Holiday Gift Guide 2024: Babies and Toddlers

It’s that time again: Gift Guide season. We’re sharing our top picks for the holiday gifts, so all you list girlies can prep before Black Friday.

To make the Child(ish) Advice cut, we use these criteria:

Here are our gift picks for babies and toddlers, ages 0-3:

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Fear For All: Age-Appropriate Fear

Growing up in Florida, Patti and I have ridden Disney’s Haunted Mansion too many times to count. The dark attraction is a fan favorite, resulting in multiple movies and specials highlighting the grim stories of its ghostly residents. Aside from the 2003 and 2023 films of the same name, other versions include the family-friendly Muppets Haunted Mansion (2021) and yes, Guillermo del Toro’s Crimson Peak (2015) is rumored to be the R-rated version that never came to be. 

This got us thinking how cool it is that all these different variations of the same IP cater to full spectrum of age and maturity levels. Are these stories playing toward our fear, our entertainment, or both? What exactly is age-appropriate when it comes to fear?

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Why You Gotta Be So Mean?: Kids and Aggression

From rough housing to name calling and everything in between, children showcase a spectrum of aggression. While it may be for fun, it can be downright vicious in certain circumstances. Babies start showing these behaviors around 8-12 months of age to express their frustrations; but it starts to diminish when they learn appropriate means to express and acquire their wants/needs. However, school-aged children can take it to another level.

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Child(ish) Reads: Article Review

Welcome to October!

We usually reserve this month for #spookyszn content. But our October calendars are looking a bit…scary. So Child(ish) Advice will be keeping it light for this week, before heading into a much needed two-week break.

Today’s post is an article review, something we really haven’t done since our first year blogging. This article came out in March, but it fit our Gen A theme/Halloween transition so perfectly. Check it out!

Kids Media Is In Its Villain Era by Katy Hershberger, Romper.com.

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Coffee Chat: Making Mom Friends

“I’m sorry, but you need to make mom friends.”

Yes, that blunt statement came right out of my MIL’s mouth following the birth of my son. As abrupt as it was, I understood what she meant. At the time, my husband and I were one of the first in our friend group to have a child.

While friendships are generally an important aspect to our overall well-being (they are one of the most important things in fighting PPD), mom friends are truly unique. Friends with children similar in age to yours are easy to relate to. They can exchange suggestions without criticism or judgment, and support one another while navigating parenthood. As more of my friends became parents, the hardships and blessings also became much more relatable. We would have playdates, hang out, talk about the new ways of living, and do it all again another time.

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