Moms w/kids age 5 and under what is your #1 stressor?

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by bmollhag

I think it would help if my mother was still alive but she died about two years before my son was born and I feel so lost...

I went through the same thing. My mother died while I was pregnant with my first. A few weeks before my baby was born, I told my boss I was terrified. She was a nurse anesthetist with 10 children of her own. She reassured me I would be fine, and said they send babies home with intellectually disabled people and their babies thrive. I relied heavily on my eldest sister for advice. She gave me baby books, like What to Expect the First Year and such. I swear that book was my bible for a few months until one day it occurred to me that I had common sense and would be okay. You'll feel more confident in a few months once you start getting some sleep.

[fbw2014]

Originally Posted by Natsku

I have a 3 year old and my biggest stressor is parenting differences with her father. Everything else is pretty fine compared to that. I'm lucky because the laws here mean I don't have to worry about taking time off work when she's sick, I just call and say I'm not coming in and that's that.
More directly related to her, the biggest stressor is worrying about her social skills as she seems to be quite behind other kids her age in that area and I worry that it'll continue like that and she'll have trouble making friends etc.

I had my son is speech therapy when he was about 2 and 1/2 and his therapist would work with him at his daycare. She told me that he had trouble socializing. He would play around other children but not with them. He would just do his own thing. I started doing playdates with his classmates one at a time (it could be overwhelming for them to be around a lot of children). I also took him to the park often. Both helped, especially the park. He would play with the kids on the playground and older kids would help him when he tried to climb and couldn't reach things. He doesn't have any socialization issues anymore. Hopefully some of these things could help your daughter.

[fbw2014]

Originally Posted by bmollhag

My biggest stress of being a parent is just the pressure of taking care of and being completely responsible for another human being's welfare. My son is only four months old and I am still adjusting to the life change. I have this aching feeling that I am not making the right decisions and doing everything wrong. I think it would help if my mother was still alive but she died about two years before my son was born and I feel so lost...

It will be OK. I learned that even when people have more than one child they still feel like they have no clue about what to do with a baby. My brother's girlfriend had 4 children and called my mom for advice about her 5th. I had an 11 year old daughter when I had my son and I was lost too. While its great to have family around for advice we still figure out a lot for ourselves. It may help if you found some mom groups in your area to socialize and bounce things off of. You can get advice and share your mishaps together. There are tons of "I can't believe I did that" and "has this ever happened to you" stories to share :-)

[Natsku]

Originally Posted by fbw2014

I had my son is speech therapy when he was about 2 and 1/2 and his therapist would work with him at his daycare. She told me that he had trouble socializing. He would play around other children but not with them. He would just do his own thing. I started doing playdates with his classmates one at a time (it could be overwhelming for them to be around a lot of children). I also took him to the park often. Both helped, especially the park. He would play with the kids on the playground and older kids would help him when he tried to climb and couldn't reach things. He doesn't have any socialization issues anymore. Hopefully some of these things could help your daughter.

People don't really do playdates here but sometimes at the park she'll play with older kids. She goes back to daycare next week though so I'm hoping that'll help (although when she was there before the summer she was always playing alone or with a teacher when I'd pick her up). Other kids seem to like her and want to play with her but she's just oblivious to it but she'll try and play sometimes if I tell her to.