“Don’t bring toys to the park unless your kids and you are ready and willing to share,” Blanco, the mother of a toddler, said in a TikTok video. “I don’t think it’s fair that you’re going to bring toys to a place where there’s going to be a bunch of kids and you are not willing to share the toys with the other kids. I feel like that’s just wrong.”

Blanco added, “I don’t think people should take toys to the park at all because of that whole situation. And yes, people need to know, ‘OK, this is mine’ …. but at the same time, I feel like that’s just cruel.”

“So, how about we leave the toys at home or be willing to share those toys? I don’t know what you guys think — I might be the only person with this opinion. But I’ve seen it too many times when I go to the park and we don’t take toys to the park because of that reason.”

Most of Blanco’s commenters heartily disagreed.

• “How about you teach your child that they aren’t entitled to playing with someone else’s toys?”
• “Don’t bring your purse unless you’re willing to share what’s in there!”
• “Should we also bring the entire park snacks, milk, blankets (and) chairs?”
• “Being forced to share is a root cause of becoming a people pleaser, saying ‘Yes’ because you’re afraid of upsetting or disappointing someone by establishing boundaries.”
• “It’s not my responsibility to raise your child and teach them boundaries!”
• “Completely disagree. Last summer I let other kids play with the water toys I brought and they ended up broken (and) the other parents didn’t care. I no longer share with kids I don’t know.”
• “Sharing is important. But so is saying, ‘Sorry, I don’t want to share right now’ and dealing with that disappointment and getting over it.”
• “Nah my kid (is) autistic and he carries his Spider-Man around everywhere. I think parents need to teach their kids to understand certain situations.”
• “Yes, this is why I don’t let my kids bring toys anywhere but the house and car. They are too young to understand how to share.”
• “Life isn’t fair. Teach them young.”

Blanco tells TODAY.com that sharing is a primary principle.

“We go to the park a few times a week and we see kids who share and who don’t share with others — that’s understandable as they’re little,” she says.

Blanco warns her son that if he brings toys to the park, he should share with other kids; if he later decides against it and she senses an argument, she might hold the toy so it’s out of the picture.

“Other times, I don’t bring his toys to avoid the whole scenario,” she says.

When another child doesn’t want to share toys with her son, Blanco redirects him to another activity.

“I don’t want to make other kids feel bad (for not sharing),” she says.

Should kids share their toys at the park?

Kids don’t have to share their toys, especially with children they don’t know personally, Francyne Zeltser, the clinical director of mental health and testing services at Manhattan Psychology Group, tells TODAY.com.

“If a child brings a toy to the park and actively engages with it, there should be no expectation of sharing,” she says. “However, if a child brings a toy or a bucket of toys and abandons them out in the open, they should expect for other children to play.”

Kids usually make their feelings known verbally, she says — “We’re playing with this, but you can have a turn later” or “We’re playing with this” — or through body language, like clutching a toy to their chest or shaking their head.

Saying no, adds Zeltser, is a skill that children should learn.

“It’s challenging because it’s not just about saying ‘No’ — which many children have no problem saying — it’s about the other child receiving and accepting ‘No,’” she says.

Zelster suggests making a plan before going to the park.

“Decide what you are bringing and how your child would feel if the item gets dirty, lost, broken or shared,” she says. “We want children to become more autonomous as they grow and feel proud of themselves for solving their own problems.

If your child is meeting a friend at the park, says Zeltser, communicate your plan with the other parent.

Blanco says she won’t budge on teaching her son to share.

“With appropriate boundaries,” she says, “sharing is a good, fundamental value.”

This story first appeared on TODAY.com. More from TODAY:

• I told him he was too short for me. Then we fell in love
• An autism consultant for ‘Love on the Spectrum’ shares what it’s like behind the scenes
• Dolly Parton shares rare pics with sister Rachel — and fans are calling them ‘twin beauties’

This story uses functionality that may not work in our app. Click here to open the story in your web browser.

Sonny’s mother, Dominque McLeod, secretly submitted her baby’s photo for Gerber’s 14th annual photo search. Figuring that the odds of winning were so low, she didn’t tell a soul, including Sonny’s father, Akil Sr.

“I didn’t even know until we got an email that we were finalists,” he said.

“What are the chances, right?” said Dominque. “I didn’t even think about it until we received the email and I was like, I should probably tell Akil.”

Sonny made his presence known in Studio 1A even before he was introduced, making happy noises in the wings during the segment before his big announcement. He happily babbled and enjoyed a bottle on his father’s lap while his family talked to the TODAY hosts; big sister Sage even hopped off the couch at one point to pick up a cup that fell.

The proud father says he “just knew” that his son would be the newest Gerber Baby.

“Everyone thinks their kids are special, but this is different,” he said. “I was telling them the other day, I feel like I’m here to just be their dad and guide them along the way. But they’re here for something way bigger than I could ever imagine for both of them. They have something about them and they unleash something in us.”

Akil Sr. added, “When people search for a life purpose and then when you have kids you start to piece it together. (This) is just a piece of the puzzle because they are special. And everybody that meets them says the same thing. They see the energy they feel, the vibe that they feel.”

When Dominque found out that Sonny had won, she told TODAY, “I wanted to ugly cry.”

Father Akil McLeod Sr. added, “Just proud. Excited.”

According to Gerber, for the first time ever, parents of past Gerber babies — including Madison “Maddie” Mendoza (2023) and Isa Slish (2022) — helped chose this year’s winner.

The 1-year-old cutie from Phoenix, Arizona got his nickname at the perfect moment.

“One day we were laying in bed and I was pregnant with him,” Dominque, a stay-at-home mom and entrepreneur, told TODAY. “And I was just like, ‘I need a nickname for him, because it’s going to get confusing with two Akils.’ And so the sun just perfectly came through a little peek of the window and on my belly, and I was like ‘Oh, Sonny’ and we both were like, ‘Yep that’s it.’ And we called him Sonny.”

For Gerber’s 14th annual photo search, the family chose a characteristic pic of Sonny.

“The photo we submitted was one where he’s in his little playpen and there’s a little sun behind him,” explained Dominque. “And I was like, ‘Oh that’s so perfect’ … He was also really starting to smile a lot for the camera around that time.”

When he’s not reading his ABC book or playing with his toy cars, Sonny loves being with big sister Sage and playing peekaboo.

“They play really well together,” said Akil Sr. “I think ever since we put them in the same room, they started to play even better together, because they spend so much more time together. So they love each other. Sage is such a good big sister and she doesn’t let him put stuff in his mouth. … For me, being the only child, it’s beautiful to see.”

Sonny has a big, healthy appetite, too.

“He loves food, that’s his thing,” said Akil Sr. “If he’s eating, he’s going to stay put. If you want him to be quiet for a little bit, you need a minute, give him a snack and he will stay put for sure.”

The toddler’s current favorite snack? Fruit.

“I don’t think there’s a fruit he doesn’t like,” said Akil Sr.

According to Gerber, Sonny will be featured on Gerber’s social media channels and marketing campaigns. The brand has awarded the McLeods $25,000 in cash, Gerber products for up to one year, clothing from Gerber Childrenswear and various retail prizes. Gerber will also donate $25,000 to March of Dimes.

Additionally, Gerber says it will donate $5,000 to M.A.N.C.A.V.E., a community fatherhood program with which Akil Sr is active, in honor of the family. The program, created by the Greater Phoenix Urban League, the City of Phoenix and My Brother’s Keeper, stands for “Men All Need to Be Caring, Actively-engaged, Vested and Encouraged.”

Akil Sr. told TODAY that within the group, fathers in all stages can share their experiences and encourage one another.

“There’s always a ton of new mom groups out there,” Akil Sr. told TODAY. “But we realized, especially for me, I realized that there wasn’t a lot of groups for new fathers. And at that time, I definitely needed the support.”

This story first appeared on TODAY.com. More from TODAY:

• EXCLUSIVE: Jason Kelce says he and wife Kylie want to ‘scale back’ on sharing images of their kids
• Mom’s video divides the internet: Is 7 weeks too long for sleepaway camp?
• Christina Applegate’s daughter, Sadie, diagnosed with POTS after symptoms were dismissed

“Don’t bring toys to the park unless your kids and you are ready and willing to share,” Blanco, the mother of a toddler, said in a TikTok video. “I don’t think it’s fair that you’re going to bring toys to a place where there’s going to be a bunch of kids and you are not willing to share the toys with the other kids. I feel like that’s just wrong.”

Blanco added, “I don’t think people should take toys to the park at all because of that whole situation. And yes, people need to know, ‘OK, this is mine’ …. but at the same time, I feel like that’s just cruel.”

“So, how about we leave the toys at home or be willing to share those toys? I don’t know what you guys think — I might be the only person with this opinion. But I’ve seen it too many times when I go to the park and we don’t take toys to the park because of that reason.”

Most of Blanco’s commenters heartily disagreed.

• “How about you teach your child that they aren’t entitled to playing with someone else’s toys?”
• “Don’t bring your purse unless you’re willing to share what’s in there!”
• “Should we also bring the entire park snacks, milk, blankets (and) chairs?”
• “Being forced to share is a root cause of becoming a people pleaser, saying ‘Yes’ because you’re afraid of upsetting or disappointing someone by establishing boundaries.”
• “It’s not my responsibility to raise your child and teach them boundaries!”
• “Completely disagree. Last summer I let other kids play with the water toys I brought and they ended up broken (and) the other parents didn’t care. I no longer share with kids I don’t know.”
• “Sharing is important. But so is saying, ‘Sorry, I don’t want to share right now’ and dealing with that disappointment and getting over it.”
• “Nah my kid (is) autistic and he carries his Spider-Man around everywhere. I think parents need to teach their kids to understand certain situations.”
• “Yes, this is why I don’t let my kids bring toys anywhere but the house and car. They are too young to understand how to share.”
• “Life isn’t fair. Teach them young.”

Blanco tells TODAY.com that sharing is a primary principle.

“We go to the park a few times a week and we see kids who share and who don’t share with others — that’s understandable as they’re little,” she says.

Blanco warns her son that if he brings toys to the park, he should share with other kids; if he later decides against it and she senses an argument, she might hold the toy so it’s out of the picture.

“Other times, I don’t bring his toys to avoid the whole scenario,” she says.

When another child doesn’t want to share toys with her son, Blanco redirects him to another activity.

“I don’t want to make other kids feel bad (for not sharing),” she says.

Should kids share their toys at the park?

Kids don’t have to share their toys, especially with children they don’t know personally, Francyne Zeltser, the clinical director of mental health and testing services at Manhattan Psychology Group, tells TODAY.com.

“If a child brings a toy to the park and actively engages with it, there should be no expectation of sharing,” she says. “However, if a child brings a toy or a bucket of toys and abandons them out in the open, they should expect for other children to play.”

Kids usually make their feelings known verbally, she says — “We’re playing with this, but you can have a turn later” or “We’re playing with this” — or through body language, like clutching a toy to their chest or shaking their head.

Saying no, adds Zeltser, is a skill that children should learn.

“It’s challenging because it’s not just about saying ‘No’ — which many children have no problem saying — it’s about the other child receiving and accepting ‘No,’” she says.

Zelster suggests making a plan before going to the park.

“Decide what you are bringing and how your child would feel if the item gets dirty, lost, broken or shared,” she says. “We want children to become more autonomous as they grow and feel proud of themselves for solving their own problems.

If your child is meeting a friend at the park, says Zeltser, communicate your plan with the other parent.

Blanco says she won’t budge on teaching her son to share.

“With appropriate boundaries,” she says, “sharing is a good, fundamental value.”

This story first appeared on TODAY.com. More from TODAY:

• I told him he was too short for me. Then we fell in love
• An autism consultant for ‘Love on the Spectrum’ shares what it’s like behind the scenes
• Dolly Parton shares rare pics with sister Rachel — and fans are calling them ‘twin beauties’

This story uses functionality that may not work in our app. Click here to open the story in your web browser.

Quintuplets occur in roughly one in 60 million births, according to Dr. Rachael Morris, an associate professor of maternal fetal medicine at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. 

Ashley and Tyler Meyers already have two toddlers; soon they will have seven under age 3.

In January, Ashley Meyers was picking up cough syrup when she realized her period was a day late. The mom of daughters Paisleigh, 3, and Westlynn, 2, decided to throw a pregnancy test into her cart just to be safe, because some medications are harmful when taken during pregnancy.

“Not only was the test positive, the line was darker than I’ve ever seen in my life,” Ashley tells TODAY.com.

Ashley, 26, a phlebotomist, and her husband Tyler, 28, a mechanic, had just moved into a new home and were not trying for another child.

Her first look at the babies was a non-diagnostic ultrasound, also known as a “keepsake ultrasound,” at a non-medical facility.

Preliminary blood work had indicted they might have twins, so neither were shocked when two sacs appeared on the screen.

“My first thought was ‘OK. We can handle this,’” Ashley says, noting that Paisleigh and Westlynn are just 16 months apart.

Two weeks later, Ashley’s OB-GYN introduced a major plot twist. The Meyers weren’t having twins — they were having quintuplets, two boys and three girls. Suddenly, “We can handle this” turned to sheer panic.

“I was in complete shock,” Meyers says. “I don’t think my husband and I talked to people for two weeks. We just went silent. Five is a lot of babies.”

“I was like, ‘How are we going to do this?'” Tyler, 28, tells TODAY.com. “But you just need to leave it up to God. He is not going to put you in a situation that you can’t handle.”

Ashley is now 25 weeks along in her pregnancy and on bed rest at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson until she gives birth. Haylee and Shawn Ladner welcomed quintuplets at the same hospital in 2023. Tyler says the Ladners have been giving them “good pointers on what to expect.”

“My doctors are hoping we’ll make it to 34 weeks, because the longer they’re in, the better,” Meyers shares. “I’ve been coloring and watching some TV and catching up on all the stuff I haven’t been able to do because I worked full-time before this.” 

Tyler, who is home holding down the fort, says he has a “whole new respect” for his wife.

“Taking care of little kids after a long day at work is harder than I thought it would be!” he says.

The Meyers family, who have a GoFundMe to help with medical expenses and baby essentials, have been inundated with support.

“I love our community,” Ashley says. “Complete strangers have blessed us with kindness. People have to come to help clean and wash dishes and get the rooms ready. When big stuff happens, we rally around each other. When everyone’s got your back it doesn’t feel so scary.” 

This article first appeared on TODAY.com. More from TODAY:

• Jessica Biel share sweet photos of kids in Father’s Day post for Justin Timberlake
• Joy-Anna Duggar reveals she rushed 1-year-old son to the ER after ‘terrifying’ choking moment
• What are the ‘OutDaughtered’ quintuplets like today? Catching up with the Busby family

“Don’t bring toys to the park unless your kids and you are ready and willing to share,” Blanco, the mother of a toddler, said in a TikTok video. “I don’t think it’s fair that you’re going to bring toys to a place where there’s going to be a bunch of kids and you are not willing to share the toys with the other kids. I feel like that’s just wrong.”

Blanco added, “I don’t think people should take toys to the park at all because of that whole situation. And yes, people need to know, ‘OK, this is mine’ …. but at the same time, I feel like that’s just cruel.”

“So, how about we leave the toys at home or be willing to share those toys? I don’t know what you guys think — I might be the only person with this opinion. But I’ve seen it too many times when I go to the park and we don’t take toys to the park because of that reason.”

Most of Blanco’s commenters heartily disagreed.

• “How about you teach your child that they aren’t entitled to playing with someone else’s toys?”
• “Don’t bring your purse unless you’re willing to share what’s in there!”
• “Should we also bring the entire park snacks, milk, blankets (and) chairs?”
• “Being forced to share is a root cause of becoming a people pleaser, saying ‘Yes’ because you’re afraid of upsetting or disappointing someone by establishing boundaries.”
• “It’s not my responsibility to raise your child and teach them boundaries!”
• “Completely disagree. Last summer I let other kids play with the water toys I brought and they ended up broken (and) the other parents didn’t care. I no longer share with kids I don’t know.”
• “Sharing is important. But so is saying, ‘Sorry, I don’t want to share right now’ and dealing with that disappointment and getting over it.”
• “Nah my kid (is) autistic and he carries his Spider-Man around everywhere. I think parents need to teach their kids to understand certain situations.”
• “Yes, this is why I don’t let my kids bring toys anywhere but the house and car. They are too young to understand how to share.”
• “Life isn’t fair. Teach them young.”

Blanco tells TODAY.com that sharing is a primary principle.

“We go to the park a few times a week and we see kids who share and who don’t share with others — that’s understandable as they’re little,” she says.

Blanco warns her son that if he brings toys to the park, he should share with other kids; if he later decides against it and she senses an argument, she might hold the toy so it’s out of the picture.

“Other times, I don’t bring his toys to avoid the whole scenario,” she says.

When another child doesn’t want to share toys with her son, Blanco redirects him to another activity.

“I don’t want to make other kids feel bad (for not sharing),” she says.

Should kids share their toys at the park?

Kids don’t have to share their toys, especially with children they don’t know personally, Francyne Zeltser, the clinical director of mental health and testing services at Manhattan Psychology Group, tells TODAY.com.

“If a child brings a toy to the park and actively engages with it, there should be no expectation of sharing,” she says. “However, if a child brings a toy or a bucket of toys and abandons them out in the open, they should expect for other children to play.”

Kids usually make their feelings known verbally, she says — “We’re playing with this, but you can have a turn later” or “We’re playing with this” — or through body language, like clutching a toy to their chest or shaking their head.

Saying no, adds Zeltser, is a skill that children should learn.

“It’s challenging because it’s not just about saying ‘No’ — which many children have no problem saying — it’s about the other child receiving and accepting ‘No,’” she says.

Zelster suggests making a plan before going to the park.

“Decide what you are bringing and how your child would feel if the item gets dirty, lost, broken or shared,” she says. “We want children to become more autonomous as they grow and feel proud of themselves for solving their own problems.

If your child is meeting a friend at the park, says Zeltser, communicate your plan with the other parent.

Blanco says she won’t budge on teaching her son to share.

“With appropriate boundaries,” she says, “sharing is a good, fundamental value.”

This story first appeared on TODAY.com. More from TODAY:

• I told him he was too short for me. Then we fell in love
• An autism consultant for ‘Love on the Spectrum’ shares what it’s like behind the scenes
• Dolly Parton shares rare pics with sister Rachel — and fans are calling them ‘twin beauties’

This story uses functionality that may not work in our app. Click here to open the story in your web browser.

How about the father who bought a pair of camouflage pants? Now no one can find him.

Speaking of parents, Father’s Day is the perfect time to let the dad, husband or grandfather in your life know just how much they mean to you with a thoughtful gift or, better yet, by telling him one of these funny Father’s Day jokes.

Whatever Father’s Day activities you’ve got planned can only be improved upon by adding a few chuckles to the mix.

Not only will you make dear ol’ dad smile, but you’ll also be providing new material for his one-man comedy show. Because while he’s got plenty of his own funny gags, one can never have too many.

Of course, you still need to pick up a present or a greeting card with a thoughtful message written inside. It’s Father’s Day after all, and you can’t let Sunday slip by without letting that special guy know just how much you love and appreciate all he’s done for you.

In the end, however, it’s laughter that’s the real gift, and you’ll find everything you need right here to provide a belly laugh or two.

Funny Father’s Day one-liners

• My father spilled invisible ink all over himself. He’s at the hospital waiting to be seen.
• My dad quit his job as an archeologist. Now his career is in ruins.
• The last time my dad played baseball he got arrested. Apparently he tried to steal second base.
• My dad’s computer caught a cold. He must have left a window open.
• My dad said he wanted something groundbreaking for Father’s Day. So I got him a shovel.
• Did you hear about the father who cut off his left leg? He’s all right now.

• I never liked my dad’s facial hair. But now it’s starting to grow on me.
• My dad bought a pair of camouflage pants. Now I can’t find him.
• My father doesn’t like trees. He thinks they’re shady.
• For Father’s Day, my dad asked for a gift with no strings attached. So I bought him a broken guitar.
• Why did the grandpa throw a clock out the window? He wanted to see time fly.

• I got my dad a book about glue once. He couldn’t put it down.
• My dad won’t play cards in the jungle. He says there are too many cheetahs.
• My grandfather got fired from the keyboard factory. He wasn’t putting in enough shifts.
• My dad wanted to listen to music while we were fishing. So I put on something catchy.
• What did the papa cow say to the baby cow? It’s pasture bedtime.

Best Father’s Day jokes

• My dad really loves math. And then sum.
• What did the cheerleader serve for Father’s Day breakfast? Cheerios.
• What do lobsters do on Father’s Day? Shellabrate their dads.
• Where do cows go on dates? The moo-vies.
• What does the pig give his dad for Father’s Day? Lots of hogs and kisses.
• What has four wheels and flies? A garbage truck.

• When is a door not a door? When it’s ajar.
• Why did the football coach go to the bank? He wanted to get his quarter back.
• What do you call a moose with no name? Anonymoose.
• Where do cows get their clothes? From cattle-logs.
• My father used to be afraid of hurdles. But he got over it.

• Why didn’t the sun go to college? It already had a million degrees.
• Why can’t you borrow money from elves? They’re always a little short.
• How do trains eat? They choo-choo.
• Why don’t leopards play hide-and-go-seek? They’re always spotted.
• How do Eskimos fix broken dishes? With igloo.
• Why did the belt go to jail? It held up a pair of pants.
• What’s the downside to birthdays? Too many will kill you.

• What do you call a rude cow? Beef jerky.
• Why do golfers always have an extra pair of pants? In case they get a hole in one.
• Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. Summer wasn’t bad either.
• Why shouldn’t you argue with a dinosaur? You’ll get jurasskicked.
• What do you call a dad who falls through the ice? A pop-sicle.
• Where do fruits go on vacation? Pear-is!
• What did the baby otter say to its dad? You are a dad like no otter.
• What has more letters than the alphabet? The post office.

• When does a joke become a dad joke? When the punchline is apparent!
• Why is Peter Pan always flying? Because he Never-lands.
• What did the accountant say while auditing a document? This is taxing.
• Why did the orange stop halfway across the road? It ran out of juice.
• Why did the Oreo go to the dentist? It lost its filling.
• How do pigs wake up their dad on Father’s Day? With plenty of hogs and kisses.

• Why are fish so smart? Because they swim in schools.
• Why should you never use a dull pencil? Because it’s pointless.
• Did you hear about the cheese factory that got blown up? Da brie was everywhere.
• How do you identify a dogwood tree? By its bark.
• How do you make Lady Gaga cry? Poker face!
• I just invented a car that runs on herbs… I think I invented thyme travel.
• What do you call fake spaghetti? Impasta!

• What do you call someone who isn’t a dad but tells dad jokes? A faux pa.
• What do you call a bear with no teeth? A gummy bear.
• Why did the scarecrow win an award? Because he was outstanding in his field.
• I saw a guy at the bank checking his balance so I pushed him over.
• Did you hear about the yacht builder that had to work from home? His sails went through the roof.

Father’s Day jokes for the whole family

• What do you call a cheese that isn’t yours? Nacho cheese!
• Why did the phone buy glasses? Because it lost its contacts.
• Swimming with sharks is so expensive. It cost me an arm and a leg!
• What did the buffalo say to his son as he walked out the door? Bi-son.

• How much do roofs cost? Nothing. They’re on the house!
• What do frogs wear on their feet in summer? Open toad sandals.
• The only reason I went to Wimbledon was because I heard it was a women’s singles event.
• My wife laughed at me when I told her I could make a car out of macaroni. You should’ve seen her face when I drove pasta!

• I’d tell you the joke about the butter, but I don’t want you to spread it!
• How do celebrities keep cool? They have many fans.
• I had a long conversation with a dolphin once. We just seemed to click.
• It was a lovely wedding, even the cake was in tiers.

• The police just arrested the world’s tongue twister champion. They say he’ll be given a tough sentence.
• My dad adopted a dog from the local blacksmith. As soon as he got him home, he made a bolt for the door.
• I’ve got a pen that can write underwater. It can write other words, too, but underwater is one of my favorites.
• What does a baby computer call its dad? Data.
• What do you call a can opener that doesn’t work? A can’t opener.
• What did the janitor say when he jumped out of the closet? “Supplies!”

• Which days are the strongest? Saturday and Sunday. The rest are weekdays.
• What did one toilet say to the other toilet? You look flushed.
• Why did the boy bring a ladder on the bus? He wanted to go to high school.
• What did one plate say to the other plate? Dinner’s on me.

• Why do ducks have feathers on their tails? To cover their butt-quacks.
• Why did Mickey Mouse go into space? He wanted to find Pluto.
• What makes music in your hair? A headband.
• How do you know when the moon has had enough to eat? It’s full.
• I woke up this morning and couldn’t remember which side the sun rises on. Then it dawned on me.

• What did the horse say after it fell? I’ve fallen and I can’t giddy up.
• What did the book join the police? It wanted to go undercover.
• What’s the best way to watch a fishing show? Live stream.
• How does Darth Vader like his toast cooked? On the dark side.

This story first appeared on TODAY.com. More from Today:

• Veteran comes out as gay in moving obituary: ‘Now that my secret is known, I’ll forever rest in peace’
• 6 TV fathers we wish were our dads
• 35 Father’s Day songs to show Dad just how much he’s appreciated

Trendy baby names are typically something parents want to know how to avoid. Parents these days don’t want something super popular, Namerology.com founder Laura Wattenberg tells TODAY.com. She is also the author of the Baby Name Wizard books.

“It’s not like a designer bag,” she says. “No one wants to think their baby has a trendy name.”

So, what baby names trends should parents know?

Cowboy-inspired names are at the top of Wattenberg’s list of what’s trending. She cites shows like “Yellowstone” as contributing to the trend. Look for names like Stetson and Colter to grow in popularity.

She points out, however, that “real” cowboys often have more traditional names like William — think Billy the Kid as an example.

Another trend, Wattenberg says, is names ending with “s.” She says this is particularly trendy in the South.

“Brooks is already popular and will remain so,” she tells TODAY.com. Banks and Hayes are also trending. As far as girls go, she suggests keeping an eye on the name Collins.

Next up, “long, multi-syllabic names that end in ‘i’” are on Wattenberg’s list of what’s popping in baby name trends. What kind of names fit this description? Wattenberg gives the examples of Meilani and Kaelani.

Cute, old-fashioned sounding names are also trendier now than in years past. Names like Billy and Stevie for boys and Elsie and Millie for girls are examples Wattenberg cites.

The Social Security Administration released the names that are the fastest rising in terms of popularity, but they don’t necessarily overlap with what’s poised to trend in general.

The rise in popularity could be attributed to social media and pop culture, the SSA said in a press release. 

“It’s clear that social media stars had a major influence on new parents in 2023. The fastest rising girl’s name, Kaeli, went viral in 2023, rising a whopping 1,692 spots,” the SSA said. “Parents must have really smashed the ‘like’ button for YouTube and TikTok star Kaeli McEwen (also known as Kaile Mae).” 

“On the boy’s side, trending in third place as the boy’s fastest riser is Eiden — perhaps it was TikTok creator Wyatt Eiden’s 1.6 billion views and over 3 million followers that prompted this name’s meteoric rise.”

Top trending baby boy names 

Izalel

Chozen

Eiden

Cassian

Kyren 

Top trending baby girl names

Kaeli

Alitzel

Emryn

Adhara 

Azari 

This story first appeared on TODAY.com. More from TODAY:

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Loffa, a radio host who goes by DJ Drewski, assumed they would all head to a men’s restroom. That’s what he’s always done when he’s out with his daughter, Solar. Meanwhile, Colletti was scanning for the women’s toilets. 

“I was like, ‘Mike are you kidding?'” DJ Drewski, 36, tells TODAY.com. “I thought he was joking around.”

When you gotta go, you gotta go,and there was no time to debate. So each dad used their preferred bathroom. 

Later that day, DJ Drewski turned to TikTok to settle the debate. In the clip, he explained that he doesn’t feel comfortable entering a women’s bathroom. Colletti, a police officer in New Jersey, said he prefers to take his daughter Emma to a female bathroom because it’s the cleaner option. 

“A men’s room isn’t a place for a little girl to be,” Colletti, tells TODAY.com, noting that he always announces himself before they enter. 

“As long as you do that, you’re good,” he says.

DJ Drewski would rather take Solar to go behind a tree than make another person feel uneasy. 

“The female bathroom is a safe space for women — and I don’t want to invade safe space,” DJ Drewski says. “One of the comments on TikTok really stuck with me. It said, “the gender of the parent determines the restroom.’”

Parenting and youth development expert Dr. Deborah Gilboa agrees with the TikToker. 

“If the men’s room is a little bit dirtier, so what? We don’t assume that little boys are in danger from coming in contact with men’s room germs,” Gilboa tells TODAY.com. “And if you’re going to be standing outside the stall or in there with her, she’s fine.”

Of course, there are circumstances where a dad might need to use a women’s room. For instance, many men’s bathrooms don’t have changing tables.

“Unless there’s a good reason to use the women’s room, stick to the men’s room,” Gilboa says. “They’re not going to get cooties.”

Nearly 7,000 people have weighed in on DJ Drewski’s TikTok.

“My dad used to bring me to the guys bathroom and have me close my eyes until we got into the stall,” wrote one person.

Added another, “As someone who cleaned bathrooms when I was a teenager, women’s bathrooms are NOT more clean, I would spend hours cleaning the women’s restrooms, while the male cleaner had to wait for me till I was done.”

Other responses included:

• “My dad used to pick me up, and I would bury my head in his shoulder, covering my eyes, and he would announce in the men’s bathroom that he was bringing his daughter in.”
• “Definitely the ladies room. You just announce yourself first, ‘girl dad coming in!'”
• “I remember being a child and feeling really weird and awkward and uncomfy going in the men’s with my dad even if I knew I was safe.”
• “My dad only brought me where he could go. He was just great at getting me to a stall without me being able to accidentally see anything.”
• “Just yell in! We welcome you and your daughters! I wouldn’t want my husband walking by urinals with our daughter.”

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“I’m not returning my shopping cart and you can judge me all you want,” Dr. Leslie Dobson, a clinical and forensic psychologist in California, said in a TikTok video with 11 million views. “I’m not getting my groceries into my car, getting my children into the car and then leaving them in the car to go return the cart. So, if you’re going to give me a dirty look, f— off.”

Many complained that Dobson was being inconsiderate to grocery store employees; others agreed with her.

• “My sister has 5 kids and still puts her cart in the corral.”
• “Small things like this is what shows character in a person. I am not a parent but even if it’s raining or snowing, I return my cart.”
• “I have the worst trouble with this … the return things are ROWS away. I’m not leaving my baby in the car where I can’t see it.”
• “How did your kids get to the shopping cart safely? Did you leave them in the car alone and go get the cart? Or were they portable enough to make it without a cart?”
• “Collecting carts is one of the few human jobs left so I leave mine in the parking lot.”
• “It was never about the shopping cart. It’s about the principle. It’s about answering the question: Am I willing to take some time out of my day to do something nice for nothing in return?”
• “I agree with you 100%.”
• “Single mom here!! So what I do is put the groceries in the car. Leave the children in the shopping cart. Take the shopping cart back with the children. Return them back to the car.”
• “I park next to the cart return thingy.”
• “I lock my kid in the car for all of the 20 seconds it takes me to put the cart back and walk to the car. It’s literally a few seconds of them alone in the car. Safely and locked.”
• “If you can get the cart, you can return the cart.”

Many people mentioned “the shopping cart theory,” an unofficial theory that people who don’t return their trolleys have poor character.

Dobson tells TODAY.com that she posted the video “because predators watch our patterns and routines and I wanted to give people permission to not return their carts if their intuition tells them they aren’t safe.”

In fact, stranger abduction is very, very rare. According to an analysis of FBI data by Reuters, thousands of minors are reported missing each year and only .1% of those cases are the result of stranger abduction. FBI data shows that children are far more likely to be abducted or molested by a family member or someone known to the parents.

Dobson adds that leaving the kids alone in the car, even momentarily, is not something she will ever do.

She says the tone of her video was intentionally provocative “to grab attention” for awareness.

“I don’t love talking to pedophiles but if I can share how they think and how they target people, then I will take one for the team because I have the eduction and capacity to do so,” she says.

Dobson tells TODAY.com that people should assess the outside lighting, the design of the parking lot and the presence of security cameras or store guards. And, she says, moms should always trust their gut.

Janette Fennell, the president and founder of Kids and Car Safety tells TODAY.com that tragedies involving children in parking lots include car accidents and abduction. According to the organization, in 2022, more than 250 children were inside cars alone when they were stolen.

“Although the victims of these types of incidents typically survive, it is incredibly traumatizing for everyone involved,” states the Kids and Cars Safety website. “Incidents like this are very easily avoidable by never leaving a child alone in a vehicle.”

Fennell advises that parents park as close as possible to the cart collection area to minimize inconvenience.

Dobson says “the shopping cart theory” is “ridiculous” because it reduces a person’s character to one simple act. She says, “I always return my shopping cart when my kids aren’t with me.”

Is it immoral to not return a shopping cart?

“There is a big class of literature on whether or not people decide to cooperate when no one is looking,” Kurt Gray, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, tells TODAY.com.

“The reason this topic is so contentious is because it’s kind of ambiguous — there’s room for interpretation,” he says. “My work argues that morality and ethics come down to perceptions of harm. Is someone causing or preventing harm by these acts?”

Dobson points out the potential danger of returning her cart, however, some prioritize the harm in not doing so, says Gray.

He refers to “the dilemma of the commons,” the idea that common resources may be destroyed if exploited by the public.

There might be minimal harm if one person doesn’t return their cart, says Gray, but if no one returns their cart, the consequences are bigger.

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During the Sunday, June 2 episode of “Meet the Press,” NBC News Chief White House Correspondent Peter Alexander announced that Welker and her husband, John Hughes, welcomed their second child.

Their son, John Zachary Welker Hughes, was born on May 30 via a surrogate. 

The newborn weighed exactly 7 pounds and measured nearly 20 inches long, said Alexander, who was filling in on “Meet the Press” for Welker, his former Saturday TODAY co-anchor.

Welker and her husband also share 2-year-old daughter Margot, who will turn 3 on June 12.

The “Meet the Press” segment featured an adorable photo of Margot holding her new baby brother. 

Alexander reported that Margot was “extremely proud” to meet baby John Zachary when he came home June 1.

Alexander also shared a message from Welker, who referred to her surrogate as “her angel on Earth.” Welker added that the couple’s surrogate is “doing great.” 

Alexander congratulated the Welker family and said that the “Meet the Press” crew couldn’t wait to meet the newborn. 

Welker shared the “Meet the Press” announcement to her Instagram.

Fans filled the comments section with messages congratulating Welker and her family. 

Welker opened up about expanding her family in an interview with TODAY.com in May. 

“Margot has told all of her schoolmates that her parents are getting her a baby brother for her birthday!” she gushed. 

She said she and her husband hadn’t decided on a name at the time, revealing that they had some “top contenders” in mind — though the proud big sister did. Margot had suggested to her parents that they name her brother Lolo. 

“So we refer to him as Lolo in our household,” Welker shared, with a laugh. 

Welker and her husband welcomed Margot via surrogacy in 2021.

The “Meet the Press” moderator, who succeeded Chuck Todd in September 2023, has opened up in the past about struggling with infertility and being open with her daughter about the surrogacy process. 

“I’ve explained to Margot that most mommies get to carry their babies in their tummy, but Mama has a boo-boo. So, she has a special friend who carried you, and is now carrying your baby brother,” Welker said. 

Welker told TODAY.com that the couple used a different surrogate for their son because the former surrogate recently gave birth. 

“She’s still very much a part of our lives and even reached out to our new surrogate, Angelica,” Welker shared. 

“We’ve become like this little family,” she added.

Welker and her husband faced some problems during their second surrogacy journey, which began in 2022.  

“We had setbacks — there was more heartbreak — there were days when I asked myself, ‘Why is this so hard for us?’” she said. “But we kept pushing forward. We did lose another embryo in this process, and we had to deal with the loss of that and the setback and wondering again, was this going to work for us?

“What I’m proud of is that John and I didn’t give up. He has always been my rock and I credit our love with getting us through those tough times,” she added.

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Old wives’ tales are a fun, if unscientific, way to answer the question that’s on many expectant parents’ minds. Ever since people started having babies — so, ever since people started — moms and dads (and grandparents and aunts and uncles and random strangers) have wanted to know if it’s a boy or a girl.

The only REAL ways to find out are scientific methods, like ultrasound (which can have a margin of error, especially if a boy is “shy” in the photos), amniocentesis, or non-invasive genetic testing that can tell parents the baby’s sex as early as 10 weeks into pregnancy.

Back in the day, they didn’t have these scientific tests — and they still wanted to know. So, people came up with theories and superstitions, and handed them down through the generations. Many of those superstitions are still with us!

Of course, now we know that gender isn’t always binary, it can change over a person’s lifetime, and someone’s biological sex at birth isn’t necessarily what their gender identity will be. Some parents even raise their children without any assigned gender. Still, most parents are curious to find out whether it’s a girl or a boy.

Parents might want to find out the sex to decide on a baby name or plan their nursery decor. Some moms find that knowing the baby’s sex helps them feel bonded with their child before birth. And, of course, people are just plain curious. Others prefer to be surprised at birth: There’s no right answer, and it’s a personal choice.

Whatever the reason, and maybe while you wait for modern science to give you the answer, these superstitions and old wives’ tales can be fun. Here are some unscientific, old-school methods for figuring out if it’s a boy or a girl.

12 old wives’ tales about having a boy:

You didn’t experience morning sickness in early pregnancy.

While many will confirm that “morning sickness” is a misnomer, as nausea can occur all throughout the day (and sometimes all throughout the pregnancy), people thought that being less nauseous was a sign of a male child. (Moms of boys wish this was true!)

You are carrying the extra weight out front.

Belly shape is a common theme when it comes to gender prediction guesses.

Your belly looks like a basketball.

Round and sticking out? Many will guess that you’re having a boy.

You are carrying low.

Even the height of your belly will be open to predictions.

Your areolas have darkened considerably.

Oh yes, there are other body parts to analyze, too.

You are craving salty or sour foods.

Have you noticed a hankering for salt and vinegar chips? According to myth, that may be a sign.

You are craving protein — meats and cheese.

A steak and mac and cheese are also on the “boy” list, say the old wives.

Your feet are colder than they were before pregnancy.

Pack some extra socks, apparently!

The hair on your legs has grown faster during pregnancy.

… in case you were keeping track.

Your hands are very dry.

Somehow, little boys affect your skin dryness, according to these legends.

Your partner isn’t gaining weight.

Even Dad Bod could be seen as a gender predictor.

Pregnancy has you looking better than ever.

If you’ve got that sought-after glow, people may predict you’re having a boy.

12 old wives’ tales about having a girl:

You had morning sickness early in pregnancy.

One of the first obstacles for a mom-to-be may be morning sickness. About 90% of pregnant people experience it, according to Dr. Daniel F. Roshan, board certified obstetrician-gynecologist at Rosh Maternal and Fetal Medicine in New York City. And it actually affects girl and boy moms equally.

You are carrying the weight in your hips and rear.

The belly-carrying myths around your baby’s sex extend to your whole body.

You are carrying high.

Baby girls are higher up, so goes the popular myth.

Your belly looks like a watermelon.

Get ready for lots of analysis around your bump shape.

You are craving sweets.

Sugar, spice and everything nice is a sign of X chromosomes, apparently.

You are craving fruit.

A hankering for berries and apples is on the “girls” list, so they say.

You crave orange juice.

Your morning OJ is also an indicator, if you believe the old legends.

You don’t look quite as good as normal during pregnancy.

Sigh, try to ignore the “stealing your beauty” line from your mother-in-law.

You are moodier than usual during pregnancy.

Or this may just be a sign of pregnancy generally.

Your partner is gaining weight.

If Dad is packing on the sympathy pounds, people thought that was a sign of a girl

Your face breaks out more than usual.

Isn’t pregnancy fun?

Your breasts have really blossomed!

And then there are the perks!

Just a reminder, these signs are not science-based and are just for fun.

This story first appeared on TODAY.com. More from TODAY:

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Bassett grew up in St. Petersburg, Florida, where her mother “demanded nothing less than excellence from her daughters,” she told the graduating class at Spelman College in Atlanta on Sunday.

“My sister and I … were taught from a young age to dream bigger than what we saw around us every day,” said Bassett, 65. “One of my mother’s favorite things to say to us was, ‘I don’t have average children.'”

“Being Betty Bassett’s daughter meant that there were expectations that I would make something of my life,” she added.

High expectations can indeed help parents raise successful kids. Children are less likely to develop resilience and perseverance if they’re coddled, research shows — and those traits are key elements for building enough confidence to respond to failures and take calculated risks.

The optimism Bassett’s mother displayed could also be a positive parenting trait, experts say. Practicing optimism around your kids naturally encourages them to view challenges as obstacles to overcome, instead of reasons to give up, educational psychologist and parenting expert Michele Borba told CNBC Make It last year.

“That’s probably one of the highest correlations of success,” Borba said. “It’s a child who says, ‘I’ll just keep chunking it and keep on doing it’ … As opposed to: ‘Why should I bother and try?'”

Some parenting experts might push back against one element of Bassett’s upbringing: The actress’ family questioned her choice to pursue a career as an artist, concerned about whether she could make a living in entertainment, Bassett said.

Supporting your children’s passions, despite any misgivings around potential future earnings, is a good move for any parent to make, parenting expert Margot Machol Bisnow told Make It last year. Showing your kids how much you trust them can give them the confidence they’ll need to succeed as adults, no matter the path they end up following, said Bisnow.

In Bassett’s case, she was undeterred from focusing on “what I knew was my purpose,” she told Spelman’s graduating class. She obtained three degrees from Yale University, including an MFA in drama and an honorary doctorate.

Her accolades include an honorary Oscar, two Golden Globes and two acting Oscar nominations.

Want to be a successful, confident communicator? Take CNBC’s new online course Become an Effective Communicator: Master Public Speaking. We’ll teach you how to speak clearly and confidently, calm your nerves, what to say and not say, and body language techniques to make a great first impression. Preregister today and use code EARLYBIRD for an introductory discount of 30% off through July 10, 2024.

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“People were coming over to wish me luck and I was kind of blowing them off,” Hadzic, who lives in Texas, tells TODAY.com. “In my head, I was thinking, ‘Can I do this?’”

Unbeknownst to his peers, Hadzic, 18, had just come from his father’s funeral. Miralem Hadzic died of pancreatic cancer at age 52. 

Somehow, Hadzic’s legs carried him to the podium. Then he delivered a powerful speech that has been seen and shared by thousands on social media.

“My father died yesterday, May 15, 2024, and I attended his funeral today, right before graduation,” Hadzic told the audience, his voice thick with emotion. “That’s why my shoes are muddy and my arms are shaking. I had to carry him to his grave and bury him.”

Hadzic’s revelation was met with audible gasps. He had only told a few close friends that his dad had passed away.

“I can’t stand up here and pretend I want to be doing this speech right now,” he continued. “But I can’t throw something away that he worked so hard for me to achieve.”

Hadzic will study chemical engineering at the University of Texas at Austin in the fall. And he plans to make his late father proud.

“I am going to spend every hour of every day working as hard as I can to achieve all my goals because that’s what he wanted and I’m going to do it for him,” he added.

The Early College High School graduate received a standing ovation.

Hadzic says he had his speech written out, but he went rogue when speaking about his dad. 

“I had a new influx of emotions and I couldn’t just read off a script,” he tells TODAY.com

A few weeks before his passing, Miralem called out for his son to come downstairs. He was watching basketball, and needed Hadzic to narrate the game.  

“He couldn’t see the screen and he asked me to tell him what was going on,” Hadzic recalls. “So I stayed there with him and I did just that.” 

It was particularly poignant for Hadzic. 

“One of my favorite memories from growing up is watching the Mavericks with my dad,” he says. “It was so comforting to be able to do that with him one last time.”

Since Hadzic’s speech went viral, he has been inundated with emails from people across the country. 

“It’s so comforting. Strangers are sharing their experiences with me so that I don’t feel so alone,” he says. “I’m responding to every single person.”

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In a viral TikTok video, Haley Hodge, who is pregnant with her fourth child, explores a graveyard that dates back to 1792 in search of the perfect girl name.

Hodge, 30, and her husband, Rivers, are already parents of Finley, 10, Crew 3, and Banks, 16 months. 

“I know some people might find it creepy, but my mother was a history buff and when we were growing up, she would take us on field trips to cemeteries,” Hodge, a physical therapist, tells TODAY.com. “You can learn so much about cultural aspects of the past.”

She notes that her sister Cooper got her name from a tombstone.

Hodge’s excursion to the Smithville Burying Ground in Southport, North Carolina, was a success. She says she is now considering Galloway and Salem for her unborn daughter. In the clip, Hodge also zooms in on Vienna, Ella, Bunny, James, Julian, Winnie and Olympus. 

“I am a gravestone baby (my mom loves to go epitaphing) and whenever people compliment my name I love to tell them and see their shocked faces when I say, ‘thanks my mom got it from a gravestone,’” one person wrote in the comments.

Added another, “I love this! and it’s absolutely no different then looking at a book of names or getting a name from a movie/show. and it’s a great way to bring back the older generation names!”

Some people on TikTok noted that there are superstitions around visiting a graveyard while pregnant, and many pointed out that Salem and Galloway are both place names: Salem, Massachusetts, and Galloway, Scotland.

Laura Wattenberg, creator of Namerology, tells TODAY.com that cemeteries are rich with historical names and a smart place to look for inspiration.

“You’ll find lot of Johns and Marys, and Williams and Anns,” she Wattenberg says. “But you’ll also come across interesting names that have been forgotten.”

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The baby, a boy named Hunter, was born dependent on opioids and swiftly removed from his mother’s care. She had already lost custody of her eldest son, Jameson.

“I hated myself for using when I was pregnant,” Rector tells TODAY.com. “When Hunter came out he was so uncomfortable, and my heart … I just shut down. I knew if I looked at him for too long, I would start to hurt and I couldn’t feel that hurt.”

A care coordinator asked Rector questions. Do you have a car seat? No. What about a crib? Also no.

“I literally had nothing. And she was like, ‘You know you’re not going to be able to take this baby home,’ and I said, ‘I know,'” Rector recalls.

At the time, Rector was living with an abusive boyfriend, but when she was offered an extra night in the maternity ward, she said no.

“I just rolled over onto my side and told them I wanted to go home,” Rector says.

Days later, Rector was back at the hospital — this time in the emergency room. Her boyfriend had developed an abscess on his arm from shooting heroin. 

“We were waiting for a good two hours before it even occurred to me that I could go and see the baby,” Rector says. “That’s how far gone I was.”

In an elevator, on the way up to the nursery, Rector caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror. Her hair was falling out and she was covered in bruises and track marks. Rector says she didn’t recognize her own reflection.

She debated turning around and going back to the ER. But “something inside” took over and Rector made her way to the nursery, where Hunter was sleeping.

Then in a moment of courage, she decided to ask a nurse if she could visit with him. The woman remembered Rector and knew her story. 

“You could see she was heartbroken by the sight of me and the whole situation, and she was like, ‘Of course you can see him,’” Rector says.

The nurse led Rector and her baby into a dark room outfitted with a rocking chair. Before leaving, she cracked the door and urged Rector to take as much time as she needed. 

“After she left I looked down at him and started whispering in his ear, ‘I’m so sorry. This is not me. I’m so sorry that this is your life,’” Rector says. “All those feelings I had been bottling up cracked wide open.”

Four months later, Hunter was legally adopted by a family in town. 

Shortly after that, Rector went to prison for committing an armed robbery. She was sentenced to five years and ended up serving two and a half. Rector says she found Jesus on her first day in prison. She began attending 12-Step meetings and joined the choir.

“Anything that was positive or healthy, I did it,” Rector says.

Before Rector was released from prison, she sent Hunter’s adoptive parents a letter. Rector’s father attended the same church as them and she didn’t want them to feel nervous about running into her.

“I wrote to let them know I going to be going to a different church than my dad,” she says. 

Rector never received a response. 

There were occasional Hunter sightings. After Rector regained custody of her son, Jameson, they spotted Hunter at a fundraiser cancer walk.

“He had this bright red hair and pale complexion,” Rector says. “I grabbed Jameson’s hand and I was like, ‘That’s your brother!’ Right as he looked over, this happy music came on over the intercom and Hunter started dancing.”

“We just stood there like creepers and watched him for the duration of the song,” she continues. “I felt a peace come over me. It was as if God was saying, ‘He’s dancing. He’s happy.’”

Rector didn’t approach, for the same reason she would write Hunter letters but not send them.  

“It wasn’t my place,” she says.

Fourteen years later, Rector was at Walmart when she noticed Jameson, 21, chatting with a teenage girl.

“She was like, ‘What’s your name? And when he told her, she pointed down the aisle and said, ‘That’s your brother,’” Rector says.

Rector would later learn that Hunter had gotten curious about his biological mother and recently discovered her identity.

“I was speechless. I couldn’t believe it was happening,” Rector says. “I didn’t know if he was going to be mad at me and cuss me out. And I would have been OK with that.”

Instead, Rector and Hunter greeted each other a warm hug.

“I let go first because I didn’t want to make him uncomfortable, but he held on,” she says. “And then we just kind of sat there and made small talk.”

Hunter, 19, tells TODAY.com he was in disbelief.

“I had just been talking about wanting to meet Amanda and then she appeared,” he says. “If I wasn’t God centered, I don’t believe any of this would have happened.” 

Before saying goodbye, Rector and Hunter exchanged phone numbers and talked about getting together. 

“As soon as they were out of sight, I just broke down sobbing,” Rector says.

Hunter, who says he “adores” his parents, sees Rector at least once a week. Rector has been sober for more than 17 years and works as a certified peer support specialist helping others who struggle with substance abuse. She also shares stories about prison life on TikTok where she has nearly 1 million followers.

“I’m so proud of her,” Hunter says. “She completely turned her life around and we’re building a relationship that we never could have had before.”

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Bipartisan groups in the U.S. Senate and House have revived efforts to expand paid family leave to more workers, with momentum building to introduce legislation this year. In the absence of a federal law, 13 states plus the District of Columbia have adopted paid family and medical leave laws, which entitle workers to paid time off to care for newborns or other loved ones who require care.

Still, just 27% of civilian workers in the U.S. get paid family leave, according to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Workers who can least afford to take unpaid time off are also the least likely to have access to paid leave: According to the BLS, just 14% percent of workers in the lowest 25% wage category get that benefit, compared to 48% of those in the top 10%.

For families without paid leave, babies “are going to day care when they are two weeks old. They do not even have immunizations. They’re not on regular feeding patterns. Moms are giving up breastfeeding far sooner than they would like to,” Elizabeth Gedmark, vice president at nonprofit advocacy organization A Better Balance, said during a recent virtual conference to advocate for federal paid family leave organized by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

The U.S. is one of just of seven countries — and the only industrialized one — that does not have a national paid maternity leave policy, according to the World Policy Analysis Center at the University of California, Los Angeles.

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Caitlyn Householder has become an advocate for a universal paid family leave law in Pennsylvania since she was forced to quit her job as a floor supervisor of a clothing company five ago when she learned that she was pregnant shortly after being diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin’s B-Cell Lymphoma.

Householder, of Ellwood City, Pennsylvania, could hardly drive herself to work because of agonizing pain in her leg, and it quickly became apparent that her employer wouldn’t allow her to take enough time off for her medical needs.

“They showed their true colors,” said Householder, who shared her story through Children First, an organization campaigning for Pennsylvania’s proposed law.

Householder’s husband, an oil rig worker, also gets no paid parental or family leave to care for her and their kids. Most of the time, Householder took her baby and stepdaughter with her to the radiation treatments. When her husband did take off work, such as when Householder couldn’t hold her baby for 24 hours after radiation, it meant foregoing hundreds of dollars in income. The family fell behind on mortgage payments during the most difficult months.

Pennsylvania’s House and Senate are considering legislation that would provide up to 20 weeks of paid family leave through a payroll tax. The proposed measure has bipartisan sponsorship but some Republicans have vocally opposed it because of the cost to taxpayers.

Disagreements over how to fund family leave programs have been an obstacle in other states, and have long thwarted efforts to pass a federal law. Democrats generally favor funding such programs through payroll taxes, while many Republicans prefer tax incentives to encourage, but not require, employers to offer paid leave.

In January, a House bipartisan group led by Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, a Pennsylvania Democrat, and Rep. Stephanie Bice, an Oklahoma Republican, released a four-part framework to extend paid family leave to more workers, including funding for state programs or stronger tax breaks for small businesses to do so.

In a statement, Bice said the group is “excited about the momentum and will continue working together to craft legislative text which can get across the finish line.” In an interview with The Associated Press, Houlahan said she was optimistic that legislation could be introduced this year. While any measure would fall short of a federal paid leave law, Houlahan said it reflects a yearlong effort to find common ground for policies that would extend the benefit to as many workers as possible.

Colorado’s benefits kicked in on Jan. 1, four years after the state’s paid family and medical leave program passed by ballot measure following a failed effort to move a bill through the legislature. The law gives most Colorado workers the right to take up to 12 weeks of paid leave to bond with a new baby and other family needs.

The new benefits came too late for Carrie Martin-Haley’s family. Neither Martin-Haley, a small business owner in Denver who gave birth to her son in September 2023, nor her husband had any paid time off, so Martin-Haley had to put aside her dreams of opening a brick-and-mortar storefront for her business, Summit Sustainable Goods.

“That’s been hard to sit with,” said Martin-Haley, who shared her story through Small Business Majority, an advocacy group that is campaigning for federal paid family leave. “With the lack of sleep and everything else that comes along with new parenthood, and all of the uncertainties, finances should be the last thing on the totem pole.”

Women’s participation in the U.S. labor force has reached historic highs, but changes such as paid parental leave often come after long-fought campaigns by mothers.

Keenan Manzo of Dallas, a mother of three who has worked as a Southwest flight attendant for 18 years, said she launched a Facebook page for mothers at the company after having her first child 11 years ago to galvanize support for paid leave and other policies. She said paid leave often took a backseat to other priorities such as higher pay, but support grew as women shared stories of returning to work too early and struggling to pump during flights, sometimes as impatient passengers knocked on the bathroom stalls.

Southwest flight attendants finally won paid parental leave — up to eight weeks for birthing parents and two weeks for non-birth parents — in a contract ratified in April by the Transport Workers Union. TWU International President John Samuelsen called the benefit a first for an industry with a long history of sexism against flight attendants, who are mostly women.

“I fought so hard. I’m done having babies, but I still get emotional just thinking about the moms that are coming after me that have this reprieve,” Manzo said.

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“My daughter’s ‘scientific proof’ that she loves me more than I love her (an going debate between us) is that my heart is full of other experiences whereas hers is less so, so there’s more room for love for me,” Jessie Christiansen, wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. “I’m actually kind of impressed.”

The little girl, named Clara, drew two hearts to illustrate her point. Clara’s heart is devoted to her parents; her mom and dad make up a huge part of her world. Christiansen’s also includes family, but way more “experienses.”

“Preceding this diagram, I thought I had come up with a good argument, which was that my heart is physically larger than her heart because I’m an adult and she’s a child,” Christiansen tells TODAY.com. “And her comeback was that even if my heart is larger, fractionally more of her heart is devoted to me.”

Clara’s diagram went viral after it was shared on the Tank Good News Instagram account.

“She casually developed a philosophical theory,” one person wrote in the comments.

Added another, “It adds up. Give her a Nobel.”

Clara was 8 when she crafted the diagram in 2023. She and her twin brother, Hugo, are now 9-years-old and in third grade. 

“She really thought it through. It was so logical,” Christiansen says of Clara’s drawing. “She considered the relative size of all these things that might be competing for my affection.”

Christiansen’s husband Philip Hopkins is a professor of theoretical astrophysics, which makes for interesting conversations at the dinner table.

“Our poor kids, they’re growing up in a house where logic and argument are a part of life,” Christiansen says. “We’ve taught them that when someone makes a statement, it’s their job to challenge it.”

“It’s a very different parenting style from say, my parents and me, so my mom will hear the kids argue back and she feels that they’re being disrespectful,” Christiansen explains. “But we should always be debating. ‘Because Mommy said so’ isn’t the answer to anything.” 

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This burnout can lead many caretakers to self-isolate, as they don’t feel like they have the energy to maintain relationships outside their family. Two out of three parents say the demands of parenthood sometimes or frequently make them feel lonely, according to the survey.

“When we’re out of energy, we retreat,” Mercedes Samudio, a licensed clinical social worker and founder of Shame-Proof Parenting, a company which offers mental health resources for parents, told CNBC Make It.

To curb burnout at home and in the workplace, take these three steps.

1. Tap into your support system.

Talking to a friend or family member about your feelings of exhaustion or loneliness can help you feel supported.

Sam Carr, a self-proclaimed “scholar of loneliness” and a professor at the University of Bath says many people suffer more because they try to wish away or ignore feelings of loneliness.

“There is the potential for connection in loneliness,” he told CNBC Make It. “It provides the potential for us to have compassion for each other, for us to embrace each other’s vulnerability.”

2. Set realistic expectations.

Make sure your to-do lists match your energy levels.

One way to put this into practice, Samudio said, is to write down your goals and reassess them each week to see if they are working or if they need to be tweaked.

Holding yourself accountable to an unrealistic task list will only add to your burnout.

3. Take small moments for yourself.

Create rituals in your life that give you energy.

Aliza Pressman, author of “The 5 Principles of Parenting: Your Essential Guide to Raising Good Humans,” told CNBC Make It that small meditation can help you better regulate your emotions.

If you have time to meditate for 20 minutes every day, that’s great. Most parents don’t.

Instead, try reflecting during your everyday tasks, like brushing your teeth or walking to the mailbox.

This can help you curb burnout and be more present at work and for your children.

Want to make extra money outside of your day job? Sign up for CNBC’s new online course How to Earn Passive Income Online to learn about common passive income streams, tips to get started and real-life success stories.

Plus, sign up for CNBC Make It’s newsletter to get tips and tricks for success at work, with money and in life.

“We’ve all seen the movies where the babies get swapped in the hospital, when the parents take the wrong one home,” a mom named Maisie, who lives in the U.K., said in a TikTok video. “Never in a million years did I think this was something I’d have to worry about. But yes, it did actually happen to us.”

“My newborn baby was swapped at birth,” Maisie captioned her video with more than 1 million views. The National Health Service has confirmed the incident and says it is investigating.

Maisie shared that 48 hours after she delivered a daughter named Isabella in September 2023, hospital staff placed the baby under phototherapy lamps for medical reasons.

“Because of her condition, she needed to be monitored very closely,” Maisie said in her video. She explained that her room was across the hallway from Isabella’s nursery.

“She was being monitored every two hours by the nurses so they definitely knew who me and Isabella were,” Maisie said in her video. “But night number two in the hospital is when the unthinkable happened and I was given the complete wrong baby.”

Maisie explained that she woke up at 3 a.m. and went to see Isabella, who was lying in a cot in her nursery.

“I … went off to the toilet and on my way back, the nurses called me into the office because they had Isabella in there,” she said. “This did raise a few little red flags, just because I was told she wasn’t allowed out of her phototherapy lamp. And of course, I did ask them, but the midwives explained to me that they had her in the office because she had been crying loads and she just wouldn’t settle.”

Maisie (who was only two days postpartum and very tired) said she picked up the baby and went back to her room.

According to Maisie, when the midwives came to check on Isabella, “They were saying how much she looks like me.” After a few hours, Maisie said she asked the nurses when Isabella should return to her lamp.

“They told me to get her undressed and ready,” said Maisie. She said she almost “had a heart attack” when she began changing the baby’s diaper to discover it was a boy.

“Isabella was definitely born a girl, so I honestly nearly passed out and I pressed that emergency button,” Maisie said in the video. “I was probably being really impatient but nobody turned up for about a minute. So I picked up the baby and I stormed into the office. All I saw was red and I was demanding for them to tell me where Isabella was, because this was not my baby.”

Maisie said the nurses’ “faces went white.”

“The reasoning behind it was apparently because I looked identical to this little boy’s mom so they just thought that I was her, without checking,” said Maisie in her video.

According to the mom, who was hospitalized for five days, “it was never spoken about again.”

“I’m not even sure if the other mom knew what happened, which is really worrying,” said Maisie.

In a different video, Maisie stated she had a “legal meeting” about what happened.

Maisie did not respond to a request for comment from TODAY.com, nor did she name the hospital in her video.

A spokesperson from University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust confirms to TODAY.com that the incident described by Maisie occurred at Poole Hospital.

The spokesperson pointed TODAY.com to a website statement:

“We are investigating an incident in our maternity unit in September 2023 in which a baby was temporarily handed to the wrong mother. We deeply regret any distress that was caused and are committed to providing full support to the affected families. The safety of our parents and babies is the highest priority. We have fully reviewed all our safety procedures and we want to reassure you this was an isolated incident.”

According to the website, in addition to hospital staff identifying babies with name bands, “Since this incident we have reminded staff to ensure a member of our team always walks out with you when you take your baby home for the first time.”

The BBC reported in March 2023 that maternity staff at Poole Hospital were issued a “statutory warning notice” by the Care Quality Commission for not investigating problems in a “thoroughly or in a timely way.”

According to the BBC, University Hospitals Dorset “said it was improving.”

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In the last 13 years, 37-year-old Emily Westerfield has delivered 10 healthy babies. Three were her own biological children. She acted as a gestational carrier for families of the others. Twice, she carried twins.

She is now 28 weeks pregnant with baby No. 11.

“I’m probably the unicorn in this industry,” Westerfield tells TODAY.com.

Her incredible success in navigating the surrogacy experience led her to give birth to Carrying Dreams, her own full-service agency designed to help egg donors, surrogates and intended parents on their parenting journeys in a way that works best for them.

So, would Westerfield consider having baby No. 12?

“In a heartbeat,” she says.

Planting the seed for surrogacy

Westerfield and her husband, Max, live in Celina, Ohio, with their three biological children: Mckenna, 13, Jack, 11, and Charlie, 10.

In 2010, Westerfield spent a lot of time bonding with Max’s cousin, who had been having trouble sustaining a pregnancy for years. She was suffering from secondary infertility and struggled to bring a pregnancy to term.

“She just continuously kept having loss after loss, and it was heartbreaking,” she says.

Westerfield was able to conceive and deliver her three biological children with relative ease, making her feel “guilty” every time she shared the news with her husband’s cousin. Without knowing much about the process of surrogacy, Westerfield offered to be a gestational carrier for the cousin’s embryo.

“They did not feel that surrogacy was the path that they wanted to take,” she explains, “but I knew that there were probably so many other people in the world who needed help in a very similar way. Maybe I could help.”

Even while she was pregnant with her third (and last) biological child, Westerfield mentioned to her husband that she was interested in becoming a gestational carrier.

“I was shot down by him so many times,” Westerfield says with a laugh. “The more and more I shared to educate him, I think the more and more he felt comfortable with it. Or he just got sick of me nagging.”

The first surrogacy journey

After her son Charlie completed their family, Westerfield activated her search to find another family to assist via surrogacy in earnest. She joined an online forum that no longer exists. “It was almost like a Craigslist of everybody in the infertility community,” she says. Surrogates, egg donors, sperm donors and intended parents used the site to help create families.

“I created a profile and just put myself out there,” says Westerfield. “I was overwhelmed with the response and just inundated with emails and queries. The more and more that I got into this, the more I realized there’s so many more people out there that need the help than the people that are willing to help.”

Westerfield had initial conversations with a handful of hopeful parents and ultimately chose a couple that seemed like a good match in terms of personality, age and location. They were an easy three-hour drive away.

But the decision wasn’t easy. Each story was more heartbreaking than the one before. The family that Westerfield ultimately decided to help already had two children. During the second birth, the mother needed an emergency hysterectomy, leaving her unable to complete their family with the third child they so desperately wanted.

Calling to tell the couple the good news “was so emotionally overwhelming and exciting and nerve-wracking, all at the same time.” Using the embryos the couple had already created, Westerfield delivered their third child, a girl, in December 2015.

“And that’s when everything started,” Westerfield says.

Growing families

Westerfield says, “I noticed that as soon as I had the first one, I wanted to do this again. It was almost just like, ‘Now who else can I help?’”

She delivered healthy babies in 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2021 and 2022. She is currently pregnant and due in July.

“I’ve been able to completely just have wonderful pregnancies,” she says. Even so, at age 37, she knows that she may have a limited window in which to continue.

The process of being a gestational carrier is markedly different than being pregnant with your own child, according to Westerfield. For instance, there are screenings and contracts and psychological evaluations. Her husband did not accompany her to appointments. She keeps in mind that the end goal is to deliver a healthy child so that another couple can “start, build or complete their family.”

Wondering if it’s ever hard to let go of a baby you have physically carried for nine months? Westerfield says it’s not.

“I get attached like a loving aunt,” she explains. Knowing the heartbreak that the couple has gone through in the past, “you want to hand that baby over when you get to the end of this.”

Carrying 12 dreams

Westerfield started her own surrogacy agency in August 2023 in part to help educate and provide resources for both potential surrogates and intended families.

“I feel like there’s so much information out there that it’s overwhelming,” Westerfield says. “And a lot of it is outdated or incorrect, and I want to be able to speak from personal experience going through this process.”

She also helps match families with gestational carriers and helps hold their hand through a stressful process, making sure they are on the same page for important topics like physical or chromosomal abnormalities, geographic location, contact preferences after birth and even vaccination status.

It’s difficult to find gestational carriers who are willing and fit all of the qualifications. Westerfield also thinks it’s essential for gestational carriers to have completed their own families before helping others grow theirs. She has about six prospective couples for every one potential surrogate.

Westerfield takes a lot of pride in helping families grow, especially those she has carried children for. She stays in touch with each family in some capacity via text or social media, and she tries to remember to send birthday gifts.

“I am so proud to be able to do this for other people. I know my time is very limited as we’re getting closer and closer to how many people I’m able to help, but still I’m young enough and I’m healthy enough to be able to do so,” Westerfield says. “And I’ll continue to help as long as my body and my family allows me to.”

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In a statement posted to his Instagram page, Barker, an American comedian, said a baby sitting a few rows away from the stage was “talking” at the start of his show, prompting him to make a few jokes about it. But when the baby “called out again,” Barker became concerned.

“I then calmly informed the woman holding the baby that the baby couldn’t stay,” he said in the statement. “I felt bad doing so and stated this at the time as well as several times throughout the remainder of the show. As she was leaving, I offered for her to get a refund, as a gesture of good will.”

Barker emphasized that he made the “very tough call” with about 50 minutes of the show left on behalf of “the other 700 or so audience members who deserved to see the show they had paid for, uninterrupted.” He also pointed out that the show was for audiences 15 and older and said the theater should have flagged the baby’s presence before it seated the mother.

In an interview with the Australian TV show “A Current Affair,” the mother, Trish Faranda, said she left the show feeling humiliated, adding that she had gone to the show because it was something she did “pre-kids and always really enjoyed.”

Faranda said that she attended the Melbourne International Comedy Festival show with a game plan to leave if her 7-month-old, Clara, became “disruptive.”

“She started gurgling, babbling … but not for very long, because then I just gave her a quick feed, and she was quiet,” Faranda told the show. Then, the baby started making sounds again, which Faranda described as not “as loud as someone coughing.”

“Then he was sort of like, ‘Oh, no, it’s really disruptive, you’re interrupting my rhythm.’ … Then he threw back to the crowd and was basically trying to get their support to say ‘get out,'” Faranda told “A Current Affair,” saying she felt heckled.

Barker did not address possible heckling, but he mentioned in his statement that his decision to ask the woman to leave had nothing to do with whether she was breastfeeding or not.

“For the record, I support public breastfeeding, as it’s perfectly natural,” he said.

He did not apologize to Faranda for asking her to leave but said he feels bad “for any upset it has caused the parties involved, or my fans, or babies.”

“I’ve nothing against babies, in fact I was one once, for almost 2 years,” Barker said. 

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“I just made an Evite for my daughter’s first birthday party and on Evite it says, ‘Import contacts’ and I thought it meant import to select through (the names),” Emily King, 30, a mom in San Jose, California, said in a viral TikTok video with more than 12 million views.

“No — it imported all 487 of my contacts and invited them to this birthday party,” continued King, a teacher. “Not only did it invite my boss, all of my coworkers (and) all of the people that have ever been stored in my phone but it sent invitations based (on) how they are stored in my phone.”

“I want you to just take a second and think about everyone stored in your phone and how they’re stored in your phone,” she said. “And then imagine someone receiving an invitation … ‘Derek Eye Roll.’ He received an invitation (and) ‘Jess Hit Her Car In Parking Lot.’”

“Anyways, I have to quit or get a new identity,” said King. “I don’t even know.”

More than 23,000 people commented on TikTok.

• “I would be SPIRALING.”
• “I would die if ‘Mark STILL OWES ME $100’ came to my son’s birthday.”
• “Rita ‘Annoying co-worker’ accepted (the) Evite.”
• “I went on a date with a man and saved him under his dog’s name. His dog’s name is Margaret.”
• “I wonder if ‘Table on FB Marketplace’ will attend?”
• “I would actually be honored if ‘Tampa Rental Place’ showed up.”
• “I wonder if ‘Blocked & Dead to me’ would make it?”
• “‘Possible stalker’ would definitely show up.”
• “‘DO NOT ANSWER!’ Regrets to inform you he will not be able to attend.”
• “‘Lawyer I owe money to’ is definitely going to find out where I live now.”
• “This birthday is about to be lit.”

“It was hilarious and terrifying,” King tells TODAY.com of the mishap. “I was mortified and in shock.”

This week, King got an early start on planning her daughter’s first birthday party in June.

“I was really excited — because I am 20 weeks pregnant, I wanted the day to be all about my daughter,” says King.

King designed a “Lord of the Rings”-themed invitation and planned to email 50 guests, expecting approximately 35 would attend.

According to King, she clicked “Import guests from previous parties,” intending to cherry-pick friends she had invited to her gender reveal gathering, then clicked “Import (phone) contacts” to locate a specific person.

“When I typed ‘Dad’ it showed he was already invited,” she recalls. “I thought, ‘Weird.'”

That’s when King saw the 487-person guest list. She panicked and was able to delete the invite within several minutes of the error — but it was sent. “All the blood drained from my body,” she says.

Scanning the public guest list, many with emojis she had selected for each name, King saw old contacts stretching back 15 years.

There was “Derek Eye Roll,” a grad school tutor who was “kinda annoying,” King says, and a cute guy named “Justin Delta Sky Lounge” who she flirted with en route to New Zealand when she was 21. King’s high school science lab partner received an invite, as did all her ex-boyfriends, including “Cute guy from bar.”

King was hoping to never hear from “Jess Hit Her Car In Parking Lot,” whose car she dinged outside of Trader Joe’s, but says, “Now I’m worried she’s going to follow up.”

A spokesperson from Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment from TODAY.com.

The next day at school, King’s students — 70 of whom were invited — were gossiping about the party. “There were a lot of, ‘I wasn’t invited but you were’ conversations,“ says King.

King painstakingly uninvited her colleagues — including “New science teacher I think?” and “David parking lot attendant,” as well as her vice-principal.

“I am a very social person and I … never delete my contacts,” King explains to TODAY.com, adding that she often uses shorthand cues to remember people.

Olivia Pollock, Evite’s senior director of brand marketing, tells TODAY.com the company added a new function in King’s honor.

“Emily’s journey inspired something we call the ‘Emily Hotfix‘ that removes the ‘Select All’ function on iOS apps,” Pollock told TODAY.com in part. “We’re always learning from our users, and hope this update is a help for other users too.”

Fortunately, says King, many guests didn’t RSVP — she assumes they understood the error or were just embarrassed — however, she invited dozens more to the party, because, she says, why not?

To help pay for the bigger party, Evite sent Emily and her husband a $250 DoorDash gift card.

“I have a pretty good sense of humor … I’m glad I could bring joy to people,” says King, adding, “My second daughter’s birthday party will be just as cool.” 

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Last week, Michiko Sasaki took her 4-year-son Kobe to Battery Playscape in Battery Park City, a residential area of New York City. Kobe has anxiety and sensory processing disorder, which for him, means he’s not always attuned to his bladder signals. That day, when Kobe had to go, it was an emergency.

“There was a building with bathrooms … with ‘No bathroom’ signs,” Sasaki tells TODAY.com.

The mom looked around for another bathroom in the park but Kobe yelled, ‘Mom, I need to go!'” She led him to the back of the bathroom building where he relieved himself on a patch of dirt and weeds.

“Suddenly … park officers circled me,” says Sasaki. “One said, ‘Step out, this is not legal’ in an aggressive and abrasive tone. Instantly, I got defensive.”

Sasaki says she pointed to the restroom sign indicating it was closed. “What did they expect us to do?” she says. “Using the bathroom is a right.”

According to Sasaki, an officer waved in the direction of an alternative bathroom, however, she insists her son wouldn’t have made it in time.

“There were no directions for the other bathroom on the sign or a portable toilet,” she explains.

Sasaki says her son Kobe was nervous in front of the officers.

“He was tugging on me to leave, saying, ‘I don’t like this,'” she says, adding, “Every time he used the bathroom that day, he said, ‘Remember those mean people?'”

Sasaki was issued a $50 summons, to which she has the option of responding in a July 2 hearing.

“I did observe the respondent allowing her child to urinate on (park) property, next to (the) public bathroom that is open to the public,” reads the summons, a photo of which was obtained by TODAY.com.

Other potty emergencies have brought charges.

In 2019, Georgia mom Brooke Johns, who was 9 months pregnant, was cited for disorderly conduct when her 3-year-old son urinated in a gas station parking lot. Johns told Augusta station WRDW-TV that her court date was scheduled several days before her due date. Johns’ charges were later dismissed.

Sasaki says she plans to appeal the summons.

“It’s not about the money — it’s the principal,” she says. Sasaki acknowledges that allowing her son to urinate in public is against the rules, however, she is frustrated by what she says were lack of options in a rare emergency.

“Had my son peed in his pants, he would have been on playground equipment with wet pants,” she says. “That’s not OK either. Would that have resulted in a ticket?”

“Having lived in other big cities, I’ve noticed a lack of resources for basic human needs for families,” she adds. “Clean, accessible and functional bathrooms are one example … many public bathrooms are dirty and unusable.”

Sasaki, who does not live near Battery City, says she is unlikely to return to the park.   

Kelsey Jean-Baptiste, a press officer for the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation tells TODAY.com:

“We want every New Yorker to be able to enjoy our parks and feel comfortable in them, which is why NYC Parks maintains more than 1,600 public restrooms across the five boroughs for the benefit of the public and the health of our city. Public urination in parks is prohibited, and we ask everyone to use the designated facilities provided.”

A spokesperson from the the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation also tells TODAY.com:

“There are three different bathrooms in total inside Battery Park: Castle Clinton, The View (nearest to the playscape behind the concession), and the restroom on the other side of the park near Battery Place (NW corner).”  

The spokesperson clarifies: “The public bathrooms are located at the back of the building that contains ‘The View,’ and across a path from the Playscape.”

According to Jacqueline Whitmore, a business etiquette expert in Mount Dora, Florida, situations like Sasaki’s are mitigating circumstances, especially for parents of children with disabilities.

“From an etiquette standpoint, people should always uphold the law whenever possible but … she was trying to find relief for her son,” Whitmore tells TODAY.com. “Without knowing all the details, the authorities may have overreacted” with a summons versus a warning.

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“You’re kidding, right?” Nora replied.

When I didn’t immediately respond, she repeated the question — only louder. And was her voice quivering? 

“You have a lot of stuff,” I said, motioning to 63,000 unopened puzzles and art kits.

Plushies cover the floor of my third-grader’s bedroom. They are crammed on her bed, and in baskets throughout the house. And then there are the figurines. Don’t get me started on the figurines, which no one cares about until they are in the mouth of our dog and then suddenly they are the most important thing.

Maybe this is why “no presents but your presence” parties are so confusing to me. As a Gen Xer, it feels weird showing up empty-handed. Apparently, I’m not alone in feeling this way. When I asked my friends on Instagram, 25% said they ignore the no-gifts request.

As one person wrote, “They’re kids! Let them live a little!” 

Evie Granville, co-author of “Modern Manners for Moms & Dads,” offers a different take.

“Parents have lots of reasons for saying, ‘no gifts,’ and they can be complex,” Granville tells TODAY.com. “For example, some are particular about the types of toys they allow in their home — but there’s no polite way to convey ‘nothing plastic’ in an invitation. It’s easier to just say, ‘Your presence is our present.’

According to Granville, while you should honor the request, she notes that there are some workarounds.

“You could bring balloons or a big, swirly lollipop. Think about things that will disappear in a few days,” Granville says. Gift cards are another good option, but make sure they focus on an experience. 

“A certificate to your local ice cream shop or a trampoline park are both safe bets,” Granville says. “That way, you’re not bringing clutter into someone’s already overcrowded playroom.”

Etiquette expert Catherine Newman says there’s no question — you must put your own feelings aside and respect the wishes of the parents.

“If it was a gluten-free birthday party, would you bring a cake with gluten? No,” Newman tells TODAY.com. “It’s not your call.” 

“For some parents, the no-gift birthday party is truly important,” she continues. “It might be a crux of a religious belief or a worldview.”

Newman was a “no-gifts” mom when her kids were younger. Looking back, she says she might have done it differently.

“It’s just a small moment in time — soon they won’t want toys anymore,” she says. “There are plenty of opportunities to teach them about values. I don’t think we needed to be so overwrought about everything.”

My daughter Nora attended a classmate’s no-gift birthday over the weekend. The dad tells me that out of the 15 kids, four brought gifts. In case you were wondering, we were not part of the four.

“There were a few handmade cards, which I actually thought were really nice and thoughtful,” he says, “but maybe didn’t land with a 9-year-old as much as it did for us!”

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When my wife became pregnant, we discussed what kind of parents we would be. We spent time conceptualizing what we wanted our home to feel like, outlining ideas for our family culture, but even as bonafide foul mouths, we never considered what we would do when our child inevitably said his first bad words.

Then around age 2.5 as our son was trying to shove a star block into a rectangle hole, we heard him shout, “damn hell,” before chucking the entire shape sorter set. Rainbow colored plastic pieces soared through our living room, and we froze, unsure of how to respond. He continued repeating the profanities and slamming his pudgy fists against the toy. As his small body flailed and the cursing persisted, high-pitched and incorrectly enunciated, I couldn’t help but laugh. Soon all three of us were howling and he seemed soothed, forgetting about his frustration. My wife went over and showed him where the star block fit and reminded him to ask us for help next time.

After collecting ourselves, my wife and I stared at each other. Well, now what are we going to do? One of the worst parts about parenting is you can’t know if the decisions you make and the structure you set up are working until much later, and generally by the time you can assess your parenting choices, it’s too late. It has either turned out totally fine or is a disaster. In the moment, as we heard him happily singing his string of curse words, likely trying to conjure another laugh from us, we realized we could spend the next decade or more ineffectively correcting him, redirecting him to standard alternatives, and reminding him he wasn’t allowed to say bad words, or we could let it rip. And after all, it didn’t seem fair that we could say certain words while he wasn’t allowed, and neither one of us were looking to cuss less. So, at 2.5 years we decided to lean in to making our home first-amendment-forward and created an open-word policy. The initial boundary was simple: Inside of our four walls, our kid can say whatever he wants. 

As a parent, most of the time when I create a house rule, its premise is to create a “no” and put limits in place of what our son is not allowed to do. Usually, these rules evoke some type of bodily control; no throwing, no kicking, no hitting, no eating sticky popsicles on the couch, you have to wash your hair, you have to brush your teeth. The list of activities my kid must do and must not do is endless. It felt great as a parent to, for once, put an additive rule in place. It seems important to note that in our home, we do not curse at one another, which so far we haven’t had to explicitly discuss, and I assume he has picked up through how we model cursing. This might need to be revisited as he enters his tween years. 

Soon after he received the green light to swear, he internalized this cursing-in-the-house rule as a special privilege, and we’ve never threatened to take it away. In fact, he takes the house rule seriously. Early on in our open-policy experiment I was frustrated, likely by something banal like the weather being too windy or our dog walking too slowly during a walk in our Brooklyn neighborhood, when I yelled an expletive. Before the words fully left my mouth, my kid quickly reprimanded me, “You can only say bad words in the house, our car, Grandpa’s house and Auntie’s house.” (The rule has expanded slightly over time.) 

Our kid has just turned 5 and the cursing continues to be appropriate and contained. He can just say, “This is f—ing stupid!” when I tell him no more TV, or when he can’t get his Magna-Tiles to stack perfectly. It gives our kid something naughty to do when he’s mad instead of hitting or kicking us. Although sometimes he still hits or kicks or throws, we’re working on it.  

Moreover, cursing is a proven way to let off some steam, and small bodies are full of hot air. Other studies have linked swearing to higher cognitive abilities, improved creativity and even as a way to increase pain tolerance, and why shouldn’t these same positive attributes apply to children? Who knows, maybe we’re fostering long-term useful characteristics in him. Honestly though, even if none of this was documented or true, I’d let him keep cussing, because I know that most importantly, it feels f—ing great.

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“Don’t bring toys to the park unless your kids and you are ready and willing to share,” Blanco, the mother of a toddler, said in a TikTok video. “I don’t think it’s fair that you’re going to bring toys to a place where there’s going to be a bunch of kids and you are not willing to share the toys with the other kids. I feel like that’s just wrong.”

Blanco added, “I don’t think people should take toys to the park at all because of that whole situation. And yes, people need to know, ‘OK, this is mine’ …. but at the same time, I feel like that’s just cruel.”

“So, how about we leave the toys at home or be willing to share those toys? I don’t know what you guys think — I might be the only person with this opinion. But I’ve seen it too many times when I go to the park and we don’t take toys to the park because of that reason.”

Most of Blanco’s commenters heartily disagreed.

• “How about you teach your child that they aren’t entitled to playing with someone else’s toys?”
• “Don’t bring your purse unless you’re willing to share what’s in there!”
• “Should we also bring the entire park snacks, milk, blankets (and) chairs?”
• “Being forced to share is a root cause of becoming a people pleaser, saying ‘Yes’ because you’re afraid of upsetting or disappointing someone by establishing boundaries.”
• “It’s not my responsibility to raise your child and teach them boundaries!”
• “Completely disagree. Last summer I let other kids play with the water toys I brought and they ended up broken (and) the other parents didn’t care. I no longer share with kids I don’t know.”
• “Sharing is important. But so is saying, ‘Sorry, I don’t want to share right now’ and dealing with that disappointment and getting over it.”
• “Nah my kid (is) autistic and he carries his Spider-Man around everywhere. I think parents need to teach their kids to understand certain situations.”
• “Yes, this is why I don’t let my kids bring toys anywhere but the house and car. They are too young to understand how to share.”
• “Life isn’t fair. Teach them young.”

Blanco tells TODAY.com that sharing is a primary principle.

“We go to the park a few times a week and we see kids who share and who don’t share with others — that’s understandable as they’re little,” she says.

Blanco warns her son that if he brings toys to the park, he should share with other kids; if he later decides against it and she senses an argument, she might hold the toy so it’s out of the picture.

“Other times, I don’t bring his toys to avoid the whole scenario,” she says.

When another child doesn’t want to share toys with her son, Blanco redirects him to another activity.

“I don’t want to make other kids feel bad (for not sharing),” she says.

Should kids share their toys at the park?

Kids don’t have to share their toys, especially with children they don’t know personally, Francyne Zeltser, the clinical director of mental health and testing services at Manhattan Psychology Group, tells TODAY.com.

“If a child brings a toy to the park and actively engages with it, there should be no expectation of sharing,” she says. “However, if a child brings a toy or a bucket of toys and abandons them out in the open, they should expect for other children to play.”

Kids usually make their feelings known verbally, she says — “We’re playing with this, but you can have a turn later” or “We’re playing with this” — or through body language, like clutching a toy to their chest or shaking their head.

Saying no, adds Zeltser, is a skill that children should learn.

“It’s challenging because it’s not just about saying ‘No’ — which many children have no problem saying — it’s about the other child receiving and accepting ‘No,’” she says.

Zelster suggests making a plan before going to the park.

“Decide what you are bringing and how your child would feel if the item gets dirty, lost, broken or shared,” she says. “We want children to become more autonomous as they grow and feel proud of themselves for solving their own problems.

If your child is meeting a friend at the park, says Zeltser, communicate your plan with the other parent.

Blanco says she won’t budge on teaching her son to share.

“With appropriate boundaries,” she says, “sharing is a good, fundamental value.”

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Detective Sergeant Adam Price of the Oxford Police Department tells TODAY.com that Adam Sizemore called the police approximately “18 or 19 times” in less than an hour.

“It was disruptive,” says Price, adding, “This is a a K-5 school so there is not an abnormal amount of homework.”

Sizemore tells TODAY.com in a voicemail that “most” of the accusations aren’t true.

“I’m a single dad of a boy and a girl and I’m just trying to do the best I can and that’s all I can do,” Sizemore says. “People make mistakes.”

According to a police report sent to TODAY.com by the Oxford Police Department, on Feb. 29, Adam Sizemore “repeatedly” called Kramer Elementary School in Oxford “because his son gets homework which takes away from the time he has with him after school.”

Sizemore was trying to reach Principal Jason Merz, who was unavailable, according to the police report. After Sizemore was transferred to Merz’s voicemail, the report says he started calling the school repeatedly.

“During these conversations, Sizemore cursed at the secretaries while making demands of them,” the police report states.

According to the police report, a school resource officer spoke to Sizemore “several times” on the phone, instructing him to stop calling.

The officer said that he noted that Sizemore’s speech was slurred, asked Sizemore if he was intoxicated and Sizemore clarified that he was “high.”

That officer wrote in the police report: “Sizemore continued to curse at me and call me names, such as ‘B****,’ He also told me he was going to make sure I lost my job. I explained to Sizemore if (he) called again, I would file a Telecommunication Harassment charge on him. I ended up hanging up on him. Sizemore called right back with the same behavior he was warned about.”

Two officers paid a visit to Sizemore’s home but he did not answer the door, according to the report. When one officer returned to school, Sizemore was still calling.

The report stated that Sizemore eventually spoke to Merz, stating he did not want his son to have homework and started cursing at him; Merz ended the call.

On March 1, Sizemore resumed calling Kramer Elementary School, according to the police report. Principal Merz told police that Sizemore said in a voicemail: “I hoped that you (Merz) put on your big boy britches on today and have a conversation like a big boy.” Merz told police that he was concerned that Sizemore would come to the school.

That day, Sizemore placed approximately 18 or 19 calls to the Oxford Police Station, Price tells TODAY.com.

“This is Adam Sizemore,” a man identified by police as Sizemore said in a voicemail audio file sent to TODAY.com by the Oxford Police Department: “You’ve got a little bit of an a** chewing coming because of your employees — the ones I pay for — so if you could call me back …”

The father continued calling the police, in an attempt to reach the chief, and was transferred to the chief’s voicemail, according to police.

In body camera footage sent to TODAY.com by the Oxford Police Department, Sizemore is placed under arrest outside his home.

Price tells TODAY.com that Sizemore was charged with two counts of telecommunications harassment (a first-degree misdemeanor) and one count of menacing (a fourth-degree misdemeanor).

According to Price, if Sizemore is found guilty, he faces a maximum $1,000 fine and up to six months in jail for each count of telecommunications harassment; for the menacing charge, Sizemore faces a $250 fine and up to 30 days in jail.

After his arrest, Sizemore was taken to the Butler County Jail. Price says Sizemore is no longer in custody, although he could not confirm whether Sizemore made bond or was released by a judge. Sizemore’s next court date is March 28.

A spokesperson for the Talawanda School District tells TODAY.com it has no additional information beyond what’s in the police report.

The spokesperson adds, “I will share that we have received similar calls and messages to those received by the Oxford Police Department, to both our superintendent and the principal at Kramer Elementary.”

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The arrangement is “absurd,” says a woman on TikTok, who babysits her nephew for free.

“I was telling somebody the other day that I watch my nephew for my sister, once a week roughly or just whenever she needs, and they were so shocked that I did it for free,” Kaitlyn Wilson said in a February TikTok video. “Like, are other people’s families out here charging them to watch their kids for a few hours? That’s absolutely absurd if they are.”

Wilson explains why she offers her services for free.

“I get the opportunity to create a relationship with my nephew by babysitting him and being around him,” she said. “The fact that other people feel like they would need to be paid to hang out with their nieces, nephews, grandkids … is so messed up. And I swear, it will be those same adults at family parties being like, ‘Oh my god, why doesn’t so-and-so want to hug me or talk to me?’ They don’t f—— know you, dude. I feel like it’s not that hard to show up for and support people in your family, especially if you live near them.”

TikTok rallied around Wilson.

• “God bless you. I can’t even get my mother to watch my children for free. Are we not family?”
• “My sister refuses to watch my son. He’s six, almost seven, and she’s been saying since he was a baby, ‘Once he’s older.'”
• “I generally agree, except for older siblings. I’m begging y’all to please pay your teens for babysitting instead of parentifying them.” According to the American Psychological Association, “parentification” is when adolescents take on responsibilities that should be shouldered by adults.
• “We pay each other in treats and random errands.”
• “Yep. If it’s consistent, I’m not doing a full time job without pay. If it’s a date night, free. But Monday through Friday? That’s a job.”
• “I … help my sister with her three toddlers twice a week. People think I’m crazy. I’m African, it’s the norm to help out your siblings. Plus I love her.”
• “My parents say they should pay ME for letting them babysit my son — a relationship is priceless.”
• “My mom, sisters and mother-in-law would throw themselves into oncoming traffic before accepting payment for watching my son.”
• “Is it really babysitting? Or is it just spending time with family? It’s just spending time for me.”

Wilson, 27, who does not have children of her own, tells TODAY.com that she grew up in what’s generally considered a “village,” an admitted privilege.

“My parents had kids really young, in their early 20s, but their parents were also teenagers (when they were born),” she says. “My great-grandparents watched me and my siblings when we were little. When I was seven or eight, my grandparents retired early specifically to get us off the school bus every day, so my parents could work.”

Not all grandparents or extended family members are available or live close enough to babysit.

According to the Pew Research Center, 19% of people ages 65 and up were still working in 2023, “nearly double the share of those who were working 35 years ago.” In a different survey, Pew found that 55% percent of adults reported living within one hour’s distance of some relatives.

Wilson watches her sister’s 5-month-old son every week when she’s working nights or weekends as a hospital maintenance employee. She says babysitting her nephew is a convenient opportunity to nurture their bond.

“It’s the responsibility of adults to foster relationships with children — I’m a firm believer of that,” says Wilson. “When kids grow up and they are not close to older relatives, it’s not the fault of the adult child.”

Wilson, a former babysitter, says if she were paid to watch her nephew, their time together would be obligatory.

“When you’re paid, you might provide the bare minimum (care)” or watch the clock until the parent comes home, she explains.

And children, she says, might notice.

“Kids pick up on more than we think — if they later found out you were paid to hang out with them, they might feel like a burden,” she says.

Caring for a baby is hard, admits Wilson, noting that she’s heard people say they are likely to babysit (with or without payment) if the child were older.

“But you’re still fostering that relationship, even if the child can’t talk,” she says. “Love can’t be conditional based on how a child acts.”

Babysitting is not the only way to develop closeness with a young relative, says Wilson.

“You can foster (relationships) by just showing up for them,” she notes. “Going to (sporting) events … (going) to the park, reading books, baking … and always be the one reaching out.”

She adds, “Connection doesn’t necessarily have to be babysitting — just any positive interaction. I remember always wanting to do whatever adults were doing when I was little, (like) baking with my grandma or (sharing) what I learned in school. FaceTime is great (too).”

Wilson says child-care agreements should not take advantage of one’s free time or generosity. For Wilson, babysitting her nephew is joy.

“It’s such a privilege to be in my nephew’s life,” she says, “and to experience all his milestones.”

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“My kids have never had the opportunity to eat popular kid-marketed foods because my food standards are really high,” Adler began a recent video.

Adler said her children Arabella, 7, Olympia, 5, and Aston, 2, never feel like they are “missing out” because she creates alternatives from scratch. All it takes, according to Adler, is “a little bit of creativity and desire.”

“Their friends at school eat Goldfish at snack time,” Adler explained in the clip. So she decided to make her own version using what she considers to be healthier ingredients. 

“They were a big hit,” Adler tells TODAY.com of her homemade crackers, which she says taste like a “savory shortbread.”

Not everyone is convinced.

“One day your kids are going to move out and eat whatever their friends are eating,” one person wrote in the comments.

Added another, “I literally thought this was satire. Big yikes.”

Other reactions included: 

• “Your kids are so lucky to have you!!!”
• “I’m so glad i didn’t have a weird almond mom.”
• “My mom was like this. Started an underground junk food trade at the age of 10. Definitely consumed wayyyyyy more junk food than my peers bc I felt I had to consume as much as possible whenever I could.”
• “I literally thought this was satire. Big yikes.”
• “Y’all are mad bc she eats healthy?? What is wrong with y’all!”

Adler says she lets the negative comments roll off her back, and focuses on those who are interested in leading a natural lifestyle like hers.

“Everyone is entitled to their own opinion,” she tells TODAY.com. “I’ve been feeding my kids nourishing and nutrient-dense foods their entire lives. They understand why we eat the way they do, and they don’t feel deprived, because I make doughnuts and chicken nuggets and bagels.”

“We also have a lot of fun together in the kitchen — it’s an interactive experience,” she continues. “My 7-year-old daughter loves editing cookbook recipes to make them healthier. Last week we made an Oreo dupe and she was like, ‘Instead of using two cups of white sugar and one cup of brown sugar, we’re gonna do half a cup of coconut sugar, which is an unrefined sweetener.'”

Adler says that creating alternatives to certain food isn’t as time-consuming as it may appear.

“It’s sort of like brushing your teeth, right? The first time you do it, it’s daunting, but then it becomes second nature,” she says. “It’s the same thing with making your own food. In the beginning it feels intense, and then it’s like, ‘Wow, this is so easy. I can’t believe other people aren’t doing this.’” 

Arielle “Dani” Lebovitz, a pediatric registered dietician in Nashville, Tennessee, applauds Adler for finding a way to help her kids feel included at snack time. 

“I think it’s wonderful she created a way to give them Goldfish in a way that feels safe for her and her food values,” Lebovitz tells TODAY.com.

She notes, however, there’s a dark side as well.

“She is essentially shaming other moms here, making them feel like we have low standards and don’t care about our kids health,” Lebovitz says. “Making homemade goldfish is not just about creativity and desire, it’s also the actual time and accessibility.”

Lebovitz, author of “Becoming a Food Explorer,” notes that 1 in 5 children worldwide struggle with disordered eating, according to studies. 

“Early feeding practices shape a child’s future relationship with food more than than we might realize, affecting everything from their eating habits to their weight management and likelihood of eating disorders,” Lebovitz says. “There is a growing body of research around restrictive feeding practices and a higher association with disordered eating behaviors, including binge eating and emotional eating.”

Lebovitz gives her own kids store-bought Goldfish, which provide 3 grams of protein per serving. A 3-year-old needs roughly 13 grams of protein per day, Lebovitz says.

“If you’re looking for a little more staying power, pair your Goldfish with an additional protein, fiber or fat to help keep your kiddos satisfied,” she suggests. “This could look like making a trail mix with Goldfish, or even a grabbing an apple to eat alongside of your crackers.”

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In a viral Instagram post titled “Why I shower with my children,” Towns explains that it’s a “natural way to teach” her kids biology and to “model and monitor body hygiene practices.” Another benefit of communal bathing, according to Towns, is that it normalizes “everyday bodies” that have stretch marks, veins and body hair. 

“So many questions pop up naturally when you shower together. We normalize open conversations in the shower, there’s no silly questions, nothing too awkward to ask, etc.,” Towns wrote. She also uses the time to educate her children “on bodily autonomy, personal boundaries & consent.”

Dr. Wendy Lane, a child abuse pediatrician at the University of Maryland Children’s Hospital, agrees that bathing with one’s child provides an opportunity for important conversations.

“It can be a way to learn accurate names for body parts, explain the physical difference between genders, explain that bodies change while growing up and teach children about personal boundaries,” Lane tells TODAY.com.

“Letting children know that their bodies are their own is important,” she adds. “No one should be touching their private parts, unless providing assistance with toileting or bathing, if needed, and parents should be aware.” 

Towns did not specify which children she bathes with, but she has 18-month-old boy-girl twins and two sons ages 2 and 7.

When should kids transition to bathing on their own? 

“Bathing with children should always stop if the child asks to stop,” Lane says. But in general, children develop increased modesty between the ages of 3 and 5, according to Lane. At this time, neurotypical children can clean themselves independently. 

Towns’s Instagram reel, which has been seen nearly 12 million times, drew both praise and criticism. 

• “who ever thought it was a good idea to teach their child about human anatomy by using their own naked body needs serious psychological evaluating.”
• “I showered with my mom growing up and was often in the same room as she changed up until I was a teen, I never had the thought of it being ‘weird’ or ‘gross’ until I saw post like these with people being judgmental in the comments, it’s so normal! and knowing what cellulite, stretch marks and sagging skin looked like at a young age made me feel so much more comfortable in my body when I started to see these things. Mom had this and she’s still beautiful and so am I!”
• “You can have literally all these conversations without taking a shower with your kids.” 
• “When I was younger I showered with my grandma. It saved time and water and she showed me how to wash my hair and my body.”
• “My daughter is almost two and takes a shower with Dad almost every night since she was a newborn. Gives mom a break and it’s a great bonding experience. When will we stop? When our daughter wants to.”
• “nope…totally inappropriate.”

Towns believes the unkind comments are a result of Western society struggling to separate nudity from sexuality.

“I believe if people haven’t grown up with family showers or baths, or do not have children of their own, it’s extremely difficult for them to comprehend how it could not be sexual but a normal part of everyday life,” she told TODAY.com in an email.

Towns says a family shower inspired one child to ask, “Why are your nipples bigger than Dad’s?”

“It’s an opportunity to explain biology, ‘Because mine are designed to feed babies,’” she explains to TODAY.com. But most of the time, “When I shower with my children, they barely even notice I’ve got no clothes on because this is a normal practice in our lives, and always has been.” 

Towns notes that there are “boundaries, of course.”

“I will only answer questions that are asked,” Towns says. She also keeps her responses simple and age-appropriate. 

“My kids love having family showers and they get super excited playing together in the water,” Towns says. “When they’re too old or outgrow it we will have a conversation with them — father to son, mother to daughter.”

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Ms. Rachel, the beloved YouTube and TikTok hero to parents and children across the country, is taking her teachings to a new platform: picture books.

Ms. Rachel, otherwise known as Rachel Griffin Accurso, announced that she will be releasing her first picture book, “Ms. Rachel and the Special Surprise!: Encouraging Speech and Learning Through Play and Music” on Sept. 24. Published through Random House Children’s Books and illustrated by Monique Dong, this title is the first of a series of books that transform key lessons from her YouTube channel into an engaging story.

“It is truly a privilege to be able to teach and connect with children not just through YouTube but also through books and the enduring magic of storytime,” Accurso said in a press release.

Barbara Marcus, president and publisher of Random House Books for Young Readers, added, “She has captivated the hearts of children far and wide with her original songs and stories, including my grandson, and we are thrilled to support Ms. Rachel’s new world of imagination and joy for years to come.”

Accurso unboxed the new book on Instagram today while singing, “What’s in the box? What could it be? Do you want to take something out with me?”

After screaming with joy, she said, “Yay! I wrote a book! I’m so excited.”

Accurso was inspired to start creating videos when her son was diagnosed with a speech delay and she couldn’t find video content with real people that was slower-paced, interactive and encouraging of language development.

She used her dual master’s degrees in early childhood development and music education — and her husband’s Broadway experience — to create “Songs for Littles,” which helps children with speech development. Her social channels now have more than 10 million followers.

But the books aren’t all that’s coming for Ms. Rachel fans in 2024. This fall, Accurso will launch a new line of early-learning toys to help children strengthen essential sensory, motor, cognitive, social/emotional and communication skills.

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Co-regulation refers to an adult helping a child soothe their own emotions during a stressful incident.

Let’s say a child has a meltdown at the supermarket. Instead of admonishing them, gentle parenting, also known as responsive parenting, calls for the caretaker to co-regulate, which means providing empathy and modeling calmness.

Co-regulating with your child helps them learn how to handle their emotions as they grow up. And, according to child psychologists, kids who can better handle their emotions are more likely to be resilient and thrive in stressful environments.

‘[Kids] haven’t gotten the circuitry of self-regulation built yet’

Co-regulating, as opposed to scolding, meets a child where they are developmentally, Mona Delahooke, child psychologist and author of “Brain-Body Parenting: How to Stop Managing Behavior and Start Raising Joyful, Resilient Kids,” told CNBC Make It. 

“[Kids] haven’t gotten the circuitry of self-regulation built yet,” she says. “The ability to accept disappointment and unpredictability and talk yourself down, that’s a very long developmental process that most children don’t have until they are older.” 

If your child is throwing a fit about not being allowed to order dessert at a restaurant, it might look like they are being ungrateful or bratty. What is actually happening, though, is that they don’t have the skills to handle being let down yet. 

Unlike gentle parenting, authoritative parenting styles assume that a child misbehaving stems from a negative, self-aware place, Delahooke says. 

“Traditional parenting is agnostic of social-emotional development,” she says. 

How to co-regulate

1. Calm yourself down first.

In order to help your child self-regulate, you have to do so yourself, Aliza Pressman, a developmental psychologist and co-founder of the Mount Sinai Parenting Center, told CNBC Make It. 

Pressman is the author of  “The 5 Principles of Parenting: Your Essential Guide to Raising Good Humans.” 

Children “borrow our nervous system,” Pressman says. Whether you are, or are not, managing your behavior, your kids will follow your example. 

Before reacting to a frustrating situation, take a breath. Then, deliver a calm, measured response.

“As long as [your children] are not being chased by a bear, you can pause and then decide how you want to respond,” Pressman says. “And in doing so you are exercising their self-regulation muscle.” 

2. Approach your child with a calm tone.

Try not to raise your voice or look angry. Doing so often heightens emotions.

“Instead of just walking away or admonishing them for their reaction, you take a few minutes to ‘co-regulate’ and through your voice, facial expression and emotions, show a gentle, caring approach,” Delahooke says.

This could mean using a soothing tone or softening your facial expression to demonstrate your mood is stable.

3. Acknowledge your child’s emotions, then restate the boundary or rule.

Recognizing and naming your child’s feelings with them can help them start to self-regulate.

“When disappointment is compassionately witnessed and you are emotionally soothing, the child’s brain and body stress response is reduced,” Delahooke says. “An adult’s caring presence changes the way a child’s body and brain responds to stress. It reduces the stress hormones.”

But remember, the goal of co-regulation is to soothe the child. This doesn’t mean giving into their demands.

For example, you can say, “Dessert is really good and I understand why you want it, but we won’t be getting it tonight” or “I know waking up for school is hard and you’re tired, but you need to get out of bed.” 

Validate their emotions while keeping a firm boundary, Delahooke says: “You can have sturdiness, set boundaries and limits, and provide emotional safety at the same time.” 

Want to land your dream job in 2024? Take CNBC’s new online course How to Ace Your Job Interview to learn what hiring managers are really looking for, body language techniques, what to say and not to say, and the best way to talk about pay.

“The art of European parenting was such an exciting concept to me, especially as an American that grew up with a certain (scary) idea of what motherhood was supposed to look like,” entrepreneur Monica Millington wrote in an Instagram post. “I read the book ‘Bringing Up Bébé’ and while it was amazing (and I think any expecting parent should read it) it was funny because without knowing the concept of French parenting, Tom and I had already discussed that this was the way we wanted to bring up our child.”

Millington, her husband Tom and their infant son Cruz live in Singapore, where Tom works and their local group of friends are a blend of different cultures and nationalities.

“Before understanding this way of parenting (or realizing that parenting could be whatever we wanted to make it) I honestly thought that my house was going to have to look like Fisher-Price threw up all over it, that I would have to spend my days at mommy playgroups making pleasantries with strangers, and spending my Saturdays at dirty play gyms,” wrote Millington. “Don’t get me wrong, we have SOME of that sprinkled into the mix but we also realized that we could take Cruz to our favorite beach on the weekend where he could play in the sand and explore while we had our fancy lattes.”

She went on to explain how the couple doesn’t hesitate to take their son to restaurants or (“we just go to a slightly earlier seating than usual”) or include him in an adult dinner party (“Cruz might just stay up a little later that night”).

“Everyone is different and gets to choose whatever style of parenting suits them best, but I’m sharing this because I would have loved to hear it when I was expecting and wondering what being a parent was going to be like,” she wrote.

Commenters spouted off in the comments and compared her parenting theory to their own childhoods:

• “I was raised mostly like this. My parents took me on vacations to historical places, we cooked and baked, and I listened to music and watched movies and read books that weren’t ‘for kids’ and I am so so grateful … I grew up with adults having interesting conversations and learning interesting things instead of watching ‘Blue’s Clues.’ A charmed childhood for sure.”
• “Beloved core memory: laying on chairs and restaurant booths, snuggled under a pile of jackets that smelled like perfume falling asleep to my mum and her friends laughing.”
• “This is how I was raised. My parents took me everywhere and brought me coloring books and toys to keep me entertained. I was definitely bored sometimes but I also felt like they genuinely enjoyed having me around. It feels like a lot of parents do ‘kid activities’ but then resent having to do them and can’t wait to put their kids to bed and break out the wine.”
• “I had parents like that. I feel like I missed out on a lot.”
• “My parents raised me like this and I have more sophisticated interests and hobbies. My only advice as an only child is to maybe get him a sibling!! This way of parenting can be kind of lonely if you don’t have someone to share it with.”
• “‘Kid activities’ exist for a reason. Sure this is beneficial, but so is catering to your tiny human.”
• “I was raised like this too (I am Dutch). It was really lonely and personally I felt a little betrayed that my parents felt like it wasn’t important to plan activities that I liked, too. I’m 28 now and don’t really talk to them anymore.”

Others frowned at European stereotypes:

• “WTF is European Parenting? Guaranteed us Finns don’t raise our kids the way Italians do, LOL.”
• “Nothing says, ‘I know nothing about Europe’ as much as unawareness that European countries and cultures differ significantly.”
• “I can guarantee you those countries are not one monolith when it comes to parenting styles.”
• “I’m European and every parent I know does kid activities with their kids because we are not weird.”
• “Americans don’t treat children like part of their community. They’re more welcoming to dogs in public than children. So kids are siloed into the few places that don’t resent their existence or (are) kept at home. Then people wonder why they don’t know how to behave in public? You never gave them a chance to learn to be a part of a community. Yes, a three year old might scream. They’re learning (how) to be a human being. Give them a little grace.”
• “The reasons Americans don’t do this is because childless people act out every time you take your child in public.”

Parenting styles deviate from individuals, cultures, generations and countries — in Nordic nations, many babies nap outside for the fresh air; in Greece, Portugal and Italy, multigenerational households (and the family support that often comes with it) are popular and Europeans generally have more time off work than Americans to spend with their families.

Government policies are high stakes for families. Some European countries pay families stipends and spend more money on childcare; in the U.S., federal paid maternity and paternity leave policies don’t exist.

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“Under no circumstances will I be throwing my daughter a birthday party every single year,” Marissa Light, a 28 year-old mom in Pennsylvania, said in a TikTok video. “Here’s the deal: She is getting a first birthday party, she is getting a Sweet Sixteen and she is getting a graduation party” following her March birthday. Other than that, she is not getting any more birthday parties.”

Light, who has an 11-month-old daughter named Daisy, explained her reasoning further.

“Now, I have been to many children’s birthday parties whether they were 3 … 7 … 12 … and I’m sorry but as someone who did not have a kid at the time, they were not enjoyable. And I don’t even think the kid noticed that I was there. I am not going to force that on my friends and family.”

She added, “Now look, if you are someone who genuinely enjoys throwing your child a birthday party, pop off, Queen. Do what you want to do. I’m not telling anyone else how to live their lives. I just personally don’t find it necessary and I’m not going to be doing it.”

Light plans to celebrate most of her daughter’s birthdays with extended family.

“We will have dinner and cake with them every single year to celebrate my daughter’s birthday,” she said in the video. “And every year on her birthday, we are going to do a ‘Daisy Day’ or an ‘All About You’ day.”

On “Daisy Days,” the girl will choose her activities from morning to night (not including a shopping trip and other gifts) and be lavished with love and attention.

“When siblings come, we’re going to allow her to choose whether she wants someone to watch them or whether she wants them to come and participate in whatever activity we’re doing,” added Light.

Light knows that Daisy might want a birthday party one day. If so, she can choose between a ‘Daisy Day” and a classic birthday party.

“And again, if you like to throw yearly parties, throw yearly parties,” she said in the video. “I’m just saying as someone who has been to a lot of them and kind of felt obligated to be at them, I’m just not going to be doing it — it’s a lot of stress on my part to organize and plan and put on the party and I’m not going to be doing that to my friends who don’t even have children, my family who, their children will be older. I just don’t want a bunch of people sitting around at my house all day.”

Light tells TODAY.com that commenters called her a “terrible mom” adding, “People said my daughter is never going to speak to me again and I’m going to end up in a nursing home.”

Comments under Light’s video include:

• “Your daughter is literally going to hate you.”
• “Your poor kid. Why rob them of childhood birthday parties? It’s not about YOU, it’s about THEM. Yuck.”
• “Everyone deserves a birthday party every year. Even a small one with a few of their besties.”
• “The kid who doesn’t have parties … usually becomes the same kid that other parents don’t think to invite at all.”
• “I didn’t have very many birthday parties and now I have a complex.”

Not all children want birthday parties, said other commenters.

• “An introverted kid will love this. Just make sure that you’re celebrating that kid the way they’d like. Not the way you want to celebrate them.”
• “As a formerly anxious kid, the pressure of ‘performing’ at a birthday was stressful.”
• “The first birthday party is for the parents.”
• “I never had a birthday party and I turned out fine.”

Light tells TODAY.com that birthday dinners are a family tradition.

“I don’t consider that a party … (unlike) on social media when ‘momfluencers’ throw birthday parties with huge balloon arches and tons of food and bounce houses,” she says.

Daisy turns 1 on March 6 and the family will celebrate with a dinner. Light will also host a backyard birthday party for Daisy in April (when the weather is warmer) for family and a few friends.

“A lot of my friends don’t have children,” Light explains, adding, “I’ve been invited, without a child, to a lot of children’s birthdays … and I bring a gift but you’re sitting there watching a child play. I don’t want to make my friends sit around and stare at my daughter for a few hours. People take issue with that but it’s not about me. It’s about my daughter.”

Light points out that birthday parties are too expensive for many families and moms (almost always moms), often plan, execute and host while skipping the fun.

“People like to say, ‘It’s just one day’ but .. it’s way more than one day,” she says. “It can take weeks or months of planning on the part of moms.”

Light says she was called a “selfish” mom.

“But is a little bit about me,” she says, adding, “I want to make those memories with my daughter. If she wants a princess makeover, I’d like to be in the chair next to her getting pounds of glitter in my hair.” 

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“It was my worst nightmare,” Analysia, 25, tells TODAY.com.

Then she gave birth in a McDonald’s parking lot.

“I’m still in shock,” Analysia shares, as her husband, Daniel, laughs in agreement. 

“It was pretty intense,” Daniel, 27, says.

At around 11 p.m. on Jan. 11, Analysia, who was 38 weeks along in her pregnancy, says she started experiencing mild contractions. Initially, she brushed them off as Braxton Hicks, also known as false labor. Analysia went back to sleep, but was jolted awake by painful contractions. Moments later, her water broke.

It was go time.

The couple was out the door as soon as Analysia’s mother arrived to look after their children Jayce, 3, and Aubriella, 17 months. Analysia jokes that she’s never seen Daniel drive so fast.

“We were in the car for like two minutes when I was like, ‘Daniel, you have to pull over, I feel like I’m sitting on the baby’s head,’” Analysia recalls. “At that point, I knew he was coming, and we weren’t going to make it the hospital.”

Daniel pulled into a McDonald’s parking lot, and called 911, while Analysia climbed into the back of their SUV. At this point, it was 3:55 a.m, and snowing hard. 

“I pushed three times and he came out,” Analysia says. “The paramedic barely made it, but they were there to catch him.”

The first thing Analysia noticed was that the newborn was blue.

“I think it was because of how cold it was — snow was blowing into our car and it got on his face,” she adds. “Luckily, he was totally healthy and everything was fine. He passed all his tests at the hospital.” 

Analysia and Daniel chose the name Micah for their 8 pound, 6 ounce, bundle of joy. But they’ve been calling him “Little McFlurry,” after the fast-food chain’s famous ice cream dessert.

“Between the blizzard and the McDonald’s, we think it’s very fitting!” Analysia says.

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You may have heard this word from your kid when they’re annoyed, frustrated, amused or all of the above. Now you’re wondering what it actually means.

“Bruh” means “bro” and “can be used to address anybody,” according to Bark.us, a company that decodes teenage slang.

Urban Dictionary, meanwhile, primarily defines “bruh” as “the best answer to literally everything.”

The site devotes five pages to examples: A response to a “stupid” or obvious comment, a general greeting or a sign of exasperation, disappointment or disbelief. “Bruh” can substitute for “What?” or be used “just because.”

Kelly Elizabeth Wright, a postdoctoral research fellow in language sciences at Virginia Tech, points to more sweeping definitions.

“Merriam-Webster tells us that ‘bruh’ is a shortening of ‘brother,’ dating the first usage to 1894 and attributing it to the origins of the same Black Southern dialects which gave us the ‘brer’ in Brer Rabbit,” she tells TODAY.com. “It also notes the form’s development as a friendly and familiar form of address, expanding quite rapidly from exclusive reference to brothers or even male kin.”

Wright added that The Oxford English Dictionary documented “the term’s usage in scripted media such as plays and television to indicate working class or a rough-around-the-edges character.”

“Bruh” can also be used to insult — in the 2001 film “Zoolander,” Owen Wilson’s model character Hansel McDonald clashes with Ben Stiller’s Derek Zoolander at a club saying, “Excuse me, bruh.”

Why are kids saying ‘bruh?’

According to Wright, “bruh” doesn’t replace terms like “dude” or “you guys” but is interchangeable for some. Bruh can also be used as a general form of address to a general listening audience.

“Parents are likely a general listening audience for their children, which means they probably aren’t referring to parents as peers as such but rather as residents of a shared domicile or interpreters of a shared experience,” she says.

Emily Kline, a Boston psychologist and author of “The School of Hard Talks: How to Have Real Conversations with Your (Almost Grown) Kids,” tells TODAY.com that some kids say “bruh” to test their parents’ boundaries.

Kids reveal their underlying emotions with “bruh,” according to Francyne Zeltser, the clinical director of psychology, training and special projects at Manhattan Psychology Group.

“Bruh is not a noun — it’s equivalent to an annoyed or exasperated, ‘Mooooooooom,'” explains Zeltser. “However, when used among friends, it can indicate excitement, surprise or is a sign of endearment.”

Ask a child, says Zeltser, and they’ll explain it’s “just a thing.”

Is ‘bruh’ disrespectful to parents?

“It depends on your expectations for interacting with your child and the context,” says Zeltser.

If you say something “parental” to your child like, “Do your homework,” says Zeltser, responding with “bruh” would come off as rude.

If parents don’t like being called “bruh,” Zeltser recommends talking it out. “Directly tell your child, ‘My name is mom, not bruh,” she says. “Or, respond in a similar manner, which tends to curb the behavior.”

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“He’s a clever little guy and always thinking about how he can get the things he wants,” Auggie’s father Thomas Gallagher tells TODAY.com.

More than 72 million people on Instagram have witnessed Auggie’s determination. In a video posted on Jan. 5, Auggie is seen in a big-box retailer clutching a Fisher-Price DJ table. The text on the clip reads, “Told him he could pick out a toy that fits in his hand.”

“It fits in my hand,” Auggie announces to his dad, as he starts down the aisle with his find. Presumably Auggie is headed to checkout area. But not so fast.

“You can carry it, but I said you can get a toy that fits in your hand,” Gallagher reminds Auggie. “Can you hold it in one hand?”

You can see the wheels in Auggie’s head turning. No way is this kid backing down. As suspenseful music plays in the background, Auggie places the large box back on the shelf and … picks it back up by stuffing his little hand through a carrying slot on the box. The proud expression on Auggie’s face is the best part.

“He really said challenge accepted dad,” one person wrote in the comments.

Added another, “Dad, you probably meant ‘a toy that is the size of your hand.’ However, our nephew beat you on a technicality, therefore, he wins.”

For those who are wondering: Auggie did not get the DJ table, but he didn’t leave empty-handed. 

“He lost interest and picked up a fire truck instead,” Gallagher tells TODAY.com.

Gallagher says the reactions to the Auggie reel are refreshingly positive. People aren’t always so kind. 

“I post a lot of kid content and there’s often a lot of opinions on how to parent. But with this, there has been no negative feedback, and it’s actually fun to read the comments,” he says. “I’m happy the video is making other people so happy.”

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Not only did the couple eventually get engaged, but they’ve welcomed two adorable daughters into their brood. Blunt and Krasinski maintain a fairly low profile and don’t share many family photos or details. But in July, Blunt announced that she was taking a break from acting to focus on her family.

On the “Table for Two With Bruce Bozzi” podcast, Blunt said, “I just feel there are cornerstones to their day that are so important when they’re little. And it’s, ‘Will you wake me up? Will you take me to school? Will you pick me up? Will you put me to bed?’ And I just need to be there for all of them for a good stretch. And I just felt that in my bones.”

Like many mothers, Blunt has battles with mom guilt. She told Bozzi, “You’re just prone to feeling bad for, God forbid, wanting something outside of being a mother. I am huge advocate for it — I’m a huge advocate for women being ambitious. It’s just dreams with purpose, it’s not an ugly word.”

Blunt and Krasinski have joked that their daughters don’t really know what their parents do for a living. In fact, Krasinski suspects that his kids think he’s an accountant. He told Stephen Colbert that there’s likely a specific reason for that.

Krasinski explained, “I was walking [the girls] to school one day, and this guy came up, and he was very nice, he came up and he went, ‘John! From “The Office!”‘ I went, ‘Yeah,’ and he goes, ‘Oh, my God, it’s so good to see you,’ and I said, ‘Thanks,’ and he kept walking.

Hazel

Krasinski officially announced his entry into the “dad club” on Feb. 16, 2014. “Wanted to let the news out directly. Emily and I are so incredibly happy to welcome our daughter Hazel into the world today! Happy bday!” he tweeted.

Though he was delighted by his daughter, he admitted to People that becoming a father threw him into an “existential crisis.”

“I went through some really serious stuff,” he said. “There is a mirror that is held up to me now. You have someone watching you. You have to lead by example.”

Blunt told Jimmy Fallon that what Hazel was a young toddler, she had a bit of an English accent, which Blunt loved. She feigned disappointment at the fact that Hazel ultimately began saying, “waaaaterr” instead of “wuhhtah.”

Violet

Krasinski again took to Twitter to announce the birth of his second daughter on July 4, 2016: “What better way to celebrate the 4th… than to announce our 4th family member!!!” the excited father, who was 36 at the time, tweeted. “2 weeks ago we met our beautiful daughter Violet #Happy4th”

Blunt discovered that her second pregnancy was a bit different than her first.

“I think we are more laid-back this time,” the actress explained on TODAY. “We know what to expect. It is the great unknown with the first child.”

But a second pregnancy has its own set of challenges. “The first pregnancy is the most self-indulgent thing in the world because you get massages and prenatal yoga and hypnotherapy CDs,” she told C Magazine. “During this one I forget that I’m even pregnant. I’m hoisting my 2-year-old around!”

The parents were over the moon with their family of four. Shortly after Violet’s birth, Krasinski talked to People about 2 1/2-year-old Hazel’s relationship with her newborn sister.

“It’s a great age because she’s still young enough to not feel competitive with the baby, but still old enough to recognize how adorable the baby is. I think she’s in heaven,” said the proud dad. “When Hazel gives a hug to Violet, right there in that moment you can see this huge relationship that will last much longer than I’m around … it’s so beautiful.”

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“I feel a mix of both really cross and really upset,” said the mom in a video posted on her “SamanthaMary1989” TikTok account with more than 1 million views. “I’ve never felt, in one moment, so judged by somebody. I’ll be honest, I snapped.”

The mother explained that she went to Tesco, a supermarket chain in the U.K., with her son who was feeling ill. After rejecting the snacks she had brought in, the boy requested the food in their shopping cart.

“Because he had not eaten, I was like, ‘If he wants it, he can have it,'” said Samantha Mary in her video, adding that she allowed Jack to also eat a container of yogurt.

At the register, the mom handed the two empty packages to the cashier.

“I said to the lady serving us, ‘I just wanted to let you know: Jack’s eaten these two on the way around — here they are, so that you can scan them.’ I wanted to point it out,” she explained.

According to Samantha Mary, the employee gave her “the most disgusted look” while she scanned the items and then threw them out.

“I said to her, ‘I’m really sorry but we hadn’t finished with them. I just wanted to pass them to you so you could make sure they were scanned,'” said Samantha Mary. “So she … huffed at me, got them out of the bin and put them on the side.”

Samantha Mary said she apologized.

“She said, ‘I just don’t think it’s right that people let their kids eat stuff from the food shop on the way around,'” said the mom.

The employee, said Samantha Mary, pushed her “mom button.”

“I said, ‘I don’t really think it is your job to be giving your opinion on what you think — my child is really unwell, he has basically not eaten properly for a week, he wanted something in the shop, so I jumped on that opportunity for him to have something to eat.”

Samantha Mary said she was in tears, and the employee gave a “half-apology.”

“The judgment put on me was unbelievable and totally unacceptable,” she captioned her post.

A spokesperson for Tesco did not immediately reply to a request for comment from TODAY.com.

More than 8,000 comments proved the incident divisive:

• “I work in retail and this is one of my biggest pet peeves. Like, why can’t you wait to eat or drink?”
• “Absolutely no excuse in retail to be rude to a customer.”
• “You’re not meant to eat or drink items as you go round purely because what if something happened with your card?”
• “It’s stealing if you haven’t yet paid.”
• “I work in Tesco and (to be honest), yeah the colleague’s reaction was a little harsh, but it’s such a stressful time in retail … I don’t really care if parents let their kids eat on the way around.”
• “It’s only when they hand me a wet packet of breadsticks all gnawed, which is where I get a little disgusted, lmao.”
• “Why let it bug you? It doesn’t change anything.”

TODAY.com was unable to reach Samantha Mary for comment.

So, is it OK to let children snack at the grocery store before paying?

According to a 2019 survey on TODAY.com asking whether it’s OK in general for people (adults or children) to snack before paying at the supermarket, 46.6% of TODAY viewers say “Never” while 18.4% voted “yes”; 35% said the answer depends on the product.

Here’s an expert opinion: Jacqueline Whitmore, a business etiquette expert in Mount Dora, Florida, says most people have let hunger get the best of them before reaching the register.

“It may not be proper manners, but when you’re hungry, you’re hungry,” Whitmore tells TODAY.com.

Children generally get a pass at grocery stores, she adds, provided parents pay for the items and clean up any mess.

“Parents are usually more concerned about hungry children screaming or causing a stink,” she says, adding that some stores hand out free cookies to children to prevent meltdowns.

Whitmore, a former cashier herself, admits that accepting sticky or half-eaten packages isn’t pleasant; however, most check-out stations are equipped with paper towels, hand sanitizer, cleaning products and trash bins.

“It’s usually not a big problem,” she says.

Whitmore points out that being a cashier isn’t easy.

“You’re on your feet all day and have positive and negative interactions with people,” she says. “It’s often a thankless job.”

If you’re a parent or an employee and run into a problem that can’t be resolved, Whitmore recommends calling a supervisor.

“It’s not the cashier’s job to scold a parent or a child,” she says, “Nor should cashiers accept rude behavior.”

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One goal 47% of parents said they are setting is to be more consistent with discipline. And 78% of parents say they are going to strive to be more patient in 2024.

If you have trouble enforcing rules with your kids, you may want to try “responsive parenting,” Mona Delahooke, a child psychologist and author of “Brain-Body Parenting: How to Stop Managing Behavior and Start Raising Joyful, Resilient Kids,” told CNBC Make It earlier this year.

This is a combination of a more gentle parenting style and a traditional, authoritative one.

“The hype around parenting styles has taken us away from the more relevant question: ‘What does my child need at this moment?'” Delahooke says. 

Most children would benefit from a mix of both structure and empathy. You can discipline your child and set firm boundaries, while also acknowledging how they are feeling.

“Kindness and firmness are not oil and water,” she says. “They can go together.” 

‘You have to teach a child to regulate’

Let’s say your 4-year-old is throwing a fit in the grocery store because you won’t buy them a snack. Your knee-jerk reaction might be to scold them.

“Not only do you get mad at them, you blame them for being rude or you assign a motive that is negative to a very normal process of a child seeing something at the store and wanting to get it,” Delahooke says. 

Instead of expecting them to act like an adult who knows how to handle unpleasant feelings, meet them where they are.

“They haven’t gotten the circuitry of self-regulation built yet,” she says. “The ability to accept disappointment and unpredictability and talk yourself down, that’s a very long developmental process that most children don’t have until they are older.” 

This doesn’t mean you buy them a snack, she says. Instead of yelling at them, though, you stay calm and acknowledge that it’s understandable to be upset when you don’t get something you want.

This is scientifically proven to pacify your child.

“When disappointment is compassionately witnessed and you are emotionally soothing, the child’s brain and body stress response is reduced,” Delahooke says.  “An adult’s caring presence changes the way a child’s body and brain responds to stress. It reduces the stress hormones.”

It also helps a child learn how to handle difficult emotions.

“You have to teach a child to regulate,” she says. “You build self-regulation through relationships of safety and trust.” 

And all of this can happen without you yelling at your child, or giving into their request, Delahooke says: “You can have sturdiness, set boundaries and limits, and provide emotional safety at the same time.”

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The “beige” lifestyle trend, popularized by Kim Kardashian, has people swapping colorful clothes, home decor and accessories for those in neutral, monochromatic tones.

Natalie Powell makes no apologies for her Christmas tree makeover. Several months ago, she bought her 16-month-old daughter Vivian a Step2 “My First Christmas Tree,” a plastic toy with ornaments and a train set at its base.

“I wanted Vivi to have her own little tree to decorate for Christmas,” Powell of Jacksonville, Florida tells TODAY.com.

Knowing the tree would live in a common area of her home, she wanted it to match her neutral-colored furniture, so she gave it a “total makeover.”

“Go ahead and call me crazy or a ‘Sad Beige Mom’ for what I’m about to do,” Powell said in a TikTok video with eight million views. “I’m leaning into my inner Pinterest mom with a vision to neutralize the tree and I can already hear you thinking that I’m going to ruin my toddler’s Christmas by painting over these colors.”

“I really think that she’s a neutral girly at heart,” she added.

Powell spray painted the fir a paler shade of green, then covered the orange, red, yellow and purple ornaments in brown and beige hues. The star was treated with a dim gold.

“I love them. They’re definitely giving organic, modern vibes,” Powell said in her video. “Should I paint the train or leave it as is?”

More than 30,000 TikTok comments offered opinions.

• “I’m so glad you put your needs first.”
• “Whose tree is it really??”
• “As long as it matches your decor, that’s all that matters.”
• “It’s got the winter spirit. Cold and lifeless.”
• “I’m goth and like everything black. But only my room is black. Everywhere else is colorful because it’s my daughter’s home too.”
• “Sad beige baby.”

Some commenters accused Powell of exposing her daughter to chemicals in paint.

“Mine doesn’t put the ornaments in her mouth,” Powell responded to one comment.

Others said that color benefits children’s development.

“Early education professional here,” a commenter wrote. “Children being able to explore different vibrant colors is so important …”

Powell tells TODAY.com that she has a degree in child development, adding, “The comments crack me up.”

The majority of Vivian’s toys are bright and flashy, Powell says, although as she explained in her video: “Let’s be real — my toddler’s favorite toys are brown cardboard boxes and clear plastic water bottles.”

Still, Powell says her feelings were hurt when comments first rolled in. “I would never intentionally try to hurt my child.”

Fortunately, she says Vivian loves her Christmas tree.

And the mom is having fun with her online infamy. She introduced a sardonic TikTok series called “Sad Beige Mom” that follows her life with a “Sad Beige Baby.”

“I decided to roll with it,” says Powell. “It’s been fun.”

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“At first I thought I was losing my mind. I was like, ‘What am I missing here?’” So I posted in a group with loads of moms hoping they would have the answer,” Laura Rathbone, 40, who lives in Buckinghamshire, England, tells TODAY.com.

It turns out Rathbone wasn’t the only one scratching her head.

This was the task Rathbone’s 6-year-old daughter, Lilly-Mo, was asked to complete: “Which word is the odd one out?” The choices were: friend, toothbrush, silver, desk, and egg. 

“I would say toothbrush as it’s the only one with 2 syllables?” one person replied. 

Added another, “As a teacher myself I actually think this is an interesting piece of homework. I would imagine designed to encourage thought, reasoning and probably discussion at home.”

Other responses included:

• “You can only eat an egg…”
• “Toothbrush is the only word without an E.”
• “Friend because it’s a person and not an object.”
• ““??!!????!????!?!???!!”
• “Friend because it’s the only word that can not be phonetically sounded out. All others you can. Given its phonic homework that is what I would say it is checking.
• “Silver. The others are nouns.”
• Just say the dog ate it 

“Everybody had different theories, and it was quite interesting!” Rathbone says. “I really enjoyed reading all of the comments.”

The next day, Rathbone reached out to Lilly-Mo’s teacher, who explained that the children had just started learning about nouns — and that the correct answer was … silver!

Rathbone notes that silver is both an adjective and noun, which makes it confusing. 

Try this exercise with your Facebook friends and see what they say!

“I also asked about this in my parents WhatsApp chat and no one had the same answer,” Rathbone says. “It’s a real brain teaser!”

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“I was seven minutes late dropping my five-year-old off at school today,” Katlyn Whittenburg, 35, began a now-viral TikTok video. 

“Seven minutes late? What do you want me to say? What do you want me to say? Because I couldn’t? Because I simply cannot?” she asked. “Because my daughter painted a mural using toothpaste this morning, and I apparently support the arts. Because my other daughter had a bloody nose and sneezed and now I gotta get a crime scene cleanup crew to come.”

Whittenburg, who lives in Chattanooga, Tennessee, noted that most parents list “traffic,” as their reason for not being on time. She can relate — sort of.

“I mean, yeah, in that I wanted to walk out in front of traffic this morning because my 5-year-old didn’t want to wear a coat, she wanted to wear an unsanctioned bee costume for warmth,” Whittenburg quipped. 

Warning: Video contains NSFW language.

Not only is Whittenburg’s video comedy gold, so are the comments.

“I’ve written “I’m trash” three times this year,” one person shared.

Added another, “My mom used to say ‘car problems’ because we weren’t in the car on time and that was a problem.”

Other relatable excuses included:

• “I was super sick one morning and I wrote down ‘moms stomach was wrecked/kids can’t drive car.’”
• “spilled yogurt drink down pants and purposely sat on 8 blueberries.” 
• “because the lines on the socks, they can feel them….. THE LINES!”
• “The sleeve was touching his wrist.”
• My dad used to always write “snow in the driveway” we lived in Florida.

Whittenburg and her husband, Tavo Zambrano, share four daughters, ages 12, 10, 7, and 5 — and none of them take the bus.

“Every morning, it’s something,” Whittenburg tells TODAY.com. “One of our daughters always has to poop right before we leave. I would say 80% of the time, the reason we’re late is because she needs to have a bathroom moment, but not sure the school wants to hear that.” 

Whittenburg says she’s “grateful” that her 12-year-old wears a uniform to school — one less decision to make— but she’s quick to add that her 5-year-old is “bougie.” The kindergartener has been known to run back into the house to apply lip gloss. 

“I’m glad so many people are relating to the video,” Whittenburg says. “I think so many of us feel a lot of pressure to be perfect, and there’s a lot of shame associated with being late to school. It’s like, ‘You couldn’t even start your day off right?’ And so, I think it was a relief for moms to see that they’re not alone. And they’re not a failure.”

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“It started back when McKenzi was a baby. She had low birthweight and we wanted to keep a close eye on her,” Brandon, 32, tells TODAY.com. “And then it just sort of stuck.”

Recently, Brandon shared a TikTok video about his family’s sleeping arrangements.

In the now-viral clip, Brandon, who lives in Alabama, explains that he shares a king size bed with his wife, Meagan, and their 6-year-old daughter, Sarah. McKenzi has a twin size bed pushed right up against theirs.

After giving followers a tour of their shared bedroom, Brandon asks McKenzi why she likes bunking with her Mom and Dad.

“I don’t know,” the sixth grader replies. “It’s a little safer.”

McKenzi is deaf and removes her cochlear implant at night.

“At that point, she can’t hear anything and it’s an eerie feeling for her,” Brandon says, while chatting with TODAY.com. “Sometimes she’ll wake up and check to make sure we’re there.” 

“We have a fire alarm for deaf people but what if it didn’t work? I would never forgive myself,” Meagan says. “I don’t make McKenzi sleep in our room, but I’m definitely not going to force her out.”

Getting alone time is not an issue for Brandon and Meagan, who note that their girls are typically fast asleep by 8 p.m.

“That’s like four hours before we go to bed, right? And we have the whole rest of the house. It’s not as if we’re a one room house,” Brandon says.  

Brandon’s TikTok video has racked up thousands of comments.

“Co sleeping on and off through childhood years, both kids managed to go off to college successfully on their own thousands of miles away,” one person wrote.

Several pointed out that co-sleeping is common in many countries and very natural. But not everyone sees it that way.

“We’ve heard it all — you know, ‘You’re screwing her up. She’s going to have horrible separation anxiety. She’ll never be independent. Brandon says. “McKenzi is extremely independent.”

According to Liz Nissim-Matheis, a clinical psychologist in New Jersey, it’s best to end co-sleeping when a person reaches puberty, or at around 11.

“Once we get into that territory of bodies changing, that’s when you really want to take a step back and say, ‘What is going on here? How can we work through this anxiety.” Nissim-Matheis tells TODAY.com. “Ultimately, you want to promote our child’s ability to self soothe and to eventually live independently.”

But you want to do what works for your family, Nissim-Matheis says.

“This is a hot topic right now, and I think the pendulum swings in a lot of different directions,” Nissim-Matheis notes. “You’ll see one study where it’s like, ‘Your kids have to be in their own bed,’ and then a few months later, they’ll release guidelines about how we all want to be sleeping in the same bed.”  

Dr. Rebecca Fisk, a pediatrician at Lenox Hill Hospital at Northwell Health in New York City, warns that babies under the age of 12 months should absolutely not co-sleep as bed-sharing increases the risk of suffocation and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).

“Co-sleeping is a personal decision, not a medical decision. It’s important that people determine what their kids need,” Fisk tells TODAY.com. “However, once we get beyond the prepubertal age, I usually use that as my line in the sand. That’s when there needs to be the delineation of child room, parent room.”

Last year, actor Alicia Silverstone revealed that she and her then 11-year-old son, Bear, were sharing a bed.

“Bear and I still sleep together,” Silverstone said during a chat on “The Ellen Fisher Podcast.”

“I’ll be in trouble for saying that, but I really don’t care,” she added. 

In 2020, the “Clueless” star told TODAY that she and Bear “wake up and snuggle for two to three hours laughing and talking. Then we’ll go make pancakes.”

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Norland, which was founded more than 130 years ago, puts candidates through a four-year academic and practical training program where they spend around 1,300 hours caring for young children and newborns.

At the christening of Princess Charlotte of Cambridge in 2015 — the second child of the Prince and Princess of Wales — nanny Maria Teresa Turrion Borrallo was photographed in a formal Norland uniform, speaking to the late Queen Elizabeth II.

Norland nannies — who earn a Bachelor of Arts degree in early childhood education and care, plus a diploma when they complete a year as a probationary nanny — are highly sought after and well paid. For every nanny who graduates, there are around 8 to 10 permanent jobs available via the Norland Agency.

Nannies are known as ‘Norlanders’

Norlanders, as they are known after graduating, usually prefer to be known publicly by only their first names to protect the identities of the children in their care, as well as their employers.

But while training, they’re noticeable to residents of Bath thanks to their formal, brown uniforms — which have been likened to what Mary Poppins wore — a dress and hat for women, a suit for men, and a gender neutral option of trousers or a dress with a tweed jacket.

Alice, a Norland nanny who was raised in Bath, used to see the uniformed students on the bus when she was in high school, but at the time had “no idea” who they were, she told CNBC by phone. Knowing that she wanted to work with children, Alice explored teaching via a school internship, but felt a less structured setting would better suit her.

“I just felt like I could give those children so much one-on-one time to develop … to find their excitement for life [and] follow their interests,” she told CNBC.

Norland was established in 1892 by educator Emily Ward, who leaned on the teachings of Friedrich Fröbel, a pioneer in early childhood education who introduced the concept of the kindergarten and focused on the idea of the child as an individual with unique needs and abilities.

“You are learning everything there possibly is to know about childcare,” Alice said. “The degree is focusing heavily on the psychology of children and their learning, and the diploma is everything practical that you could experience in the family home,” she added. The program also includes practical learning outside a home, such as how to control a car in poor or dangerous conditions.

After graduation, a live-in Norland nanny working around 60 hours a week with one to two years of experience can expect to earn up to £41,500 (around $50,000) in London, according to Norland’s website, while a nanny with eight or more years’ experience working outside the U.K. can earn up to £124,000.

Top tips

Alice has more than a decade’s experience as a nanny, starting her a career with a military family in the U.K., where the father was deployed in Afghanistan.

Her longest role was in New York City, where she looked after a girl and her twin siblings for nine years, starting her job when the twins were 18 months old and the girl was three. Their parents worked in real estate, and Alice was in sole charge of the children from 7 a.m to 7 p.m.

“One really, really important tip for any … parent is every child is different and grows and learns at different speeds,” Alice told CNBC.

“It’s very easy, especially for a first-time parent with a baby to think oh, well, my baby isn’t crawling yet. Why are all of these other mums telling me that their baby is crawling?” she said.

“But one child who isn’t crawling might be able to build a tower of blocks sitting up,” she added.

“Don’t compare other babies, just go with what works for you to keep the child happy and healthy,” she said.

Comforting a crying baby

Sleep is an obvious concern for carers of small children, who nap at various times of day. Alice is currently looking after a 10-month-old girl, an age where sleep regression — when a child has trouble falling asleep or staying asleep — is common, she said.

“If they’re not getting enough sleep in the day, they’re probably not going to be sleeping at night.”

Every child will have a different sleep routine, and Alice recommends a consistent approach to comforting a crying baby. “What I would always say is, go in, ‘shhh’ them, put your hand on their tummy to let them know you’re there, but try not to speak to them,” she said.

“Babies are like adults who wake up in the night. Most of the time we go straight back to sleep. But sometimes, you just can’t get back to sleep. And that’s so frustrating for us as adults, let alone as babies [for whom] the only communication … is crying,” she said.

Dealing with tantrums

Alice described her role for a child having a tantrum as a “safe space.” “I’m on the floor around them … to give them some comfort while they’re going through it,” she said.

“With a child who has started to communicate verbally, they don’t want to listen to what you have to say, that’s not the right time to be talking about it,” she said. Instead, she suggested, speak to them afterward, when they’re in a better frame of mind.

Instead of saying ‘no’ — do this

If a child is doing something you don’t want them to do, consider “redirecting behaviors,” Alice said.

“If they are throwing a ball at the wall, and you really don’t want them to be marking the wall … [you can say], ‘why don’t we play a game of who can get this ball in the saucepan?'” she said.

“Redirecting the same behaviors instead of a constant ‘no, don’t do that,’ I have found in my experience, children will respond much better to,” Alice said.

Making sure you respond to children regardless of their behavior is also important.

If you’re cooking dinner and a child wants to play, “You can say, ‘give me five minutes and let’s throw the ball in the saucepan.’ … That might not necessarily work the first time, but they will know that you will always come back to them,” Alice said.

“If you’re not giving them the attention elsewhere, but you are giving it when you don’t like them doing something, they’re going to really focus on those behaviors,” she added.

Give children a choice

If you have a child who refuses to get dressed, let them choose their outfits.

“That gives them the feeling of control,” Alice said. “But really, you’re you’re saying [these are] the warm weather outfits that you can wear, so you’re keeping them safe, while so allowing them to be in control,” she added.

Dealing with bad behavior

If a child’s behavior is dangerous or harmful, such as if a toddler attempts to bite another child, try to understand that this comes from “frustration, or it’s curiosity,” Alice said. Ask “How do you think that made this other child feel when you bit him?”

“They don’t necessarily have the words to say how that made them feel. But then you say … I think that probably made him really sad, that probably really hurt him, I don’t think you would like it,” she said.

Also suggest that if they feel like biting again, say, “Maybe let’s get an apple that you can bite into or a pillow or a block.”

Avoid the ‘naughty step’

“I don’t really like to label a child as ‘naughty’,” Alice said, and she doesn’t use the “naughty step” as a punishment for little children or send an older child to their room.

“If they are in that moment where they just cannot regulate their emotions, you say, right, I understand you’re upset. I’m going to do something else. When you’ve had time to calm yourself down … we can talk,” she said.

Tablet time

Other tips include being consistent and as good as your word.

Time on devices such as iPads can be negotiated by setting limits or allowing only educational games, Alice said.

To limit screen time, say “Sorry, we can’t do that today. Let me plan some time for tomorrow,” Alice suggested, or “Why don’t you play that game for five minutes and then we will turn it off.”

School days

Settling a child into school is often done gradually, with shorter days to start with. Reassure them that they will make friends there, and try to have playdates with classmates before school starts, Alice said.

“Maybe find out what they’re doing on the first day, so you can say [for example]: ‘Let me know how the painting goes when I pick you up. I can’t wait to hear about this.'”

Alice also said to do something fun after their first day or week at school, like going to a favorite playground or to a movie they’d like to see.

Alice acknowledged that being a nanny is different from being a working parent. “You have much more patience because it’s your job,” she said of her role.

So when she experienced extreme bouts of anger so intense that she had to remind herself not to lay a hand on her 3-year-old son, Dubin channeled her feelings into an essay for The New York Times titled “The Rage Mothers Don’t Talk About.” The 2019 essay immediately went viral, prompting a follow-up essay and even a “Primal Scream” hotline for mothers to vent, releasing some of their pent-up anger.

Dubin had no idea that she was tapping into a cultural phenomenon.

“It was just a personal essay,” Dubin tells TODAY.com. “I mostly felt like I was bad. And that my anger was a personal problem.”

The feedback from moms who were grateful to Dubin for giving voice to their own feelings persuaded her otherwise. And so she began writing “Mom Rage: The Everyday Crisis of Modern Motherhood,” which was published last month.

“The book is an investigation into what I have come to understand is actually an international hidden emotional crisis,” says Dubin.

What exactly is mom rage?

To an outsider, mom rage often looks like this: a hungry 4-year-old accidentally drops an open bag of Goldfish on the floor of the grocery store, making a giant mess. The child has a tantrum, and Mom screams at the 4-year-old and drags them out of the store in a huff.

Onlookers may assume that this mom has had an outsized reaction to a simple mistake.

But what you don’t see is that the child has been waking Mom up every night at 3 a.m. for comfort; that Mom’s parenting partner leaves for work at 7 a.m. and returns after bedtime; that Mom already fought a giant battle to get her 6-year-old to school with a coat on and hair brushed; that the babysitter is sick so Mom had to call out of work; or that Mom happens to be three months pregnant with her next baby.

After 50 in-depth interviews with women with self-proclaimed “mom rage,” Dubin arrived at this definition: “Mom rage is the uncontrolled anger that’s common for mothers to feel that stems from the impossible expectations of modern motherhood, combined with a deep lack of support from the societal structures and in the family systems.”

Although mom rage is more likely to occur when women first become mothers and feel their identities “flatten,” it is not contained to those first years in the trenches. There is no time limit on when mom rage might appear.

Mom rage is cyclical in nature. There is a long, slow steady ramp-up period in which women “mommy perfectly,” Dubin says. This is followed by the “emotional whack-a-mole” phase when we have “some irritation or annoyance or frustration, which are called sub-anger.” We push those annoyances down until they explode into an episode of extreme anger, followed by a shame spiral in which we “feel terrible” about the rage, Dubin says; finally, we enter into “short-term repair” when we take responsibility for the outburst with those who felt the impact.

How can parenting partners help lessen mom rage?

To eliminate mom rage, we would need wholesale policy changes like universal childcare and extended family leave for all types of parents, Dubin says. But in the meantime, we can make smaller shifts at home to help women individually.

Immediately after an episode of rage, moms can talk to their partner or their children to take responsibility and attempt to adjust their triggers, Dubin notes. And that parenting partner needs to take the time to understand what mom rage is.

“Mom rage is a really difficult thing to explain, especially if you’re explaining it to your partner and your partner is someone you rage at,” says Dubin.

Taking a careful look at the division of labor in the house can go a long way to lessening mom rage, Dubin explains. If bedtime is an issue, maybe parents can alternate nights so Mom isn’t the only one dealing with nighttime stalling. If packing lunches is the trigger, maybe Dad can take that on, or the family can decide to purchase school lunches.

Moms tell Dubin that there are two things their partners don’t do that they really wish they would do: make dinner and wash the dishes.

And what moms really mean by this is that their partners should “make dinner from the real start to the real finish,” Dubin says. “I’m talking about the emotional labor that’s invisible that goes along with making dinner.”

Standing at the stove for 45 minutes and cooking the meal is actually just a small part of the task. By tackling the dinner execution, a parenting partner might think that they’re helping, but if the mom meal plans, makes a shopping list, drives to the store, unloads the groceries and washes the dishes, Dubin says, “The wife is still holding on to that task because she’s doing all of the surrounding labor to make that task possible for him to do.”

What about dad rage?

“At almost every single reading I’ve done a man raises his hand and asks this question,” says Dubin. “I say that while dads can of course experience rage because rage is an emotion and doesn’t discriminate based on gender, the gender politics that set us up in society make dad rage a very different experience than mom rage.”

For example, Dubin continues, men are often rewarded for their anger. She cites a study in the book that concluded that “angry men” are perceived as having a higher status in the workplace while people perceive “angry women” to have lower status.

“When we see a man who’s angry, we assume it’s situational, like his kids were being annoying. We put the blame on the situation, not the person. Whereas when a woman rages, we put it on her and we say it’s a character flaw,” Dubin says.

She describes the many ways in which women take on “mother” as an all-consuming new identity, while “father” does not become a man’s entire being. When a father yells, it isn’t seen as rage. He is simply being the disciplinarian. When a mother yells, she is a “bad mother.”

“It’s fairly complicated,” says Dubin.

How do we find long-term solutions?

Dubin suggests that major policy changes would need to occur to truly make a dent in mom rage.

“We absolutely need universal childcare so that parents who work full-time — or parents who just don’t want to parent 100% by themselves all day long — have the option to have support. And also having paid family leave for a year for both parents, regardless of biological connection to the child,” says Dubin. “Right now there’s so many loopholes with the paid family leave or family leave that comes from companies. It’s really hard for so many people to get it.”

Though making sweeping policy changes feels overwhelming, Dubin says that it really boils down to a simple mindset shift: “It’s really about valuing mothers and care work and having fathers do care work.”

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“I definitely do a lot of explaining,” Pasch, a dance teacher who is in her twenties, tells TODAY.com.

Recently, Pasch shared on TikTok a video of herself and Nick in an emergency room after he injured his leg at school.

“Pov we’re at the er and the doctor didn’t believe I was the parent,” Pasch captioned her now-viral clip.

Pasch didn’t give birth to Nick. Nick is the younger brother to Pasch’s fiance, Luke Faircloth. The couple legally adopted the teen in 2022 after Nick and Luke’s mom and dad died.

“Tragically, Luke and Nick’s parents both passed away two years apart,” Pasch says. “Nick was already spending so much time with us, so it made sense that we would continue raising him.”

Pasch and Faircloth also have a 17-month-old son named Laith.

“I’ve got a teenager and a toddler!” Pasch says, with a laugh.

Nick, a high school freshman, introduces Pasch as his mom when she meets his friends and is very protective of her, she says. Pasch recalls how Nick’s face fell when the ER physician doubted their relationship.

“The doctor asked where his real mom was and I could tell he was frustrated,” Pasch says. “But at the same time, we understand that there are going to be questions. There are safety concerns. And I do look really young — people see me with my toddler and think I’m a teen mom.”

Pasch says she started posting footage about their life to show others that families come in all shapes and sizes. 

“I’ve gotten so many messages from kids that are in the same kind of situation where they are being raised by siblings and they’re like, ‘Thank you for representing us,’” Pasch says.

Pasch’s TikTok video about their trip to the ER has been seen nearly 33 million times. 

“Omg I feel this. I took my son to the er and they asked for the guardian. Yes hi that’s me,” one person wrote in the comments.

Added another, “Meeee with my teenager at parent teacher conferences. They think I’m her older sister and say we need to talk with your parents.”

This story first appeared on TODAY.com. More from TODAY:

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But you don’t have to do it alone.

Here’s a list of resources that are designed to help parents keep their kids safe.

Products

The average age to get a phone in the U.S. is 12, but that decision is intensely personal for every parent and kid. For parents looking for phones made specifically for children and teens, as well as apps to help manage their screen time, there are options.

The Light Phone II

• Has the ability to call and text
• Basic tools like: alarm, calculator, calendar, directions, hotspot, music/podcast player and notes/voice memo
• No social media
• Find out more here

Gabb Phone

• Receives calls and texts but NO access to the internet or social media apps
• Pre-programmed with a GPS tracker, camera, calculator, clock, voice recorder, radio/music, photo album, phone and messenger
• “Gabb Guard” blocks high-risk content from reaching your kid’s phone in the first place, whether it’s an inappropriate text or spam call
• Find out more here

Pinwheel Plus Phone

• Only contacts from your “safe list” can make or receive calls/text messages
• No social media apps, web browser, addictive games or ad-driven apps
• Find out more here

Xplora Xgo3 Watch

• No internet access or social media
• Has approved contact list, GPS tracking and “School Mode” to turn off notifications/distractions during set hours
• Find out more here

Apps

Bark

• Tracks kids’ accounts no matter where they sign in
• Parents can: monitor texts and social media, manage screen time schedules, block websites and apps, track location and receive alerts for issues like cyberbullying
• More info

Qustodio Parental Control App

• Panic button allows children to send an alert quickly from their phone to emergency contacts
• GPS location monitoring, lock out unwanted internet content,  receive alerts about web activity and blocked websites, blocks games and apps, enforces safe search
• More info

Organizations and resources

American Academy of Pediatrics: Screen time guidelines from the Center for Excellence on Social Media and Youth Mental Health.

American Psychological Association: Read the health advisory on social media use in adolescence.

Common Sense Media: Find parent guides, advice for social media platforms and reviews of all kinds of media

KidsHealth: Nemours Children’s Health system has resources to help teach kids to be smart about social media

Social Media U at #HalfTheStory: Offers digital wellbeing training for parents and schools.

Family Media Plan: Learn how to create a family media plan with this resource from the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Books

Disconnected: How to Protect Your Kids from the Harmful Effects of Device Dependency

First Phones: A Child’s Guide to Digital Responsibility, Safety, and Etiquette

The Teenage Brain: A Neuroscientist’s Survival Guide To Raising Adolescents and Young Adults

iGen: Why Today’s Super-Connected Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy and Completely Unprepared For Adulthood

This story first appeared on TODAY.com. More from TODAY:

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“My name is Samantha Hart,” the 27-year-old began a recent TikTok video. “Most companies use the email designation of first initial, last name, meaning my email would be shart.”

(If you’re wondering why that email address might be an issue, allow this clip from “Along Came Polly” to explain.)

Hart, who lives in Virginia and works in communications, went on to share that her last two employers reached out a week before her start date once they noticed.

“My name does not exactly fit the company email structure as they would intend, and would I mind if they gave me a different structure for my email,” Hart said.

Would she mind? Just the opposite!

“I don’t want an email that says shart — fix it, give me something else,” Hart said, with a laugh.

Plenty of people commiserated with Hart in the comments and shared their own stories of unfortunate email monikers.

“clittmann has entered the chat. Have been dealing with this since college,” one person wrote in the comments. 

Added another, “We had an S lutz at one company.”

Other notable replies included:

• “My name is Sue Hartlove so my work emails are always shartlove.”
• My cousin is a shart and my brother is phart — a source of great joy for their coworkers
• “dbhag was my email at school.”
• “I worked with a Patrick Ecker at a previous job…”
• “ours was first 5 of last + first initial. one guy was gonna be McAnus so they gave him a special one.”
• “Mine is literally Hater so I understand.”

“I’m living for the comments,” Hart tells TODAY.com. “It’s nice to know I’m not alone in this.”

Hart recalls how her parents got her a vanity license plate for her first car. At the time, they didn’t know the meaning of shart — and neither did Hart.

“I rolled up to school and everybody made fun of me,” she says. “My car became known as the ‘Shartmobile.’ And that was the first time I understood my name was going to be a problem.”

It won’t be a problem for much longer. Hart is getting married soon and she will be taking her husband’s last name.

“I’ll never have to have another awkward conversation with HR!” she exclaims.

In 2020, Amy Schumer announced that she and her husband, Chris Fischer, were changing their then 11-month-old son’s name to Gene David Fischer. The little boy was previously known as Gene Attell.

“We realized that we by accident named our son ‘genital,’” Schumer said on her podcast “3 Girls, 1 Keith.”

Hart hopes her story will serve as a warning for moms and dads when they’re choosing baby names.

“Think about what their email address might be,” she says. “And monograms, too!”

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In a now-viral TikTok, Mirante shared a story about a mother and son he recently observed at a park.

“The kid is just playing quietly, not being annoying. I don’t hear a peep from him, he’s just doing his thing on the playground,” Mirante said. “The mom the entire time is on her phone, staring right down at her screen. Doesn’t look up one time.” 

Mirante said as he was walking by, he noticed the little boy sitting at the top of slide. 

“I hear, ‘Hey mom, watch. Watch, Mom,’” Mirante recalled. “And at the top of her lungs, shrieking like a Velociraptor, this mother screams, ‘One second!!!”

Mirante noted that the sound of her voice stopped him in his tracks. According to Mirante, the child looked “terrified,” and also confused as to what he had done to upset his mom.

“He wasn’t doing anything wrong,” Mirante said. “Mom never looks up from the screen as the kid goes down (the slide).”

Mirante noted that he is most definitely “judging” the mother off of what he saw in those few minutes. 

“When your kid isn’t doing something wrong, or in danger, you probably shouldn’t scream at them. It might have some traumatic effects in the future,” he declared. 

“Are you guys that attached to your phones?” Mirantes demanded.

Mirante’s clip inspired many reaction videos, including one from content creator Abby Eckel. Eckel, a mom of two, pointed out that moms are often the default parent.

“A default parent is typically one who is ‘first in line’ when it comes to caring for children, child-related responsibilities, or home-related tasks,” clinical psychologist Amber Thornton wrote in Psychology Today. 

“If you have never been the default parent, and you don’t know what it’s like to be constantly needed all day, every day if you’re not the one consistently and constantly regulating your child’s emotional needs while also having to regulate your own, which also likely means that you’re having to relearn how to do that because you weren’t taught that as a child,” Eckel said her in TikTok video. “ I think it’s wise if you pipe down.” 

While speaking with TODAY.com, Eckel said her heart goes out to the mom in the park.

“She is carrying around a mental and emotional load that men will never understand,” she says. “As mother’s we get judged so harshly. You know, dad takes his kids to the grocery store, he’s such a great father. Then mom takes her kids to the grocery store and she’s such a terrible mother because she can’t control her children.” 

Though Mirante was widely criticized for his video, he also received praise. 

“Am I the only one who thought that someone could have snatched the kid while the mom wasn’t looking?” one person wrote in the comments. 

Added another, “I am a single mom, I 100% agree with you. Kids remember who is actually PRESENT with them, not glued to their phone, the TV etc etc.”

Another common response: “I thought the same way as you. And then I became a parent. Until you become a parent, you do not understand the struggle.”

In 2016, a photo of a mom named Molly Lensing went viral. In the photo that was captured in an airport, Lensing is shown staring down at her phone, while her infant rests on a blanket on the floor. The picture was taken without Lensing’s permission and it quickly went viral with shaming comments.

“We had the unfortunate luck of being stuck in the middle of the Delta computer shut-down,” Lensing told TODAY.com in a 2017 interview. Lensing’s flights were delayed and re-booked so many times that she spent more than 20 hours sitting in airports with her baby.

“Anastasia had been held or in her carrier for many hours. My arms were tired. She needed to stretch,” Lensing added. “And I had to communicate with all the family members wondering where the heck we were.”

This story first appeared on TODAY.com. More from TODAY:

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