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developmentmilestonesparenting humourplaymattummy time
A baby learning to sit up independently on a play mat with wooden toys.

The Truth About When Your Baby Actually Sits Up

When my daughter Maya was five months old, I got three entirely different pieces of advice about her sitting up in the span of about twenty-four hours. My mother-in-law, bless her, came over and immediately started shoving Maya into the...

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A minimalist wooden baby play gym set up on a soft living room rug.

Why I Finally Ditched the Neon Plastic Baby Play Gym

It was a Tuesday, roughly 2:15 PM in late October 2017. Maya was exactly fourteen weeks old, and I was wearing a pair of dark grey maternity leggings that I had absolutely no intention of retiring anytime soon. They had...

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Babybaby safetybaby sleepParenting Guideplaymattummy time
A tired dad looking at a laptop while a baby chews on a wooden play gym ring.

Dear Past Marcus: Troubleshooting the Great Baby Mat Matrix

Row 47 of my "Baby Infrastructure" Google Sheet is where my sanity finally encountered a fatal error. It was 2:14 AM. The ambient temperature in the nursery was exactly 71.4 degrees, I had logged 11 wet diapers for the day,...

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A neutral infant play mat on a living room floor covered in scattered baby toys and an abandoned coffee cup.

Why Most Infant Play Mats Are A Trap (And What Actually Works)

I was on my hands and knees in the middle of my living room, frantically trying to scrub curdled breastmilk out of a felt lion’s mane with a single dry baby wipe, while my three-month-old screamed like I was actively...

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baby caremotherhoodnewbornplaymatsensory playtummy time
A messy living room floor with a round waterproof baby mat and wooden toys.

How I Finally Found a Play Activity Mat That Did Not Drive Me Crazy

When I was pregnant with my oldest, Tucker, I swear everybody had a loud opinion on where exactly the baby was supposed to exist when I wasn't holding him. My grandmother told me to just throw a handmade quilt on...

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Babyeducational toysmotherhoodParenting Guideplaymat
Baby playing independently with wooden toys on a soft organic playmat

Why I Stopped Entertaining My Baby (And What Happened Next)

I was sitting on my living room floor in a puddle of my own postpartum sweat, aggressively waving a black-and-white high-contrast flashcard in my oldest son’s face. He was eight months old at the time and violently uninterested, choosing instead...

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educational toysnewbornorganicplaymatwooden toys
Wooden play gym with simple minimalist anhΓ€nger spielbogen hanging down

The truth about baby play gyms and anhΓ€nger spielbogen

Three days after we brought my son home, my mother-in-law told me to hang bright gold bangles and noisy brass bells over his play mat to wake up his brain. An hour later, an influencer on my feed claimed that...

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baby safetynewbornparenting tipsplaymatsustainable
Coffee cup next to a neutral baby play mat on a messy living room floor

The Honest Truth About Newborn Floor Time and Baby Play Mats

Dear Sarah from exactly six months ago, You're currently sitting in the Target parking lot in your yoga pants with the hole in the crotch, violently tapping your steering wheel while Googling whether cheap foam floor tiles cause neurological damage....

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Wooden building blocks scattered across a Kianao organic cotton playmat.

Spielsachen 4 Jahre: The Truth About Toys For Four-Year-Olds

The most successful grift in the modern parenting industrial complex is the word "educational" slapped on a box containing a plastic, seizure-inducing nightmare. You know the exact toy I'm talking about. It’s usually shaped like a dog or a heavily...

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