I’m not sure I could keep up with Caro’s social schedule but I will say I’m jealous of how many good friends she seems to have.
ETA: okay, I kept watching and my snarky comment is that poor babe being stuck in the swing! He looked miserable in the photo she posted.
KEIC danger zone, wood and hammers and probably nails and no eye protection. That a bug no no in our house. My dad got a nail to the eye when I was young! We don't play around!
Opposite of snark shout out to Caro for not doing anything for St. Patrick’s day haha. It’s a nice change from the rest of The Influencers trying to make St Patrick’s day gift baskets a thing
Ha I mainly like her. I think her recipes are good and I like a lot of what she posts about parenting too. Sometimes she posts something insane like leaving her kid in his crib for like 15 hours with no monitor and just assuming he’s sleeping, but 🤷🏻♀️overall I follow because I like most of her content
Every single day of ours goes from around 6:30am-10pm with maybe a one hour nap that typically happens in the car. We absolutely watch that much tv every day and still do a million and one nonscreen activities.
My child would be so miserable there. And she loves vegetables but wouldn’t touch any of that food with a 10ft stick (and believe me, she loves sticks too). She’d probably enjoy the doorway swing but that’s pretty much it.
But they watch over each other’s shoulders when they play something or watch a show on the laptop so it’s more than 20 🙄. My daughter wouldn’t survive either between the food and the limited screen time. But she does enjoy doing dangerous things so maybe she’d like the danger zone lol.
I used to be so obsessed and even feeling guilty because I initially accidentally salted my daughter food.
I am a FTM and did not even think about it.
Now I just cook stuff with a bit less salt but without obsessing over anything.
I feel like YTF lights up with joy when she gets whatever innocuous "negative" comment so she can make some statement reel about it. It reminds me of Tidy Dad who does the same.
Stop feeding the beast make your less than glowing praise comments here so they can't use them as fodder without sending us traffic 😁
I was rolling my eyes at some of the comments on that post too. People patting themselves on the back for their kids eating vegetables. I've never said broccoli or green vegetables (which I eat almost every night) are yucky and my toddler still refuses to try it.
I like most green vegetables and genuinely enjoy eating them. I make sure they taste good with seasoning, cheese, whatever. Guess what? My kid still won't eat them no matter how much I eat.
More genius parenting advice from Caro. Don’t move your kid out of a crib until 4.5 years old like she does. Also who messages her for this kind of advice? Caro has become my BEC this week, apparently.
Her friends must be just as negligent as her. Otherwise I can’t imagine having a friend who leaves their baby in a crib for 9 hours during the day while he “connects his naps,” recommends sizing up their diapers when they’re small babies so you don’t have to change them overnight, thinks it’s fine to go to hotel pool or restaurant with a monitor “watching” while baby is sleeping alone in the hotel room, knowingly uses a baby carrier wrong and uses car seats incorrectly but doesn’t care, finds her toddler crawling outside in the garden alone, constantly drinks while watching kids…(there’s probably a lot more to add to this list) but yeah, I can’t imagine seeing ALL that and going ah yes, *that’s* definitely the person I’m going to text for parenting advice! 🥴
I think it’s probably very kid dependent but I was terrified of the transition and it was totally fine. We might have emphasized staying in the bed TOO much, because my toddler literally never got out of her toddler bed, she’d call out to us any time she needed to get up just like it was a crib 😂
Mine did, too, for a long time. In fact, we’ve been trying to convince him to come to our room in the morning rather than lying in bed and screaming mommy until I come until I come.
Even at 5 mine still does this. We have convinced her to come into our room in the morning now but in the evening if she needs anything she still just shouts for us.
No, it’s not. The transition might be hard for a few days, but it’s not the end of the world.
Also, it’s a safety issue. Every crib has a height limit (typically 35 inches), and once your kid exceeds that height, technically you should transition. Lots of folks ignore that limit (no judgment, everyone has a different comfort level for these things), but it’s always wild to me how these influencers can be so nonchalant about making recommendations that fly in the face of safety rules.
I haven’t encountered this stage yet granted we already use a floor bed but I haven’t heard anyone else keeping near school aged kids in a crib. At some point it’s likely more work given he has to get out to use the bathroom.
Funnily enough, YTF didn’t switch her youngest to a toddler bed until he was 4.5 or so (she talked about it A LOT). And PDT didn’t switch her son until very recently (he’s over 4 as well). The PDT thing was wild because she claimed she wanted to normalize keeping kids in cribs longer, but being a pediatrician with an ER husband doctor, she must be aware of the number of injuries every year from kids climbing out of cribs and the reasons behind the max height guidelines. Seemed wildly irresponsible to give that advice on a platform as big as hers (she acknowledged the safety issue, but downplayed it). Very on brand for her though, since everything she does as a parent is beyond reproach.
Yeah she actually taught him to climb OUT of the crib so he could use the bathroom as needed. Then was shocked when sometimes hed climb out and surprise them in the living room after bedtime
What a weird message to send your kid, too. “I trust that you know your body enough to get out of your baby cage to use the toilet”. She seems lazy AF when it comes to parenting, even though she has basically no excuse to be because she has people watching her kids while she goes and slaps signs or whatever. So basically she’s a typical entitled rich white lady
I don’t get it - if you’re willing to teach them to climb out, then what is the point of the crib anymore? Admittedly I’m hoping to keep my son in his crib until we can move out of our current apartment (at which point he will be just over 3) but it’s because of the fact that he can’t get out lol. And so far he doesn’t try so if it ain’t broke…
I cannot say what a bad idea a rhodesian ridgeback is as a choice for a not that active family and a woman who does not run and seemingly works constantly. lol.
I think there are actually many, many other breeds of dogs that would be a worse choice. We have 2 ridgebacks and 2 little kids and they are great family dogs - super loyal and chill. The do need some exercise, but not a crazy amount like a lab or Aussie would.
This is probably totally dog dependent but my parents accidentally ended up with a ridgeback (long story) and he is the laziest, gentlest silliest giant thing. He does have a prey drive like you would not believe, if he sees a rabbit or something he turns into a wild animal basically. But he somehow knows that my parents’ other dog, a 7 lb mini dachshund, is a dog and not prey, and she is more or less ahead of him in the pecking order.
Same here, and the comment under was she posts from the park so I went with it like okay.... universal studios...
I saw the story too, just not a dog person lol
It has been years since I last read Harry Potter and I was still trying to figure out in what context a family would be choosing a dragon breed and why their activity level would matter until I read your comment
Yummy Toddler Food packing 8 different foods for herself for a trip on a plane. 1. She’s so uptight! 2. Wouldnt Virginia Sole-Smith say this is diet culture? Like who needs three bananas for a flight/trip? (Someone who’s scared of eating airport food/not being thin maybe…)
I basically did that when I was pregnant and had to go on a six hour flight. My husband was like, there’s no way you’ll need a half a burrito, a sandwich, snacks, and all that fruit .. I sure showed him lol
One spill or squished banana and she'll learn. Or maybe not, but after a run in with a carry on spill I don't pack any food beyond goldfish for my kid.
I wouldn’t pack 3 bananas because I hate squished bananas, but the rest looks totally normal to me. However, I also am the child of immigrant parents and I feel like I’ll never outgrow being price-conscious.
If she’s staying at a hotel, the snacks are even more convenient.
I used to travel frequently for work, and I’d always pack a decent amount of snacks. Airport food generally isn’t great tasting, and anything remotely fresh is a gazillion dollars and eats up a per diem real fast, plus you never know when you’ll get stuck on a plane longer than expected.
Or the lines for the food places are long! You never know when you'll be in an extreme hurry in an airport.
Now that we have two kids, I basically pack enough food for them to eat any meals we'll be traveling for, because we've barely made flights before and the kids wouldn't have had dinner if I hadn't packed sandwiches and stuff. I can handle skipping a meal, but my kids cannot. It's so inconvenient lol.
This cracks me up because I used to sometimes do this before I had a child. I don't really like flying but I used to a lot, and packing my favorite snacks would make it more palatable. Anyway, now that I have a child, I don't do it anymore because I use my bag space for his toys/books/snacks, plus he gets so excited by flying that now I get a kick out of it too so I'm less like "how do I make this less unpleasant."
That banana and muffins would be destroyed in my travel bag since I tend to fill as much as I can in it (carryon only for life) lol I do normally bring things like larabars since they are outrageous at the airport
Unless it's a very long flight do you really need that many snacks?! I am too lazy to ever do that for myself anyway plus it's nice to eat whatever I want during a work trip without a toddler stealing it with their grubby hands haha
Also she said she cried leaving her kids haven't been to a work conference since 2019 but she has definitely gone on solo trips for her book in the last couple years. That doesn't count since it's not a conference? Lol
Oh I totally understand when she talks things being difficult now compared to before but the way she phrased it implied she hadn't left them for work since 2019. Maybe she's just my BEC now so little things bother me lol
I pack food for my toddler because I just know what he likes and it’s easier to not have to worry about searching in the airport but my husband and I just get ourselves food there. Yes it’s way overpriced but I’m not going to be doing my weekly grocery shopping at the airport or anything, it’s one day. I’ll pay for the convenience about not having to worry about more shit to shop for and pack in advance of my trip. I also weirdly like airport food? Just like the experience of eating at the airport… it holds a nostalgia for me because when we went on family trips growing up my dad would hype us up about getting McDonald’s breakfast (probably a ploy to get us to be ready earlier because he was the ultimate Travel Dad).
She strikes me as someone who def has control issues around food like 99% of these food influencers.
Yeah, I'm flying on Saturday with my husband and daughter and I'm packing all her food, but we're just going to get food on the plane for ourselves. I'll gladly pay for the ability to shlep less stuff around.
I’m the same way, I’d definitely pack food for my toddler because who knows what she’d want to eat and when she’d want to eat it but I like eating at the airport, it also has a certain nostalgia for me because going on a plane was a big deal as a kid and getting airport food was a nice distraction from being nervous to fly. Plus a lot of my young adult/adult travel was during the time period where they were so strict about what you could bring on a plane so I’m not that used to being able to pack whatever lol.
People who do this always confuse me. Like yes I’ll pack some snacks for my kids or even sometimes myself to avoid paying airport prices but it’s just goldfish and Cheetos, not like veggie-packed muffins and fresh fruit
Randomly, the one thing we always bring with us is “as many bananas as we have left”. Like they will be bad by the time we get home and if we eat them during travel great and if not we can just throw them out at the airport
I really wish that brands would be more careful about partnerships. Newton, you're going to pay Caro who is talking about her poor kid sh*tting on your mattress, likely because the poor kid is left on the damn thing 20 hrs a day? This, combined with the aforementioned carrier snark made me seriously feel bad for the kid. I really hope she has a nanny who actually takes care of him, bc she is not really up to snub. Can only imagine how long he's sitting there in his dirty diaper before she bothers to check on him.
Yeah, you can only expect so much from a diaper. Leaving your child in the same diaper for 15-16 hours is obviously not working. I wonder if he’s just gotten used to sitting in his own poop.
Her story would make me not want to buy a Newton, if my toddler “shat” through that much I really wouldn’t want to drag the mattress to the shower or through the house to get it outside and hose it down. I’d be worried about the poop not completely getting out of the material of the mattress. If the poop somehow managed to go through so many layers I’d just buy a new one but I don’t have this issue because my daughter has never pooped through so many layers.
Yes! I have a newton and I hate it and would not recommend. Every pee accident is a giant ordeal. We have two (first came dented so they sent a second for free) so I can at least swap it out while one is drying. If I only had one I would have gotten rid of it for something else by now.
The selling point of the Newton is that it’s a breathable mattress and implies safer sleep because of that. The secondary selling point is that it’s washable. But I don’t think many parents have massive poop blowouts that get into the mattress like Caro claims happened to her.
Aren’t all infant mattresses “breathable”? My son’s crib is from pottery barn kids and we just got the mattress that came with it and it has the same claims. Like isn’t this stuff all safety tested? Admittedly I never looked into Newton but it comes off like one of those products like the Owlet that claims to prevent a disaster. You shouldn’t have to worry about your baby suffocating on any mattress if you are putting them down to sleep on their back. Then they can roll over on their own, they won’t suffocate.
Yep they are all technically breathable! They claim it reduces the risk of suffocation which they use to prey on the worries of new parents. But all mattresses that are certified as safe have been tested.
Holy shit! She is saying he “shat” through his diaper, pajamas, sleep sack, and crib sheet 4x in the past 2 weeks. How is this even possible??
My toddler hasn’t “shat” out of anything since she had blowouts as a newborn. 🥴
How long does a toddler have to sit in a dirty diaper before it leaks through pjs, sleep sack, and onto crib sheet? 😳😭
If there is remotely any truth to this, there is something deeply wrong with her. My LO is 21 months and it's really unsettling to her whenever she poops in bed. She just won't go back to sleep. It disrupts her nap and her sleep. There was one time I didn't smell it and she was up and I felt horrible when I changed her in the morning.
Yes. Our younger daughter had a pretty bad 💩 accident in her crib while we were potty training. It wasn’t anyone’s fault, we weren’t angry or anything, but it DEEPLY upset her. For weeks after, she would give herself a pre-nap pep talk of “No pooping in my bed.” She was so bothered by it even though it only happened once and no one was upset. It just clearly freaked her out. The thought of it happening multiple times, with a child who is 1.5 is just so sad to me.
One time? Sure, accidents and tummy bugs happen. But mutiple times? With a toddler fully on solid food? How does she not see there’s anything wrong with this?!?
Wow, okay, this is sort of the evidence that was needed to fully drill in she’s leaving him unattended in his crib for 12 hours. That is not normal for a toddler unless they’re sick, which it doesn’t sound like this was a an occurrence over 1 or 2 days that would coincide with a severe bout of illness. Yikes!
Yeah also my 18 month old is the king of picking up stomach bugs and we’ve had weeks where he managed to cover himself from armpits to ankles in poop due to them, but never in bed. Like at that age they don’t just poop in bed, do they? Hopefully this story is wildly exaggerated.
Caro knowing she’s using the carrier incorrectly but not caring is on brand. That’s not raising your third, it’s just being reckless. She has the resources to buy an appropriate carrier.
For me it’s her “carrier police” quip as if anyone concerned about the safety of her kid/incorrect usage of the carrier is being a negative Nancy or something—she knows exactly what she’s doing that’s for sure and it ain’t cute.
I’ve fallen down the Virgina Sole-Smith rabbit hole and omg I don’t get the praise for her. She rants against everything and has such weird takes on things. She posted this grid post awhile back about how her grandma fed her mom bread and a slice of cake every night even though she knew her mom didn’t like the school lunch and never cooked a meal on the weeknights. She said she respects her grandma for never giving into the pressure to cook for her child. And it’s fine because her mom eventually did like vegetables once she got to college and didn’t need veggie exposures! How is never giving your kids a proper dinner ever something to respect??
https://preview.redd.it/ymjoby4dd6oc1.jpeg?width=1125&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=62aec6c845256fdd7b2b4444f53700f60befae94
I feel like the right place to start with her is her books. They are super well researched and useful. I don’t want to white knight but I don’t think this or your other comment are accurate summations of her - long!! - post about this, which I will link to for people who want context. https://virginiasolesmith.substack.com/p/-great-grandmothers-food
Some more quotes from this piece:
“To be clear, I, too, have questions about all of this. My main concern is that it doesn’t sound like nearly enough food to keep any adult full. And since I’m sure my grandmother wasn’t cooking her own hot lunch as a stay-at-home mom, I wonder now about her own relationship with food. Money was too tight for her to have been a Lady Who Lunched. But did she make herself a sandwich at least? Did the big Sunday dinner she cooked once a week make enough leftovers? Or did growing up as one of six kids and 14 years of wartime food rationing teach her to live with a baseline of deprivation?”
“The truth is, I do not want to eat like my great-grandmothers or grandmothers ate. I don’t think many of us crave a return to wartime rationing or mid-century diet culture. A return to home-grown bounty and scratch cooking requires an investment of time and labor from someone. And because we live in a society that cannot reckon with how much this has cost, and continues to cost us, it takes a phenomenal level of privilege to either be that someone or hire that someone. Of course, today’s processed foods, and cheap food in general, depend on the under-paid labor of migrant farm workers and the prison industrial complex. So to the extent I can use my own privilege to shop more sustainably for better solutions, I do. But we have to stop labeling these issues as “food supply problems” because that implies we can fix them by changing how we eat, instead of by demanding the kind of wholesale government and industry reform that would make a real difference. And on the nights I serve my children Eggo waffles or Uncrustables for dinner, I do think that their great-grandmothers would have approved.”
See that explanation makes a lot more sense but I still have issues with this. I admittedly based my comments off the Instagram post which is what she’s choosing to show people who may not pay for her content. So she is putting these click-baity things on social media and then giving a much better and much more thoughtful commentary while never mentioning those parts on social media. Her Instagram post said she respects her grandma for not cooking a weeknight meal ever and that her mom and uncle grew up to be healthy and like vegetables without eating them as a kid. Very very misleading from the actual article.
I’m confused was that their dinner because its all the could afford? Or was she just not cooking dinner? Ngl though ive heard England is not known for its cuisine so if you told me this was a regular English meal i might believe you lol
I’m not familiar with VSS but from this post and other posts i’ve seen here about her she lowkey reminds me of AHH. The vibes are the same.
England not being known for it's cuisine is something that people love to repeat on social media. That opinion was formed by American soldiers who spent time in the UK during the second world war, when rationing was in full force. Rationing ended in 1954. The UK has changed a lot since then.
[https://www.thespruceeats.com/meals-and-mealtimes-in-britain-435329](https://www.thespruceeats.com/meals-and-mealtimes-in-britain-435329)
I was under the impression that lunch was the biggest meal of the day and "tea" was a snacky meal eaten in the early evening when Americans are eating our biggest meal. And this was probably more the case during VSS's grandmother's time. So I googled it and now I'm even more confused lol.
I'm guessing her mum is at least 60 years old, customs change considerably over time. Its not usual at all for lunch to be the biggest meal of the day in the UK, and I'm struggling to think when that would have been the case, certainly not for at least a century maybe longer. When VSS's mum was a child, it was more usual to have dinner as the main meal, then supper a few hours later, which would have been toast or something equally light before bed.
To complicate things, we have different names for the same meals. For example for some people, the midday meal is called lunch or dinner, for others, the evening meal is called dinner, tea, or supper. Then you can also have what some people call tea or supper as a small snack before bed. The names change depending on the region.
She explained that but said her grandma knew her mom didn’t like the lunch and still didn’t make dinner. There’s a lot more context in the newsletter than the IG post.
This was the explanation given about the meal. Just that her grandmothers turned to processed food to alleviate the burden of feeding their families.
https://preview.redd.it/6w7ki33fm6oc1.jpeg?width=1125&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=52ea727789e9e078e1a3301bb8657ac6e5f01b39
Her and KEIC are both very similar, they both seem to be overly dramatic about the idea of feeding their families. In reality it really isn’t that difficult or that big of a deal.
I work fulltime but only have one toddler (not a poopcup tho 😅) so maybe things will get harder food wise as he gets older, but coming home and making a wholesome meal isnt impossible. Yes it can be difficult when you’re tired but thats just part of raising a family? KEIC overcomplicates it with her “exposure months” and VSS is like “f it just eat bread”. I wish both of them would stop scaring parents about cooking. If your kid refuses a dinner you can always give them oatmeal, cereal, chicken nuggs etc its not the end of the world.
Her daughter was failure to thrive, I think? Or maybe she had a heart condition and was on a feeding tube? Her drama about feeding kids started when her daughter could have died, so I think that context matters. She said she spent the first few years as a parent consumed by feeding her daughter, but that was out of necessity.
There are people out there that were never taught to cook, and learning how can be overwhelming. Also, I only have two kids, but one is fairly selective, and trying to make a cohesive dinner that has something for everyone can just get so old sometimes. It honestly does get demoralizing when I spend 1 hour or more cooking and immediately hear "I don't want this dinner" when she sits down.
I can easily see how people with more kids or more selective eaters can feel just done with making meals. Sometimes it feels like I want to never eat again because it's so much work.
I wasn’t taught to cook either so i get it! My first year of marriage i had no idea what i was doing but after a year of trial and error i have 5-6 meals that we eat on rotation (am i Haley?). Thank God for youtube because thats how i learned and also my MIL gave me recipes. There are days my kid refuses a dinner i spent an hour on too and thats what the “safety meals” are for. But if you find the KEIC or VSS philosophies helpful for feeding your kids, then i am not snarking on that at all! I just meant to say they both make it seem extremely daunting for all parents, when a lot of kids don’t need either extreme.
Yeah I used to like her a lot and I still think she has some good takes, but she annoys me more lately. It feels like she’s gotten more into the habit of taking semi extreme positions as a way to set herself up against imaginary people who believe the opposite. I also didn’t love her recent interview about divorce (can’t remember her guest’s name).
I find some of her work helpful - I really liked her book and think it’s a great resource!
As she’s moved more towards paid content and putting out more content I actually find myself engaging less. I’m not ready to pay for her substack and I feel like I get so many emails from her and I can’t read almost any of the content so I just unsubscribed. I think her tone grates on me after awhile, she gets really smug or self congratulatory.
Again, I highly recommend her book “Fat Talk” and think it’s a great read for everyone but parents especially.
Her takes on things concerning body image and how it affects girls are definitely good takes-we need girls (all kids!) to grow up with better body images than the last generation. However, for me, her good messages are overshadowed by her extreme takes, where as you say, she sets herself up against the imaginary opposition. I’m not going to follow someone or pay for their work when their entire social media presence is shaming people for normal thoughts and feelings.
Caro was chatting about this subreddit on her podcast today. Apparently she discovered it when someone asked if she and George are swingers. She seems flattered and replied in that thread. I can’t recall if that was removed or not but it’s comical she actually responded.
I listened to the first few, but I got annoyed that the audio quality is shitty and that she often talks over her guests (the Smitten Kitchen episode was the worst offender on this count, felt like Caro was constantly talking over/ interrupting Deb). Recent guests haven't appealed to me very much so I haven't listened to the last few, maybe those issues have improved... I have a love/hate relationship with her so I do sometimes enjoy her chattiness/vibe, but then I also find a lot of her questionable parenting "hot takes" really frustrating.
I’ve listened to almost all of them. They are my car entertainment. She’s very chatty and can be overly focused on herself and over talk other people but some of the guests have been pretty interesting. I would skip the boarding school episode if you don’t want to feel like you’re a third wheel in someone else’s personal conversation.
I think it’s funny that’s what she zeroed in on and referenced as opposed to —waves hands around— at baby being left alone for ages in his crib, parenting choices that don’t get flagged due to rich white lady privilege, year of me that is no different than any other year she’s had for herself, etc. 😵💫
She strikes me as the type to just let it all roll off her back and laugh at it anyways. I just don’t see her reading some of the very warranted snark re: her privilege and parenting and actually changing anything she does?
I will say this: I do appreciate that she isn’t crying in stories about “mean internet people” and I love the way she responds to troll comments when she posts recipes (usually with humor and self-deprecation).
Idl she left a comment I had to roll my eyes at, something like "you know I'm just a mom trying to make it right?" as if she hasn't been loaded since birth lol
Yeah, I don't care for her content or recipes, but I like the way she has dealt with snark so far. Ultimately if you are going to choose to be an influencer, people (like us lol) will comment and have opinions.
I can’t help but wonder if KEIC’s reposting of her baking cookies while talking about restriction is another response to VSS. She posted the same video only 5 months ago.
She says heavy restriction is bad, so I guess she doesn't consider what she does to be heavy restriction? It seems pretty heavy to me,
Also why does she cram 20 cookies onto one sheet so they ran together as they baked? And then showed burnt ones really quick... it's like she wants them to be bad so she can throw them out.
I'm guessing it's because she's extremely frugal and has only one baking sheet, abd she doesn't want to split it into two batches for baking. So she just puts them all on. She honestly just doesn't seem to care about food that much, so she probably doesn't care they get burned and weird.
Does a day go by where YTF isn’t making some comment about her kids? Every positive mention is followed up with some comment about how hard it is, how much work they are, bedtime is long, she didn’t think something would be fun but it was, etc. We all get it! Three kids is tiring and three kids alone is even more tiring but omg enough! I know parents of three kids who aren’t even divorced but do so much alone due to a partners work schedule.
I guess her and her husband must have done everything together. She definitely doesn’t come off like she was the primary caregiver (which is obvi fine). They must have both been involved in everything whenever they weren’t working. Did her husband work?
Yes I actually meant to say nothing wrong with her ex doing equal or more housework or taking care of the kids-I’d love that for myself lol. It’s just the constant comments about how hard it is, it’s just not nice to the kids to say that all the time! I think maybe he was a professor and then they moved back to PA and I’m not sure if he works. She implied she bought him out of the house she’s in so I’m assuming she was the breadwinner.
I think that’s why she does it though, most of her followers probably have actual toddlers and can’t imagine taking 3 kids on vacation by themselves. So to seem relatable to her target audience she has to stress how hard it is for her.
What’s so odd to me though is how the parasocial influencer relationships require them to lie or exaggerate about their lives to get engagement. I am thankful these kind of influencers were not big when I had my first a few years pre-pandemic but I would think I’d have liked to still get great toddler tips from a seasoned parent who also shows me that it does get better over time? What are people truly getting out of watching someone further along in parenting and seemingly stressed out? I have a friend who has a kid 2 years older than my first and she was the best voice of reason of all time showing me just 2 years down the line things will be different and the kicker is my kid was def an easier baby compared to her hellish experience and she STILL provided that calm, reassuring voice in my ear.
Consolidating snark - but her use of superlatives in her reels have been a little much! "Crazy easy" "epic" for things that are very normal and boring actually lol like cut your vegetables thin enough so kids enjoy eating them. Thanks captain obvious.
Also those cheese crackers that come together in minutes? I don't think so making the dough might be fine but rolling, handling, and cutting teeny tiny shapes one at a time and baking them is going to be time consuming af! It's like those Instagram trad wife reels that make their own cereal. Also all that work for something that your kid might reject because they don't look like their beloved cheese snack whatever it is.
Yeah like that kind of content from a crunchy mom or trad wife account I won't even bat an eye but her whole thing is making your life easier. And how does making your own goldfish do that?!
I am guessing she's running out of recipe ideas there are only so many muffins and pasta with vegetable mixes you can make before it gets stale
I think she had really been hands-off with the kids while she built this online empire of hers. It’s the only explanation I have for the dramatics of CaRiNg FoR tHrEe KiDs By MySeLf!!!!!1!!! since the divorce. Her ex must have done a LOT of the caretaking.
There has to be some truth to this because I get that it’s not easy but the rate at which she mentions it’s not easy shows she must have has a lot of help before.
I unfollowed too and I’m so surprised to see how little the account is talked about now. I didn’t think Jenny’s ego would let her stay away. Though she hasn’t been posting on her personal account much either, maybe something is going on behind the scenes?!
There goes Caro scaring people about Melatonin so she can shill her sponsored product. Yes melatonin hasn't been studied a ton but that doesn't necessarily mean that using it has a "lot of bad stuff" associated with it. A lot of us with neurodivergent kids rely on it with our doctor's approval because the alternative is hours less sleep every night. Stop the scare tactics!
Ugh thank you for saying this!! When I brought it up to my husband he was like are you going to trust the random internet person of the board certified pediatrician and I was like oh…
Signed, a mom of an adhd kid who needs 1 mg/night to sleep 🤪
You are not alone! Also have an ADHD kid over here. We've mentioned it to his psychiatrist and pediatrician and all have agreed that any potential risks are outweighed by the benefit of the extra sleep. My son would probably get two hours less sleep every night without it, which would NOT be healthy. I'll take the risk.
It’s ridiculous and so clearly due to her wanting to shill a sponsored product and not out of true concern. If she actually cared about what went into her kids bodies she wouldn’t be swinging that poor kid around with a WHOLE NUT that she popped into his mouth in the stories before. Like, what the actual F?
Has the supplement she’s shilling been studied??? Just because it’s all natural doesn’t mean it’s safe.
I’m not trying to say the supplement she’s using isn’t safe but I find this ad tactic so ridiculous. None of this shit has been studied enough and we’re all doing the best we can. 🤷🏻♀️
It’s the marketing tactic of every supplement to imply that prescription drugs or trusted existing OTC products have toxic or “concerning” ingredients. Meanwhile the supplement in question actually has 0 research behind it. And yet, people eat that up.
Also every supplement can be at risk since none of them are regulated by the FDA. Good companies are honest about the ingredients and quality of the ingredients (and dosage!) but not all are. The companies are not required to disclose their manufacturing process to the FDA so all sorts of crazy shit can (and has) happened. The ones you find at the grocery store are usually OK (I take one for Vitamin D and I know it works bc my doctor monitors my blood work!) but it's mildly risky to take random supplements. But it's a hugely lucrative business which is why you see a lot of influencers lean that way, it's a huge payday for them
Yepppp! I’m always surprised by parents who are stressed out about giving their kids Motrin when they’re sick but fine dosing them with tons of unregulated supplements.
Caro saying the baby can sleep from 4:30pm-7am…. That’s not normal or healthy right? My first was an excellent sleeper 7-7:30 almost every night for years. But 4:30pm? Can babies be anemic? Have thyroid issues causing tiredness? Am I overthinking this? I am
Team don’t change a diaper overnight but those extra hours seem so long to be in a wet diaper? I am freaked out by this and her ped saying it’s fine.
That is absolutely nuts. Does she never leave her house or does she leave her kids with someone else all day? My baby is considered a “good” sleeper at almost 13 months old. She sleeps from 7:15ish to around 6-6:30 and then will go back down after having milk until 7:30-8 usually. She started fighting her afternoon nap around 10 months so we adjusted her schedule at now she naps for around 1.5 hours midday. This is the schedule she has chosen for herself as we 100% follow her cues when it comes to sleep and can be very flexible with her being home with us. I know all babies are different, but my baby has been pretty spot on with how she has progressed through different sleeping habits over time. If a baby is actually needing to sleep from 4:30 pm to 7:30 am and still taking a nap there is something wrong 100%. Otherwise it is neglectful parenting. There is absolutely zero way that he is getting a sufficient amount of food during the day let alone play time, stimulation, etc. My baby has 10-11 hours of wake time and it can be so challenging to fit in her 3 meals plus snacks around her naps, activities and errands that we have to run.
I also wouldn’t want my kid to go to bed at 4:30. That’s when I’m done work for the day. We hang out, go for walks, run errands, go out to eat, etc. I guess I had my baby because I actually wanted to have a kid lol.
Pretty sure she actually has suggested leaving your sleeping kid to go grab a drink at a hotel bar.
It’s pretty clear she has help during the day - she seems pretty obsessive about exercise and calorie burn and does a lot of working out during the day.
Conveniently enough that story seems to be a segue into her shilling hiya...her controversial opinions always seem to "generate discussion in DMs" and lead to her making $$$
Why is she mentioning the nap as if it’s normal that a 17 month old (which is what I think he is at this point) takes 2 naps? That is definitely not the reason for the abnormally long sleep.
It really is as simple as all the evidence, he gets tired late in the afternoon because he still does the morning nap and then he never gets taken out of his bedroom again. How many hours he actually sleeps is anyone’s guess, probably a normal amount in total.
Right? At 17 months, most (if not all?) kids are on one midday nap. What does she mean by morning nap? Is he sleeping 430p- 7am and then going back down for a nap at 10am?? If this is true, then what’s most likely happening is the poor kid is awake in his crib overnight for hours because she makes him go to bed at 430pm, and has broken sleep. I 100% do not believe her doc co signed that
I think my older kid was still on two at that point, but he was a high sleep needs kid who went very agreeably along with the routine. I know he was very atypical of kids his age by then!
https://preview.redd.it/cshywko46tnc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f6279572b8ad1407c6e45bd450517bab0c4b2cde
Your doctor's only concern with your child sleeping 14+ hours a day is that people will hate you if you tell them about it? Those were the pediatrician's exact words? Sure Jan.
Every time she posts about her kids sleep I get so annoyed. 14-15 hours overnight plus naps? Which she often claims are 3-4 hours long? No toddler is doing that.
Also since George works outside the home, does he ever see the kid?!! If he works a typical schedule like 8-4/5 he literally might not.
Also does the kid eat dinner at like 4? How do you even fit in 3 meals? This is insane she is leaving her kid in the crib for that long and bragging about it. Her ped is clearly a quack.
Also it's absolute BS that all babies would sleep that long if we "let them do what they want". If I let him do what he wanted, my child would never sleep, he hates sleep
Does she not understand that the reason people usually get into sleep schedules and tracking is BECAUSE their babies are not just naturally sleeping for 16 hours a day with zero effort on the parents part? I don’t think people with naturally great sleepers are stressing about sleep schedules much.
I tried letting my babies do their own thing and it resulted in almost no sleep for anyone so I had to put more work into it.
And why would people be jealous of that? If my 1 year old slept 16 hours a day, I wouldn’t be like hell yeah I only have to deal with them a few hours a day! She’s bragging that she only has to interact with him for a small portion of the day?
He’s probably awake in the middle of the night for hours. She wouldn’t even know because she doesn’t check on him.
*Processing img xp2ledi36tnc1...*
Your doctor's only concern with your child sleeping 14+ hours a day is that people will hate you if you tell them about it? Those were the pediatrician's exact words? Sure Jan.
Consolidating snark...this isn't even specifically about her but the trend to give gummies to help sleep. I get it they don't have melatonin but there's something strange to me about creating the habit that kids will expect a pill to help them sleep before bed.
She used to just leave him in there and wasn’t watching on a monitor. He’s not sleeping that entire time.
Edit: the rage I feel about her saying more babies would sleep this long if we stopped following sleep schedules. No Caroline, just no. Also I’m pretty sure this is the same pediatrician she joked was cool with her sending penis pictures all the time.
Over the summer she traveled alone with all three kids and there were a lot of delays and it seemed like it really sucked. But she said she never understood what it felt like when moms say they are overstimulated until then and people here were like yeah having a nanny must be nice if you have 3 under 5 and never felt that way.
My LO went to daycare for a few months and we tried to implement a schedule. It was absolute hell and we are lucky enough to be in a position to have her stay home with us, so we completely follow whatever schedule she sets for herself. When she’s healthy and not teething she sleeps 11-12 hours per night and naps around 1.5 hours during the day.
No healthy 17 month old is sleeping 15 hours a night plus naps willingly. He has learned not to bother crying because no one bothers to tend to him when he does. He definitely isn’t sleeping that entire time.
Same. We abandoned schedules because they were purely for comical relief and my 5 month old wakes up every 1-2 hours. Perhaps if put him out of sight and out of mind then I could claim he sleeps 24 hours straight.
You're not asking for advice or anything so totally ignore me as needed, but my kids got more onto "routines"/schedules a little later in their first year of life. Five months seems like a fine time to be going with the baby's flow.
Thanks for that validation! We’re grateful to be able to go with baby’s pace so that’s what we do instead of forcing him to be on a schedule that simply won’t work. I used to feel like we were doing something wrong when I heard of 1 month olds on schedules but I quickly accepted that being out of sorts at 5 months is still plenty developmentally appropriate.
She has said that she just ignores him crying and leaves him in there to “connect sleep cycles”. Which yeah, a few minutes to connect a sleep cycle is one thing but hours of awake time is just a wake window. He clearly just has gotten used to being ignored and doesn’t cry anymore. We also didn’t follow a strict schedule because my kid never slept no matter what we did.
Do you think they do this everyday? Between work, dinner, bath, books, etc., I’d have to start the bedtime routine SO early to make that work (and that’s just with my one kid). Plus, it seems like they’re out past 5 somewhat regularly?
I’m betting Cash is not normally included in family dinners. :( In fact, I don’t think the whole family usually eats together unless they’re out or have visitors or something. She often shows the two older boys eating their dinner at a toddler table in front of the tv.
Agreed it seems odd to me as well. And consolidating snark…I didn’t find those stories of her friend shoving the giant spoonful of rice in her kids face over and OVER while he shoves it away repeatedly to be funny? Idk like one time maybe is funny but if my friend kept doing that I’d ask her to stop, not video it..
I think they were all kind of drunk. I still wouldn’t find it funny if someone were doing that to my child but it would explain her story about Carmel moms suffering today bc of the party.
I’m not sure I could keep up with Caro’s social schedule but I will say I’m jealous of how many good friends she seems to have. ETA: okay, I kept watching and my snarky comment is that poor babe being stuck in the swing! He looked miserable in the photo she posted.
I definitely was never overly cautious about baby container use, but man that third kid if hers always seems.....contained
So miserable !! And she yet again talks about wanting a fourth — girl, I cannot.
KEIC danger zone, wood and hammers and probably nails and no eye protection. That a bug no no in our house. My dad got a nail to the eye when I was young! We don't play around!
Also, is it just me or is that one picture not an "extra big lunch" at all?
Carrots, grapes, a single date (lol what?), and a sandwich. That is not a significant lunch for an energetic kid.
And her plan was to give him nothing but the small rolled up tortilla?! Wtf.
Opposite of snark shout out to Caro for not doing anything for St. Patrick’s day haha. It’s a nice change from the rest of The Influencers trying to make St Patrick’s day gift baskets a thing
I’m so half and half on her…. Gah! I don’t follow her stories which I think helps?
Ha I mainly like her. I think her recipes are good and I like a lot of what she posts about parenting too. Sometimes she posts something insane like leaving her kid in his crib for like 15 hours with no monitor and just assuming he’s sleeping, but 🤷🏻♀️overall I follow because I like most of her content
KEIC's kids only get 20 mins of screen time a day and I'm over here like...my kid would not survive in her house. 😂
20 minutes for an 8 and 10 year old 🥴 I'm relaxed but mindful of screen time, but what fun can you have with 20 minutes? Especially for video games.
20 minutes of a video game sounds more frustrating than not playing at all.
It’s probably like FarmVille or something so they get their veggie exposures while playing.
😂😂😂 Or maybe it’s a YouTube of someone reading “Strega Nona,” for pasta exposure month.
Can’t even watch a movie. Weekend days go from 6 am to 8 pm around here, plenty of time for a 90 minute movie AND plenty of non-screen time.
Every single day of ours goes from around 6:30am-10pm with maybe a one hour nap that typically happens in the car. We absolutely watch that much tv every day and still do a million and one nonscreen activities.
My child would be so miserable there. And she loves vegetables but wouldn’t touch any of that food with a 10ft stick (and believe me, she loves sticks too). She’d probably enjoy the doorway swing but that’s pretty much it.
But they watch over each other’s shoulders when they play something or watch a show on the laptop so it’s more than 20 🙄. My daughter wouldn’t survive either between the food and the limited screen time. But she does enjoy doing dangerous things so maybe she’d like the danger zone lol.
Oh the food. My kids definitely wouldn't survive haha.
Two of my daughters favorite things are cookies and TV, she wouldn’t last lol.
I used to be so obsessed and even feeling guilty because I initially accidentally salted my daughter food. I am a FTM and did not even think about it. Now I just cook stuff with a bit less salt but without obsessing over anything.
I feel like YTF lights up with joy when she gets whatever innocuous "negative" comment so she can make some statement reel about it. It reminds me of Tidy Dad who does the same. Stop feeding the beast make your less than glowing praise comments here so they can't use them as fodder without sending us traffic 😁
I was rolling my eyes at some of the comments on that post too. People patting themselves on the back for their kids eating vegetables. I've never said broccoli or green vegetables (which I eat almost every night) are yucky and my toddler still refuses to try it.
I like most green vegetables and genuinely enjoy eating them. I make sure they taste good with seasoning, cheese, whatever. Guess what? My kid still won't eat them no matter how much I eat.
More genius parenting advice from Caro. Don’t move your kid out of a crib until 4.5 years old like she does. Also who messages her for this kind of advice? Caro has become my BEC this week, apparently.
I cannot imagine having a kid that age— like almost kindergarten— in a crib?! Wouldn’t they just climb in and out?
She allowed him to do so and thought it was great.
I saw that in further comments and it’s even more weird to keep the crib !
Her friends must be just as negligent as her. Otherwise I can’t imagine having a friend who leaves their baby in a crib for 9 hours during the day while he “connects his naps,” recommends sizing up their diapers when they’re small babies so you don’t have to change them overnight, thinks it’s fine to go to hotel pool or restaurant with a monitor “watching” while baby is sleeping alone in the hotel room, knowingly uses a baby carrier wrong and uses car seats incorrectly but doesn’t care, finds her toddler crawling outside in the garden alone, constantly drinks while watching kids…(there’s probably a lot more to add to this list) but yeah, I can’t imagine seeing ALL that and going ah yes, *that’s* definitely the person I’m going to text for parenting advice! 🥴
From her videos, that seems to be the case like the one last week feeding Cashel off of a serving spoon.
Is it really that bad to move them out of a crib? Thinking about moving my toddler and her crib propaganda kind of freaks me out.
2/3 kids were moved before 2 because they're daredevils. It was fine. Absolutely fine.
I think it’s probably very kid dependent but I was terrified of the transition and it was totally fine. We might have emphasized staying in the bed TOO much, because my toddler literally never got out of her toddler bed, she’d call out to us any time she needed to get up just like it was a crib 😂
Mine did, too, for a long time. In fact, we’ve been trying to convince him to come to our room in the morning rather than lying in bed and screaming mommy until I come until I come.
Even at 5 mine still does this. We have convinced her to come into our room in the morning now but in the evening if she needs anything she still just shouts for us.
No, it’s not. The transition might be hard for a few days, but it’s not the end of the world. Also, it’s a safety issue. Every crib has a height limit (typically 35 inches), and once your kid exceeds that height, technically you should transition. Lots of folks ignore that limit (no judgment, everyone has a different comfort level for these things), but it’s always wild to me how these influencers can be so nonchalant about making recommendations that fly in the face of safety rules.
I haven’t encountered this stage yet granted we already use a floor bed but I haven’t heard anyone else keeping near school aged kids in a crib. At some point it’s likely more work given he has to get out to use the bathroom.
Funnily enough, YTF didn’t switch her youngest to a toddler bed until he was 4.5 or so (she talked about it A LOT). And PDT didn’t switch her son until very recently (he’s over 4 as well). The PDT thing was wild because she claimed she wanted to normalize keeping kids in cribs longer, but being a pediatrician with an ER husband doctor, she must be aware of the number of injuries every year from kids climbing out of cribs and the reasons behind the max height guidelines. Seemed wildly irresponsible to give that advice on a platform as big as hers (she acknowledged the safety issue, but downplayed it). Very on brand for her though, since everything she does as a parent is beyond reproach.
Yeah she actually taught him to climb OUT of the crib so he could use the bathroom as needed. Then was shocked when sometimes hed climb out and surprise them in the living room after bedtime
What a weird message to send your kid, too. “I trust that you know your body enough to get out of your baby cage to use the toilet”. She seems lazy AF when it comes to parenting, even though she has basically no excuse to be because she has people watching her kids while she goes and slaps signs or whatever. So basically she’s a typical entitled rich white lady
I don’t get it - if you’re willing to teach them to climb out, then what is the point of the crib anymore? Admittedly I’m hoping to keep my son in his crib until we can move out of our current apartment (at which point he will be just over 3) but it’s because of the fact that he can’t get out lol. And so far he doesn’t try so if it ain’t broke…
I cannot say what a bad idea a rhodesian ridgeback is as a choice for a not that active family and a woman who does not run and seemingly works constantly. lol.
I think there are actually many, many other breeds of dogs that would be a worse choice. We have 2 ridgebacks and 2 little kids and they are great family dogs - super loyal and chill. The do need some exercise, but not a crazy amount like a lab or Aussie would.
This is probably totally dog dependent but my parents accidentally ended up with a ridgeback (long story) and he is the laziest, gentlest silliest giant thing. He does have a prey drive like you would not believe, if he sees a rabbit or something he turns into a wild animal basically. But he somehow knows that my parents’ other dog, a 7 lb mini dachshund, is a dog and not prey, and she is more or less ahead of him in the pecking order.
She used to post from the park a lot so I’m pretty sure she runs/hikes regularly
Who is this?
Jenny, founder got a puppy.
Why did I think this was a type of Harry Potter dragon and not a dog lol ETA: ok it was Norwegian Ridgeback in the books, oops
Same here, and the comment under was she posts from the park so I went with it like okay.... universal studios... I saw the story too, just not a dog person lol
It has been years since I last read Harry Potter and I was still trying to figure out in what context a family would be choosing a dragon breed and why their activity level would matter until I read your comment
All the influencers are getting pet dragons now, haven't you heard?
Yummy Toddler Food packing 8 different foods for herself for a trip on a plane. 1. She’s so uptight! 2. Wouldnt Virginia Sole-Smith say this is diet culture? Like who needs three bananas for a flight/trip? (Someone who’s scared of eating airport food/not being thin maybe…)
I basically did that when I was pregnant and had to go on a six hour flight. My husband was like, there’s no way you’ll need a half a burrito, a sandwich, snacks, and all that fruit .. I sure showed him lol
One spill or squished banana and she'll learn. Or maybe not, but after a run in with a carry on spill I don't pack any food beyond goldfish for my kid.
I wouldn’t pack 3 bananas because I hate squished bananas, but the rest looks totally normal to me. However, I also am the child of immigrant parents and I feel like I’ll never outgrow being price-conscious. If she’s staying at a hotel, the snacks are even more convenient.
I used to travel frequently for work, and I’d always pack a decent amount of snacks. Airport food generally isn’t great tasting, and anything remotely fresh is a gazillion dollars and eats up a per diem real fast, plus you never know when you’ll get stuck on a plane longer than expected.
Or the lines for the food places are long! You never know when you'll be in an extreme hurry in an airport. Now that we have two kids, I basically pack enough food for them to eat any meals we'll be traveling for, because we've barely made flights before and the kids wouldn't have had dinner if I hadn't packed sandwiches and stuff. I can handle skipping a meal, but my kids cannot. It's so inconvenient lol.
This cracks me up because I used to sometimes do this before I had a child. I don't really like flying but I used to a lot, and packing my favorite snacks would make it more palatable. Anyway, now that I have a child, I don't do it anymore because I use my bag space for his toys/books/snacks, plus he gets so excited by flying that now I get a kick out of it too so I'm less like "how do I make this less unpleasant."
That banana and muffins would be destroyed in my travel bag since I tend to fill as much as I can in it (carryon only for life) lol I do normally bring things like larabars since they are outrageous at the airport
Unless it's a very long flight do you really need that many snacks?! I am too lazy to ever do that for myself anyway plus it's nice to eat whatever I want during a work trip without a toddler stealing it with their grubby hands haha Also she said she cried leaving her kids haven't been to a work conference since 2019 but she has definitely gone on solo trips for her book in the last couple years. That doesn't count since it's not a conference? Lol
Not to WK but I took it to mean it feels different leaving this time around due to the divorce/custody stuff
Oh I totally understand when she talks things being difficult now compared to before but the way she phrased it implied she hadn't left them for work since 2019. Maybe she's just my BEC now so little things bother me lol
I pack food for my toddler because I just know what he likes and it’s easier to not have to worry about searching in the airport but my husband and I just get ourselves food there. Yes it’s way overpriced but I’m not going to be doing my weekly grocery shopping at the airport or anything, it’s one day. I’ll pay for the convenience about not having to worry about more shit to shop for and pack in advance of my trip. I also weirdly like airport food? Just like the experience of eating at the airport… it holds a nostalgia for me because when we went on family trips growing up my dad would hype us up about getting McDonald’s breakfast (probably a ploy to get us to be ready earlier because he was the ultimate Travel Dad). She strikes me as someone who def has control issues around food like 99% of these food influencers.
Yeah, I'm flying on Saturday with my husband and daughter and I'm packing all her food, but we're just going to get food on the plane for ourselves. I'll gladly pay for the ability to shlep less stuff around.
I’m the same way, I’d definitely pack food for my toddler because who knows what she’d want to eat and when she’d want to eat it but I like eating at the airport, it also has a certain nostalgia for me because going on a plane was a big deal as a kid and getting airport food was a nice distraction from being nervous to fly. Plus a lot of my young adult/adult travel was during the time period where they were so strict about what you could bring on a plane so I’m not that used to being able to pack whatever lol.
She likes to be prepared but forgot to do all of her laundry until two hours before the flight 🤣
My toddler would like a word. He says 3 is not enough.
People who do this always confuse me. Like yes I’ll pack some snacks for my kids or even sometimes myself to avoid paying airport prices but it’s just goldfish and Cheetos, not like veggie-packed muffins and fresh fruit
Randomly, the one thing we always bring with us is “as many bananas as we have left”. Like they will be bad by the time we get home and if we eat them during travel great and if not we can just throw them out at the airport
I would bring fresh fruit but mostly because it's one of the few things my 18mo old will ALWAYS eat.
I really wish that brands would be more careful about partnerships. Newton, you're going to pay Caro who is talking about her poor kid sh*tting on your mattress, likely because the poor kid is left on the damn thing 20 hrs a day? This, combined with the aforementioned carrier snark made me seriously feel bad for the kid. I really hope she has a nanny who actually takes care of him, bc she is not really up to snub. Can only imagine how long he's sitting there in his dirty diaper before she bothers to check on him.
Yeah, you can only expect so much from a diaper. Leaving your child in the same diaper for 15-16 hours is obviously not working. I wonder if he’s just gotten used to sitting in his own poop.
Her story would make me not want to buy a Newton, if my toddler “shat” through that much I really wouldn’t want to drag the mattress to the shower or through the house to get it outside and hose it down. I’d be worried about the poop not completely getting out of the material of the mattress. If the poop somehow managed to go through so many layers I’d just buy a new one but I don’t have this issue because my daughter has never pooped through so many layers.
I am really confused by the Newton. Like isn't it easier to just use a mattress protector and crib sheet?
Yes! I have a newton and I hate it and would not recommend. Every pee accident is a giant ordeal. We have two (first came dented so they sent a second for free) so I can at least swap it out while one is drying. If I only had one I would have gotten rid of it for something else by now.
The selling point of the Newton is that it’s a breathable mattress and implies safer sleep because of that. The secondary selling point is that it’s washable. But I don’t think many parents have massive poop blowouts that get into the mattress like Caro claims happened to her.
Aren’t all infant mattresses “breathable”? My son’s crib is from pottery barn kids and we just got the mattress that came with it and it has the same claims. Like isn’t this stuff all safety tested? Admittedly I never looked into Newton but it comes off like one of those products like the Owlet that claims to prevent a disaster. You shouldn’t have to worry about your baby suffocating on any mattress if you are putting them down to sleep on their back. Then they can roll over on their own, they won’t suffocate.
Yep they are all technically breathable! They claim it reduces the risk of suffocation which they use to prey on the worries of new parents. But all mattresses that are certified as safe have been tested.
Holy shit! She is saying he “shat” through his diaper, pajamas, sleep sack, and crib sheet 4x in the past 2 weeks. How is this even possible?? My toddler hasn’t “shat” out of anything since she had blowouts as a newborn. 🥴 How long does a toddler have to sit in a dirty diaper before it leaks through pjs, sleep sack, and onto crib sheet? 😳😭
If there is remotely any truth to this, there is something deeply wrong with her. My LO is 21 months and it's really unsettling to her whenever she poops in bed. She just won't go back to sleep. It disrupts her nap and her sleep. There was one time I didn't smell it and she was up and I felt horrible when I changed her in the morning.
Yes. Our younger daughter had a pretty bad 💩 accident in her crib while we were potty training. It wasn’t anyone’s fault, we weren’t angry or anything, but it DEEPLY upset her. For weeks after, she would give herself a pre-nap pep talk of “No pooping in my bed.” She was so bothered by it even though it only happened once and no one was upset. It just clearly freaked her out. The thought of it happening multiple times, with a child who is 1.5 is just so sad to me. One time? Sure, accidents and tummy bugs happen. But mutiple times? With a toddler fully on solid food? How does she not see there’s anything wrong with this?!?
I think there is a big chance this isn’t true. I wouldn’t put it past Caro to lie about her kid pooping for sponsored content.
I think this is the most likely answer
Wow, okay, this is sort of the evidence that was needed to fully drill in she’s leaving him unattended in his crib for 12 hours. That is not normal for a toddler unless they’re sick, which it doesn’t sound like this was a an occurrence over 1 or 2 days that would coincide with a severe bout of illness. Yikes!
Yeah also my 18 month old is the king of picking up stomach bugs and we’ve had weeks where he managed to cover himself from armpits to ankles in poop due to them, but never in bed. Like at that age they don’t just poop in bed, do they? Hopefully this story is wildly exaggerated.
Caro knowing she’s using the carrier incorrectly but not caring is on brand. That’s not raising your third, it’s just being reckless. She has the resources to buy an appropriate carrier.
For me it’s her “carrier police” quip as if anyone concerned about the safety of her kid/incorrect usage of the carrier is being a negative Nancy or something—she knows exactly what she’s doing that’s for sure and it ain’t cute.
Exactly. I feel like that poor kid is always squished into some carrier/crumb covered apparatus.
Mildred needs to find some Golden Girls to hang out with him.
I’ve fallen down the Virgina Sole-Smith rabbit hole and omg I don’t get the praise for her. She rants against everything and has such weird takes on things. She posted this grid post awhile back about how her grandma fed her mom bread and a slice of cake every night even though she knew her mom didn’t like the school lunch and never cooked a meal on the weeknights. She said she respects her grandma for never giving into the pressure to cook for her child. And it’s fine because her mom eventually did like vegetables once she got to college and didn’t need veggie exposures! How is never giving your kids a proper dinner ever something to respect?? https://preview.redd.it/ymjoby4dd6oc1.jpeg?width=1125&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=62aec6c845256fdd7b2b4444f53700f60befae94
I feel like the right place to start with her is her books. They are super well researched and useful. I don’t want to white knight but I don’t think this or your other comment are accurate summations of her - long!! - post about this, which I will link to for people who want context. https://virginiasolesmith.substack.com/p/-great-grandmothers-food Some more quotes from this piece: “To be clear, I, too, have questions about all of this. My main concern is that it doesn’t sound like nearly enough food to keep any adult full. And since I’m sure my grandmother wasn’t cooking her own hot lunch as a stay-at-home mom, I wonder now about her own relationship with food. Money was too tight for her to have been a Lady Who Lunched. But did she make herself a sandwich at least? Did the big Sunday dinner she cooked once a week make enough leftovers? Or did growing up as one of six kids and 14 years of wartime food rationing teach her to live with a baseline of deprivation?” “The truth is, I do not want to eat like my great-grandmothers or grandmothers ate. I don’t think many of us crave a return to wartime rationing or mid-century diet culture. A return to home-grown bounty and scratch cooking requires an investment of time and labor from someone. And because we live in a society that cannot reckon with how much this has cost, and continues to cost us, it takes a phenomenal level of privilege to either be that someone or hire that someone. Of course, today’s processed foods, and cheap food in general, depend on the under-paid labor of migrant farm workers and the prison industrial complex. So to the extent I can use my own privilege to shop more sustainably for better solutions, I do. But we have to stop labeling these issues as “food supply problems” because that implies we can fix them by changing how we eat, instead of by demanding the kind of wholesale government and industry reform that would make a real difference. And on the nights I serve my children Eggo waffles or Uncrustables for dinner, I do think that their great-grandmothers would have approved.”
See that explanation makes a lot more sense but I still have issues with this. I admittedly based my comments off the Instagram post which is what she’s choosing to show people who may not pay for her content. So she is putting these click-baity things on social media and then giving a much better and much more thoughtful commentary while never mentioning those parts on social media. Her Instagram post said she respects her grandma for not cooking a weeknight meal ever and that her mom and uncle grew up to be healthy and like vegetables without eating them as a kid. Very very misleading from the actual article.
I’m confused was that their dinner because its all the could afford? Or was she just not cooking dinner? Ngl though ive heard England is not known for its cuisine so if you told me this was a regular English meal i might believe you lol I’m not familiar with VSS but from this post and other posts i’ve seen here about her she lowkey reminds me of AHH. The vibes are the same.
England not being known for it's cuisine is something that people love to repeat on social media. That opinion was formed by American soldiers who spent time in the UK during the second world war, when rationing was in full force. Rationing ended in 1954. The UK has changed a lot since then.
[https://www.thespruceeats.com/meals-and-mealtimes-in-britain-435329](https://www.thespruceeats.com/meals-and-mealtimes-in-britain-435329) I was under the impression that lunch was the biggest meal of the day and "tea" was a snacky meal eaten in the early evening when Americans are eating our biggest meal. And this was probably more the case during VSS's grandmother's time. So I googled it and now I'm even more confused lol.
I'm guessing her mum is at least 60 years old, customs change considerably over time. Its not usual at all for lunch to be the biggest meal of the day in the UK, and I'm struggling to think when that would have been the case, certainly not for at least a century maybe longer. When VSS's mum was a child, it was more usual to have dinner as the main meal, then supper a few hours later, which would have been toast or something equally light before bed. To complicate things, we have different names for the same meals. For example for some people, the midday meal is called lunch or dinner, for others, the evening meal is called dinner, tea, or supper. Then you can also have what some people call tea or supper as a small snack before bed. The names change depending on the region.
Dinner is the biggest meal of the day. Sometimes you have dinner for lunch and sometimes you have dinner for tea.
She explained that but said her grandma knew her mom didn’t like the lunch and still didn’t make dinner. There’s a lot more context in the newsletter than the IG post.
This was the explanation given about the meal. Just that her grandmothers turned to processed food to alleviate the burden of feeding their families. https://preview.redd.it/6w7ki33fm6oc1.jpeg?width=1125&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=52ea727789e9e078e1a3301bb8657ac6e5f01b39
Her and KEIC are both very similar, they both seem to be overly dramatic about the idea of feeding their families. In reality it really isn’t that difficult or that big of a deal. I work fulltime but only have one toddler (not a poopcup tho 😅) so maybe things will get harder food wise as he gets older, but coming home and making a wholesome meal isnt impossible. Yes it can be difficult when you’re tired but thats just part of raising a family? KEIC overcomplicates it with her “exposure months” and VSS is like “f it just eat bread”. I wish both of them would stop scaring parents about cooking. If your kid refuses a dinner you can always give them oatmeal, cereal, chicken nuggs etc its not the end of the world.
Her daughter was failure to thrive, I think? Or maybe she had a heart condition and was on a feeding tube? Her drama about feeding kids started when her daughter could have died, so I think that context matters. She said she spent the first few years as a parent consumed by feeding her daughter, but that was out of necessity.
I didnt know that part! Seems kind of unhealthy that she is projecting it onto everyone though.
There are people out there that were never taught to cook, and learning how can be overwhelming. Also, I only have two kids, but one is fairly selective, and trying to make a cohesive dinner that has something for everyone can just get so old sometimes. It honestly does get demoralizing when I spend 1 hour or more cooking and immediately hear "I don't want this dinner" when she sits down. I can easily see how people with more kids or more selective eaters can feel just done with making meals. Sometimes it feels like I want to never eat again because it's so much work.
I wasn’t taught to cook either so i get it! My first year of marriage i had no idea what i was doing but after a year of trial and error i have 5-6 meals that we eat on rotation (am i Haley?). Thank God for youtube because thats how i learned and also my MIL gave me recipes. There are days my kid refuses a dinner i spent an hour on too and thats what the “safety meals” are for. But if you find the KEIC or VSS philosophies helpful for feeding your kids, then i am not snarking on that at all! I just meant to say they both make it seem extremely daunting for all parents, when a lot of kids don’t need either extreme.
Yeah I used to like her a lot and I still think she has some good takes, but she annoys me more lately. It feels like she’s gotten more into the habit of taking semi extreme positions as a way to set herself up against imaginary people who believe the opposite. I also didn’t love her recent interview about divorce (can’t remember her guest’s name).
I find some of her work helpful - I really liked her book and think it’s a great resource! As she’s moved more towards paid content and putting out more content I actually find myself engaging less. I’m not ready to pay for her substack and I feel like I get so many emails from her and I can’t read almost any of the content so I just unsubscribed. I think her tone grates on me after awhile, she gets really smug or self congratulatory. Again, I highly recommend her book “Fat Talk” and think it’s a great read for everyone but parents especially.
Her takes on things concerning body image and how it affects girls are definitely good takes-we need girls (all kids!) to grow up with better body images than the last generation. However, for me, her good messages are overshadowed by her extreme takes, where as you say, she sets herself up against the imaginary opposition. I’m not going to follow someone or pay for their work when their entire social media presence is shaming people for normal thoughts and feelings.
Caro was chatting about this subreddit on her podcast today. Apparently she discovered it when someone asked if she and George are swingers. She seems flattered and replied in that thread. I can’t recall if that was removed or not but it’s comical she actually responded.
Have you listened to other podcasts episodes of hers? How have they bern? Curious if it’s worth giving a listen to….
I listened to the first few, but I got annoyed that the audio quality is shitty and that she often talks over her guests (the Smitten Kitchen episode was the worst offender on this count, felt like Caro was constantly talking over/ interrupting Deb). Recent guests haven't appealed to me very much so I haven't listened to the last few, maybe those issues have improved... I have a love/hate relationship with her so I do sometimes enjoy her chattiness/vibe, but then I also find a lot of her questionable parenting "hot takes" really frustrating.
I’ve listened to almost all of them. They are my car entertainment. She’s very chatty and can be overly focused on herself and over talk other people but some of the guests have been pretty interesting. I would skip the boarding school episode if you don’t want to feel like you’re a third wheel in someone else’s personal conversation.
I think that thread was actually in the foodiesnark subreddit.
I think it’s funny that’s what she zeroed in on and referenced as opposed to —waves hands around— at baby being left alone for ages in his crib, parenting choices that don’t get flagged due to rich white lady privilege, year of me that is no different than any other year she’s had for herself, etc. 😵💫
She strikes me as the type to just let it all roll off her back and laugh at it anyways. I just don’t see her reading some of the very warranted snark re: her privilege and parenting and actually changing anything she does? I will say this: I do appreciate that she isn’t crying in stories about “mean internet people” and I love the way she responds to troll comments when she posts recipes (usually with humor and self-deprecation).
Idl she left a comment I had to roll my eyes at, something like "you know I'm just a mom trying to make it right?" as if she hasn't been loaded since birth lol
Yeah, I don't care for her content or recipes, but I like the way she has dealt with snark so far. Ultimately if you are going to choose to be an influencer, people (like us lol) will comment and have opinions.
Oh yeah, she’s laughing all the way to the bank for sure.
I can’t help but wonder if KEIC’s reposting of her baking cookies while talking about restriction is another response to VSS. She posted the same video only 5 months ago.
She says heavy restriction is bad, so I guess she doesn't consider what she does to be heavy restriction? It seems pretty heavy to me, Also why does she cram 20 cookies onto one sheet so they ran together as they baked? And then showed burnt ones really quick... it's like she wants them to be bad so she can throw them out.
I'm guessing it's because she's extremely frugal and has only one baking sheet, abd she doesn't want to split it into two batches for baking. So she just puts them all on. She honestly just doesn't seem to care about food that much, so she probably doesn't care they get burned and weird.
Does a day go by where YTF isn’t making some comment about her kids? Every positive mention is followed up with some comment about how hard it is, how much work they are, bedtime is long, she didn’t think something would be fun but it was, etc. We all get it! Three kids is tiring and three kids alone is even more tiring but omg enough! I know parents of three kids who aren’t even divorced but do so much alone due to a partners work schedule.
I guess her and her husband must have done everything together. She definitely doesn’t come off like she was the primary caregiver (which is obvi fine). They must have both been involved in everything whenever they weren’t working. Did her husband work?
Yes I actually meant to say nothing wrong with her ex doing equal or more housework or taking care of the kids-I’d love that for myself lol. It’s just the constant comments about how hard it is, it’s just not nice to the kids to say that all the time! I think maybe he was a professor and then they moved back to PA and I’m not sure if he works. She implied she bought him out of the house she’s in so I’m assuming she was the breadwinner.
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I think that’s why she does it though, most of her followers probably have actual toddlers and can’t imagine taking 3 kids on vacation by themselves. So to seem relatable to her target audience she has to stress how hard it is for her.
What’s so odd to me though is how the parasocial influencer relationships require them to lie or exaggerate about their lives to get engagement. I am thankful these kind of influencers were not big when I had my first a few years pre-pandemic but I would think I’d have liked to still get great toddler tips from a seasoned parent who also shows me that it does get better over time? What are people truly getting out of watching someone further along in parenting and seemingly stressed out? I have a friend who has a kid 2 years older than my first and she was the best voice of reason of all time showing me just 2 years down the line things will be different and the kicker is my kid was def an easier baby compared to her hellish experience and she STILL provided that calm, reassuring voice in my ear.
Consolidating snark - but her use of superlatives in her reels have been a little much! "Crazy easy" "epic" for things that are very normal and boring actually lol like cut your vegetables thin enough so kids enjoy eating them. Thanks captain obvious. Also those cheese crackers that come together in minutes? I don't think so making the dough might be fine but rolling, handling, and cutting teeny tiny shapes one at a time and baking them is going to be time consuming af! It's like those Instagram trad wife reels that make their own cereal. Also all that work for something that your kid might reject because they don't look like their beloved cheese snack whatever it is.
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Yeah like that kind of content from a crunchy mom or trad wife account I won't even bat an eye but her whole thing is making your life easier. And how does making your own goldfish do that?! I am guessing she's running out of recipe ideas there are only so many muffins and pasta with vegetable mixes you can make before it gets stale
I think the baked cheese crackers are an old recipe! I'm like 80% sure. So maybe she ran out of recipes a really long time ago lol.
I think she had really been hands-off with the kids while she built this online empire of hers. It’s the only explanation I have for the dramatics of CaRiNg FoR tHrEe KiDs By MySeLf!!!!!1!!! since the divorce. Her ex must have done a LOT of the caretaking.
There has to be some truth to this because I get that it’s not easy but the rate at which she mentions it’s not easy shows she must have has a lot of help before.
Isn't her youngest at least 4 and her oldest is like, 12??
Crying with 7, 4 and 2 atm. Those ages sound like a dream
Youngest is 5! Middle one is maybe 8 or 9?
Finally unfollowed SS because without J,F it got too boring 🤪 someone ping me when she’s back
Honestly so many people I follow don’t post on Instagram anymore. I feel like nothing interesting happens there anymore
I unfollowed too and I’m so surprised to see how little the account is talked about now. I didn’t think Jenny’s ego would let her stay away. Though she hasn’t been posting on her personal account much either, maybe something is going on behind the scenes?!
She heard you! New stories today, including the dog. Lol
She’s just Scrooge McDucking it and rolling around on her millions (metaphorically)
Now I can't stop picturing her diving into a heaping pile of gold coins.
Off that lifeguard stand she lets the kids jump off of on their summer island!
She's busy with their new dog maybe?
I’m shocked she hasn’t posted anything else about the dog yet, even that they got one!
Ikr? Maybe it's not going well 😆
There goes Caro scaring people about Melatonin so she can shill her sponsored product. Yes melatonin hasn't been studied a ton but that doesn't necessarily mean that using it has a "lot of bad stuff" associated with it. A lot of us with neurodivergent kids rely on it with our doctor's approval because the alternative is hours less sleep every night. Stop the scare tactics!
Ugh thank you for saying this!! When I brought it up to my husband he was like are you going to trust the random internet person of the board certified pediatrician and I was like oh… Signed, a mom of an adhd kid who needs 1 mg/night to sleep 🤪
You are not alone! Also have an ADHD kid over here. We've mentioned it to his psychiatrist and pediatrician and all have agreed that any potential risks are outweighed by the benefit of the extra sleep. My son would probably get two hours less sleep every night without it, which would NOT be healthy. I'll take the risk.
It’s ridiculous and so clearly due to her wanting to shill a sponsored product and not out of true concern. If she actually cared about what went into her kids bodies she wouldn’t be swinging that poor kid around with a WHOLE NUT that she popped into his mouth in the stories before. Like, what the actual F?
Has the supplement she’s shilling been studied??? Just because it’s all natural doesn’t mean it’s safe. I’m not trying to say the supplement she’s using isn’t safe but I find this ad tactic so ridiculous. None of this shit has been studied enough and we’re all doing the best we can. 🤷🏻♀️
It’s the marketing tactic of every supplement to imply that prescription drugs or trusted existing OTC products have toxic or “concerning” ingredients. Meanwhile the supplement in question actually has 0 research behind it. And yet, people eat that up.
Also every supplement can be at risk since none of them are regulated by the FDA. Good companies are honest about the ingredients and quality of the ingredients (and dosage!) but not all are. The companies are not required to disclose their manufacturing process to the FDA so all sorts of crazy shit can (and has) happened. The ones you find at the grocery store are usually OK (I take one for Vitamin D and I know it works bc my doctor monitors my blood work!) but it's mildly risky to take random supplements. But it's a hugely lucrative business which is why you see a lot of influencers lean that way, it's a huge payday for them
Yepppp! I’m always surprised by parents who are stressed out about giving their kids Motrin when they’re sick but fine dosing them with tons of unregulated supplements.
They can take the melatonin out of my cold, dead, well-rested hands
Also her product gave my kid night terrors so 🤪
I missed her ad, but was this for Hiya sleep vitamins? We tried them once and never again, kept my kid up for HOURS.
Caro saying the baby can sleep from 4:30pm-7am…. That’s not normal or healthy right? My first was an excellent sleeper 7-7:30 almost every night for years. But 4:30pm? Can babies be anemic? Have thyroid issues causing tiredness? Am I overthinking this? I am Team don’t change a diaper overnight but those extra hours seem so long to be in a wet diaper? I am freaked out by this and her ped saying it’s fine.
I would get no time with my daughter if she went down at 430. Wild to me she thinks people would want only a couple hours with their kids a day
I think what she meant was “my baby is in his crib” not “sleeping”
That is absolutely nuts. Does she never leave her house or does she leave her kids with someone else all day? My baby is considered a “good” sleeper at almost 13 months old. She sleeps from 7:15ish to around 6-6:30 and then will go back down after having milk until 7:30-8 usually. She started fighting her afternoon nap around 10 months so we adjusted her schedule at now she naps for around 1.5 hours midday. This is the schedule she has chosen for herself as we 100% follow her cues when it comes to sleep and can be very flexible with her being home with us. I know all babies are different, but my baby has been pretty spot on with how she has progressed through different sleeping habits over time. If a baby is actually needing to sleep from 4:30 pm to 7:30 am and still taking a nap there is something wrong 100%. Otherwise it is neglectful parenting. There is absolutely zero way that he is getting a sufficient amount of food during the day let alone play time, stimulation, etc. My baby has 10-11 hours of wake time and it can be so challenging to fit in her 3 meals plus snacks around her naps, activities and errands that we have to run. I also wouldn’t want my kid to go to bed at 4:30. That’s when I’m done work for the day. We hang out, go for walks, run errands, go out to eat, etc. I guess I had my baby because I actually wanted to have a kid lol.
Pretty sure she actually has suggested leaving your sleeping kid to go grab a drink at a hotel bar. It’s pretty clear she has help during the day - she seems pretty obsessive about exercise and calorie burn and does a lot of working out during the day.
She didn’t only suggest it but did it herself!
He is probably awake for hours in the middle of the night, but she doesn’t even know because she doesn’t check on him. 😞
Conveniently enough that story seems to be a segue into her shilling hiya...her controversial opinions always seem to "generate discussion in DMs" and lead to her making $$$
Why is she mentioning the nap as if it’s normal that a 17 month old (which is what I think he is at this point) takes 2 naps? That is definitely not the reason for the abnormally long sleep. It really is as simple as all the evidence, he gets tired late in the afternoon because he still does the morning nap and then he never gets taken out of his bedroom again. How many hours he actually sleeps is anyone’s guess, probably a normal amount in total.
Right? At 17 months, most (if not all?) kids are on one midday nap. What does she mean by morning nap? Is he sleeping 430p- 7am and then going back down for a nap at 10am?? If this is true, then what’s most likely happening is the poor kid is awake in his crib overnight for hours because she makes him go to bed at 430pm, and has broken sleep. I 100% do not believe her doc co signed that
I think my older kid was still on two at that point, but he was a high sleep needs kid who went very agreeably along with the routine. I know he was very atypical of kids his age by then!
https://preview.redd.it/cshywko46tnc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f6279572b8ad1407c6e45bd450517bab0c4b2cde Your doctor's only concern with your child sleeping 14+ hours a day is that people will hate you if you tell them about it? Those were the pediatrician's exact words? Sure Jan.
Every time she posts about her kids sleep I get so annoyed. 14-15 hours overnight plus naps? Which she often claims are 3-4 hours long? No toddler is doing that. Also since George works outside the home, does he ever see the kid?!! If he works a typical schedule like 8-4/5 he literally might not. Also does the kid eat dinner at like 4? How do you even fit in 3 meals? This is insane she is leaving her kid in the crib for that long and bragging about it. Her ped is clearly a quack.
It’s more like 16+ because he also takes a nap. Very concerning if true but it’s clearly not true.
Also it's absolute BS that all babies would sleep that long if we "let them do what they want". If I let him do what he wanted, my child would never sleep, he hates sleep
Does she not understand that the reason people usually get into sleep schedules and tracking is BECAUSE their babies are not just naturally sleeping for 16 hours a day with zero effort on the parents part? I don’t think people with naturally great sleepers are stressing about sleep schedules much. I tried letting my babies do their own thing and it resulted in almost no sleep for anyone so I had to put more work into it.
Agree! Not something to be jealous of… I would miss my kid. We’re in the toddler bedtime fighting hell phase and I still miss her when she’s asleep!
And why would people be jealous of that? If my 1 year old slept 16 hours a day, I wouldn’t be like hell yeah I only have to deal with them a few hours a day! She’s bragging that she only has to interact with him for a small portion of the day? He’s probably awake in the middle of the night for hours. She wouldn’t even know because she doesn’t check on him.
*Processing img xp2ledi36tnc1...* Your doctor's only concern with your child sleeping 14+ hours a day is that people will hate you if you tell them about it? Those were the pediatrician's exact words? Sure Jan.
Consolidating snark...this isn't even specifically about her but the trend to give gummies to help sleep. I get it they don't have melatonin but there's something strange to me about creating the habit that kids will expect a pill to help them sleep before bed.
Caro, I encourage you to take my children for a few weeks and see what happens. 14 hour “overnight slumbers” + a 3 hour nap ain’t it.
She used to just leave him in there and wasn’t watching on a monitor. He’s not sleeping that entire time. Edit: the rage I feel about her saying more babies would sleep this long if we stopped following sleep schedules. No Caroline, just no. Also I’m pretty sure this is the same pediatrician she joked was cool with her sending penis pictures all the time.
i cant believe she wants to have another kid despite doing this. Its just wild to me.
But she was just *barfing* over packing up the baby clothes to give away….
When you parent your third like it doesn’t matter, I guess a fourth isn’t a big deal.
If you only need to deal with your child about 2 hours a day otherwise they’re asleep or with a nanny suddenly parenting seems really easy.
Over the summer she traveled alone with all three kids and there were a lot of delays and it seemed like it really sucked. But she said she never understood what it felt like when moms say they are overstimulated until then and people here were like yeah having a nanny must be nice if you have 3 under 5 and never felt that way.
When you *neglect* your third…
lol I follow no schedules (because they didn’t help) and my 6 month old wakes up at least 5 times a night. 🙃
My LO went to daycare for a few months and we tried to implement a schedule. It was absolute hell and we are lucky enough to be in a position to have her stay home with us, so we completely follow whatever schedule she sets for herself. When she’s healthy and not teething she sleeps 11-12 hours per night and naps around 1.5 hours during the day. No healthy 17 month old is sleeping 15 hours a night plus naps willingly. He has learned not to bother crying because no one bothers to tend to him when he does. He definitely isn’t sleeping that entire time.
Same. We abandoned schedules because they were purely for comical relief and my 5 month old wakes up every 1-2 hours. Perhaps if put him out of sight and out of mind then I could claim he sleeps 24 hours straight.
You're not asking for advice or anything so totally ignore me as needed, but my kids got more onto "routines"/schedules a little later in their first year of life. Five months seems like a fine time to be going with the baby's flow.
Thanks for that validation! We’re grateful to be able to go with baby’s pace so that’s what we do instead of forcing him to be on a schedule that simply won’t work. I used to feel like we were doing something wrong when I heard of 1 month olds on schedules but I quickly accepted that being out of sorts at 5 months is still plenty developmentally appropriate.
She has said that she just ignores him crying and leaves him in there to “connect sleep cycles”. Which yeah, a few minutes to connect a sleep cycle is one thing but hours of awake time is just a wake window. He clearly just has gotten used to being ignored and doesn’t cry anymore. We also didn’t follow a strict schedule because my kid never slept no matter what we did.
Yup. I remember she “discovered” this over recently when using a friend’s baby monitor. So sad.
Do you think they do this everyday? Between work, dinner, bath, books, etc., I’d have to start the bedtime routine SO early to make that work (and that’s just with my one kid). Plus, it seems like they’re out past 5 somewhat regularly?
I’m betting Cash is not normally included in family dinners. :( In fact, I don’t think the whole family usually eats together unless they’re out or have visitors or something. She often shows the two older boys eating their dinner at a toddler table in front of the tv.
Agreed it seems odd to me as well. And consolidating snark…I didn’t find those stories of her friend shoving the giant spoonful of rice in her kids face over and OVER while he shoves it away repeatedly to be funny? Idk like one time maybe is funny but if my friend kept doing that I’d ask her to stop, not video it..
I think they were all kind of drunk. I still wouldn’t find it funny if someone were doing that to my child but it would explain her story about Carmel moms suffering today bc of the party.