My dh said that she wouldn't see anything because their back would be facing her if men were urinating. I'm sure he'd rush her in/out of a stall and try to avoid any visuals, but the thought was pretty unsettling to me lol. I don't care if it sounds "goofy." It would be out of my comfort level. I would have to trust dh's judgement (no family restroom options, child couldn't hold pee much longer, etc), but personally I would do my best to avoid it at all costs. As a grown woman I don't even want to go in there (hypothetical, there's a huge line for the ladies' and no one in line in the men's. I'd just wait). For the record, I accidentally walked in on a male relative peeing when I was a kid. The bathroom door was closed, but connected to the garage. I tried to come into the house through the garage. Was pretty awkward and I guess I'd just hate to risk putting my child through something similar. A lot of my reaction is fueled by the "ick" factor stereotype that the men's bathroom is more disgusting. More chances of stepping in pee?

wait, what? I tried keeping my son in a 5pt harness for a long time, but he outgrew it. He is well below 80 lbs and he's 7 years old. The back of his high back booster Nautilus actually expired and his shoulders were too high for the 5pt harness. At that point we had no choice but to buy another high back booster which uses a car's seatbelt to go across, not a 5pt. I hear that 5pt vs seatbelt (once they get to a certain age/size) is debatable about which is better. There are pros and cons to both. Like the chest clip might keep the chest from moving with the rest of the body in a collision. So don't be too upset if you have to switch out of 5pt well before 80 lbs.

I wanted to sign things for change.org before but I think I stopped myself because I didn't want to give up all my info. My guess is sometimes children are given the eggs by oblivious adults/older children?? Based on that link you have to open a plastic egg before removing toy parts, so eating the chocolate is not supposed to be dangerous. I don't know how the 3yr old got to the toy (maybe they were able to open it themselves. Maybe the plastic egg was not sealed??). Do some adults think "surprise" means "surprise flavor" instead of toy/choking hazard? Is that what all the packages say?

I think there are a lack of qualified people, or they just aren't the most accessible? I assume that some people that are trained are busy with their daily job and that they aren't necessarily setting up one-on-one appointments. I don't know how that works, though. I live in the boonies so it's no surprise my zip code pulls up zero matches. There are matches 30 min. away, but neither are at a fire dept. When dd was born I spoke to a nurse about doing a car seat check at the fire dept. by the hospital and she informed me that that fire dept. did not do them. Talk about a missed opportunity. Right next to the hospital!! All police and firemen should be CPSTs or they should stop being referred to as some sort of "go to" place for help. One idea in this thread was signage in the car seat aisle at the store. I like that, but I don't know if that would violate some store rules. Another idea I like is nurses or some hospital staff member talking to/handing out something to parents at the hospital regarding a safety check location. I know hospitals usually can't do the installs, but they could pass the info on. I could never get a good install with ds in my car when he was young, so I only drove him around in dh's car. Well, the A/C was messed up in dh's car at some point so this was a bit of a nightmare. I'm so embarrassed now, but back then we had something shoved under ds' seat to get a snug fit. I forced myself to learn more about car seats and have tried to educate dh, but a lot of it goes in one ear and out the other. Like he wanted me to swap the car seats (move dd behind passenger seat, move ds behind him) and I said it wasn't that easy because I had to remove the headrest first. The car's headrest interfered with ds' high back booster and taking it off required a tiny screw driver. I did it, but I had to locate the screw driver. This is just a tiny example of how installs can get complicated. I'm still no expert and I might be doing other things wrong.

Let's see. I have never noticed a sign in a pediatrician's office about car checks where I've lived. And between my two kids I've gone to at least 3 pediatric offices and a health dept. in different cities. When I took dd to the children's hospital I did see a sign (like a height chart) indicating height for continuing to use a booster seat. I even took a picture of the sign. I don't think there was any info. on the sign about CPSTs, though. I don't read parenting magazines. I don't know of any local magazines. I do not stumble across bulletin boards in my daily life. Seriously, I don't. I think the public library might have a small one with a few library-related things, if that. There is no "local" facebook group for my zip code. My local facebook groups are mommy groups/breastfeeding/buy,sell, trade and are 45 min. away. I don't see advertisements for car checks there except ONE mommy group that is 3 hours away from me (I go to that town sometimes) and those aren't necessarily official events. It's like two CPSTs that are actively involved and have offered to check seats at a given time or by appointment. This is just my personal experience. I never even heard the term "CPST" for the longest time.

I think this depends where you live. We have a set of friends that went to a police station to ask about installing their car seat and they were told that they couldn't help. I don't think it was simply that the police station couldn't do the install, but that they couldn't assist at all. I am under the impression there was no CPST there. I know this is not the same as an event, but if you don't know of any events and you aren't familiar with the online CPST locator, you're kind of lost.

I only heard about the "pinch test" online in car seat groups. I really don't remember that in any manuals. And the armpit level thing I also learned online. That's also where I learned that after market products are a no no, despite the huge aisle of items in the baby section at the store! Guess they can get away with it because they can be used elsewhere? We were given some as baby gifts so I put the strap covers on our stroller and use the neck pillow for myself in the house LOL

That's wonderful! :party:

I honestly don't remember the manual saying anything about harness clip height or bulky coats. I learned a lot of these things elsewhere. Harness clip height might be there, but I really don't remember seeing anything about clothing. Also, parents are expected to read the vehicle manual AND carseat manual which is quite annoying. I read both and couldn't find anywhere where it stated whether or not the seat belt adjuster that came with our vehicle was an approved substitute for the one that you use with a backless booster. Why would I want to use the vehicle one instead of the booster one? Because somehow along the time of owning the Graco Nautilus (which we used for years) we lost the adjuster clip. We had never needed it because we were using it with the back. I tried to use it with the vehicle one while I waited for my replacement in the mail. During a check point the policeman gave me props for my kids in their seats... but he didn't seem to notice that the seatbelt didn't stay well on ds' shoulder (this was a very short-term thing and I'm not proud of it, but it happened). Some parents might think they can rely on someone like a policeman or fighter fighter to know a lot about car safety, but many times they actually don't. I got laughed at when I called a fire dept. about disposing a car seat. Like, lady you're barking up the wrong tree. What the heck does a fire dept. have to do with car seats? Some things just aren't addressed in either manual. And let's not forget that lots of other relatives are in charge of transportation and just aren't as savvy with locating the information or don't think it's important because, "back in my day we didn't even use ____." There is a problem with getting the information to consumers and saying, "check your manuals" is not always convenient, even online. As for the top tether... I was NOT using it for a long time. Why? Because I thought it was part of LATCH and I was not using LATCH.

Oops I don't know if they make them in "big kid" sizes or not. I was just linking Sketchers shoes with faux laces in case you hadn't looked at that style. I'm still confused on how shoe sizes work. Ds wears a 13 now, but he's 7. So maybe that's little kid size. http://media.kohlsimg.com/is/image/kohls/1926382?wid=800&hei=800&op_sharpen=1

Having children is no guarantee they will be actively involved in your life, even if they are alive. They may not even live nearby or visit much. You just said so yourself that some people with kids don't have anyone to keep an eye on their meds, or am I reading that incorrectly? My grandma is 100 years old. One child (my father) lives in the same state. Her other children do not. On a day-to-day basis she does not see family. She no longer drives and has to pay mileage to have the caregiver take her anywhere. My father is the caregiver for my mother and cannot easily drive to my grandmother even though she's only one town away. They see each other, but it's not as often as it used to be. Then take my sisters and I. I'm the only one that lives in the same state as my parents. One lives across the country and the other lives in another country. Yes, we all see each other but visits are spread out. My grandma has been a widow since my dad was a young man. So yes, I can imagine the scenario you present.

But earlier you said: The bolded sounded harsh, maybe patronizing, to me. It read to me as unfulfilled. This could merely be my perception. I cannot speak for others.

I've heard about this several times and I make it a point to keep the baby in lighter clothing. She has a hoodie and has a pull over sweatshirt, but I don't even really like those on under the straps. I often put that stuff on after unbuckling.

empty house and someone to take care of you are two different things imo

Yes, I imagine most older people are spending time with relatives and/or health care workers, however, some are probably involved in groups. I don't know when she stopped being actively involved but my grandmother was in a couple of groups (bowling league was one. She was the oldest in her group). You were too vague. You didn't say, "she's trying to get pregnant but is advised to lose weight first" or anything like that. It was unclear that your thoughts were tied to pregnancy and not marriage or dating.

I don't like to think this way. I think it's unfair to imply to childless adults that their lives are less full. I mean, heck, someone could die early on in life and what does any of that future stuff matter? In fact, on the other end of the spectrum you could be saying, "I'd have to leave behind orphans."

Lol I took it as a heads up to men scanning the board to not bother with the thread once they read "women only"

To feed to someone else? I make tuna salad with hard boiled eggs sometimes. I guess if I didn't have the whites I could still throw the yolks in. I would do the same with a green salad. Or just you know, eat the whole egg ;)

I hope my post doesn't do more harm than good. My mom was sad to hear all the grandmothers around her talk about their grandchildren for years before she had any. I am the youngest child. My mom had me at 41. My older siblings have not had children and they may never. We really don't know, but it is not looking likely. I had ds when I was 25. I didn't get pregnant under the best circumstances (unmarried and unexpectedly). After my parents got over the shock and all my dad told me about the times my mom had felt left out not being a grandmother and that she was very happy about the baby. You see, where we live, people settle down early. Given my mother's age I'm sure she was quite a bit older than some of the other grandmothers. I'm telling you this to say, who really knows what will happen in time. I never thought I'd be the only child to have kids right now. I actually have two and thought my sisters might have at least one before I had a second. And my mom certainly hadn't planned on having me at age 41. I think 26 is still somewhat young to not have children, especially for a man. When we had ds, dh was 28.

For me the danger might be the darn faucet head. We used to have one of those rubber covers on it, but it got moldy and was too hard to clean. I could see a child slipping whether it was a bath or shower. I'm not saying you can't step away, but how far you go and how long you're gone would probably have a lot to do with the behavior of the individual child and the house layout, etc. Also, is the child a "just turned 4" 4 year old or a "almost 5 year old" 4 year old? lol I still remember when I went to McDonald's with a friend and they criticized me for making ds go with me to order our food and not allow him to go out to the play area alone. I think he had just turned 4 at the time. He's not particularly mature and there was also an exit to the outside of the building either connected to or very close to the playground. My comfort level was more important to me to care what she thought was appropriate or not for a 4 yr old. and she understood a bit more once I explained that he had just had a birthday.

I'm actually debating about spending the money on a test right now. Apparently in my case it would be normal for my cycle to be off or even skipped this month.

Apparently not because last pregnancy I had a choice to buy pads or a pregnancy test and I left the store with the "wrong" one lol...

nope, not at 4. We switched to showers early, but still. Washing hair, remembering to wash everything, etc. seems like it would require too much of a 4yr old. My 7yr old asks me to help him adjust the temp. It's a pain to get it just right, even for me sometimes on this shower. I also need to hang up a towel for him because he finds it too difficult and there's no where very close to the tub to place one. So maybe it's not exactly a supervision thing, but assistance is often required.

I don't know how much weight to give this, but there are lots of articles on the importance of folate as opposed to folic acid in vitamins. So if I were to start taking prenatals I would look for folate. Dd had tongue and lip tie and it is supposedly linked to lack of folate /shrug. I don't know if I could have prevented it with a different set of prenatals. It's also genetic. Just tossing this out there as something to think about. ETA: that is just one example of folate vs. folic acid reasoning. There are others. I was quite disappointed to realize my "organic" prenatals used a synthetic ingredient. Folic acid is synthetic.

OP, I have trouble making it up early for Mass. Sometimes I go in the evening. If you go to masstimes.org you find church listings. Not all the info will be updated so you have to call the parish offices to confirm, but it's a very good starting point. Between the churches around me I can make it Saturday evening, Sunday morning, or Sunday night. But not every parish has every option. You can see what is available near you. Yeah. I actually had religious OCD and read this book: http://www.amazon.com/The-Doubting-Disease-Scrupulosity-Compulsions/dp/0809135531years ago.