion and depletion, one is a lack of understanding of what’s typical kid stuff at that age vs. what’s a problem needing more support vs. what’s just a product of pandemic life! I’m here because sharing the details of our lives in community always helps to normalize the struggles and ease the sense of being alone in it.
Hi there! I have a 19-month old who currently goes to a preschool, while I work full time and run Little News newsletter. Currently struggling with my son going through a sleep regression (yet another one!) and him recovering from a stomach bug.
Hello! I'm Jen, I have a 9 1/2 month old daughter. I work full time, remotely and my husband is a stay at home parent. We're all under the same roof! The walls are thin. We're learning how this works for us, and I'm personally struggling with figuring out how to balance work and life, if that's even possible. He's learning what he needs to deal with the transition to having his work be in the home.
Kiddo-wise, she doesn't like to sleep! She never really has been much of a sleeper, but she's still up every 2-3 hours overnight (sometimes she sleeps for 4-5, but rarely). She doesn't wake up for long, but I do, haha. She seems happy and healthy, so I'm trying to just accept what is for the time being, but man am I tired! We have tried lots and lots and lots of things, and at this point we're continuing to try to make small adjustments and mostly just breathe.
Hi. I'm LC. I have 2 boys, 2.5 and allllllmost 4. We just got them their 3rd dose of Pfizer a few days ago, just in time for almost-4 to start preschool. We have otherwise spent the last 2.5 years very strictly COVID isolated, and now..... I don't know what to do, how to really judge what's safe, etc.
Otherwise, hmm. We managed to potty train both at the same time this summer, AND transition them both out of cribs, which has felt like a big win.
I suspect nobody wants to be the first to comment here, so I'll do it for you. :) I do not have kids under 5, but I remember those days well, and I just want to say that I feel for all of you who are having to navigate this pandemic with little kids. It must be SO HARD.
I'll be that person! I'm Allyson, I have a nearly-3-year-old daughter and a 9-month-old son. I work fulltime (remotely) while my husband is the SAHP. We moved to a new city/state just before the pandemic (like, put an offer in on our house in mid-Feb 2020...) so are struggling a lot with isolation and never getting a moment to ourselves.
On the kid side, currently struggling with my son not yet figuring out crawling--he wants to go places so badly, but he just gets so frustrated! And my daughter is an incredibly picky eater and we're worried she's not getting what she needs to be healthy. And a million other little things, of course
Hi all - thank you Melinda for setting this up! I really appreciate your work. I work full time (remotely for the past 2 years) and have an almost 3 year old and a 3 week old newborn. I am happy that it is February - getting through January has been an achievement between giving birth in the omicron surge, being out of care with COVID, and awful cold and snow (for DC, Midwesterners wouldn't blink twice). Isolation has been tough but necessary. I'm hoping that things will get better.
Hi everyone! I'm Meghan, I have a 13 month old who is in a small, in-home daycare (that has only closed down for one week in January due to covid in the family that runs it, so I know we're lucky for not having the back-to-back closures but it's been a stressy time nonetheless) while my husband and I work full time.
I think my biggest-picture struggle right now (besides the small-picture stuff - just surviving each day as a family with two working parents, getting the right and "acceptable" foods into the right mouths at the right time, and being vaguely worried about everything toddler-related as the toddler years begin to crash upon us) is that I really do have no idea what parenting outside of a pandemic looks like. We live 3-4 hours on both sides from family (though my mom has come a couple times in the past year to give us a little getaway time or provide childcare help when daycare falls through for one reason or another) so we don't have a ton of support locally. We've been really covid-cautious all the way through, my husband perhaps a bit more than me - I'm ready for some measured risk-taking (but would really like to see a vaccine for our son first - I'm less concerned about him from an individual health perspective but the toll an illness - any illness - takes on our working lives and access to daycare is huge and largely borne by me, the one with the more flexible job.)
But, all I see in the future is continually saying no to social events (that we've largely stopped being invited to because people assume that between covid and the kiddo, we won't come anyways), not being able to hire a babysitter without second-guessing everything about it (are they vaccinated? are they being safe? will they flake last-minute?), staying out of restaurants and stores, etc. Will we ever feel safe enough to do these things? Even when objectively the risk is safe enough (and has probably been for some time, aside from the omicron surge)? It's just...a lot to process.
Otherwise, very grateful that we're all healthy and have jobs that let us stay that way (and grateful to live in a beautiful, albeit expensive area of the country with winter sunshine - truly do not know how the people living in the cold places are coping right now!)
Hello! I’m Lauren, mother to my almost-4-year-old and wife to my husband of 15 years. We live in a large city near where we both grew up, after years of moving cross-country for education and career. I have been a stay-at-home parent since birth, while my husband works in healthcare (I used to, as well). We have been quite locked down throughout the pandemic, so I’m struggling with the whole being at home, usually alone, with a small child 24/7. My kiddo is spirited and high-energy, while I am introverted and easily overstimulated, and it’s hard to balance our needs. Both sets of grandparents live here (a big reason we moved back to our home state), but they’re rarely able to provide childcare. There are so many challenges to parenting in isolation! In addition to the exhaustion and depletion, one is a lack of understanding of what’s typical kid stuff at that age vs. what’s a problem needing more support vs. what’s just a product of pandemic life! I’m here because sharing the details of our lives in community always helps to normalize the struggles and ease the sense of being alone in it.
Hi there! I have a 19-month old who currently goes to a preschool, while I work full time and run Little News newsletter. Currently struggling with my son going through a sleep regression (yet another one!) and him recovering from a stomach bug.
Hello! I'm Jen, I have a 9 1/2 month old daughter. I work full time, remotely and my husband is a stay at home parent. We're all under the same roof! The walls are thin. We're learning how this works for us, and I'm personally struggling with figuring out how to balance work and life, if that's even possible. He's learning what he needs to deal with the transition to having his work be in the home.
Kiddo-wise, she doesn't like to sleep! She never really has been much of a sleeper, but she's still up every 2-3 hours overnight (sometimes she sleeps for 4-5, but rarely). She doesn't wake up for long, but I do, haha. She seems happy and healthy, so I'm trying to just accept what is for the time being, but man am I tired! We have tried lots and lots and lots of things, and at this point we're continuing to try to make small adjustments and mostly just breathe.
Hi. I'm LC. I have 2 boys, 2.5 and allllllmost 4. We just got them their 3rd dose of Pfizer a few days ago, just in time for almost-4 to start preschool. We have otherwise spent the last 2.5 years very strictly COVID isolated, and now..... I don't know what to do, how to really judge what's safe, etc.
Otherwise, hmm. We managed to potty train both at the same time this summer, AND transition them both out of cribs, which has felt like a big win.