No matter how many books you read or videos you watch, you will never be fully prepared for raising your kids before you actually have them. Parenting is very much a “you’ll learn while on the job” kind of situation. However, when you’re neck-deep in diapers, with the Baby Shark song on loop in the background, you might find yourself wishing for a helping hand.
The r/coolguides subreddit is a massively popular online community that shares and crafts some of the coolest guides and charts you’ll find anywhere on the internet. We’ve collected some of their top parenting resources that might just help everyone who’s just had a kid level up their game. Check them out below and remember to upvote the ones that you found the most helpful.
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Genetics For Dummies
There is no one-size-fits-all approach to parenting: every family's situation is unique. However, there are some common features of good parenting. Among them are important things like transparency, unconditional support, and proper communication.
Essentially, you want your child to understand why you're asking something of them and why it's important. Whether that's brushing their teeth or doing their homework on time. You want to include them in the conversation, instead of making them feel like they're left out. The more clarity you provide around the rules that you set, the better.
The Plural Of Fish
This Is What 10cm Dilated Actually Looks Like
Most parents have access to the internet, as well as all of those new and fancy AI chatbots that everyone keeps talking about. However, when you’re exhausted and pressed for time, having a handy and trustworthy chart you can reference is far easier than conducting thorough independent research.
While there will always be subtle nuances and the need to update relevant information, the graphics presented here definitely work as general guidelines. They can get parents up to speed on the most relevant info, from how many diapers they can expect to change per day to what to look out for in their baby’s poop.
As A Kid Getting Lost In The Mall Or Amusement Parks Is No Fun
Speaking To Children, And Honestly Adults
When my firstborn was a toddler my mother gave some great advice. Phrase what you're saying in the positive, not the negative. "Stay on the footpath" tells a child what you want them to do instead of "Don't go on the road". More importantly, in some situations like this example, there's a huge difference in understanding if a child takes a moment to tune into what mum is saying. If the child doesn't hear "Stay" at least they'll hear the word "footpath", but not hearing "Don't" (and most likely they've blocked that word out as it's one they are always hearing) leaves you with "go on the road". As I said, a huge difference!! I had to practice it and now it's easy to do. My children are way beyond this stage, but I use the same method at the school where I work, telling young students "walk in the hallway" instead of "Don't run"!
Er Nurse Here! Here's A Simple Guide On Cpr Technique For Infants, Children, And Adults
During a first aid class, I was taught to shove a hand into the persons armpit and then direct this hand to the middle of the chest at that height. Putting hands between nipples really only works if it's a man of average posture. As soon as it's a woman or someone with extra weight, nipples can be too low or not on the right level. But that's just what I was told.
The r/coolguides sub has grown by leaps and bounds since its founding in late March 2014. At the time of writing, the online group had over 3.8 million members on Reddit. It’s easy to see why the community is so popular: the guides are extremely informative, creative, and entertaining. Combine the three and you have a powerful mix that draws people in (and even gets them to design their own graphics).
What To Do If A Child Discloses Sexual Abuse
The Cousin Explainer
How Infant Views The World
According to the moderator team running the subreddit, they welcome reference guides for “anything and everything.” The rule of thumb is that if something’s good enough to print out for reference, then it probably has a place on r/coolguides. The mods also note that the difference between infographics and guides is that the former are learning tools while the latter are reference tools. However, there’s a grey area where the two overlap!
Simple Reminder When Walking Pets Or Barefoot Kids
How To Recognize Various Bug Bites
Beware the tick one. It doesn't always present with the bullseye rash!
Modelling Disagreement For Children
I love this chart! It prevents kids from feeling fear and helps them to understand how to disagree without yelling. Also, there's an even amount of types of parents. Two double mothers, two double Father, two mothers and fathers. It makes my little heart happy
If you plan on designing or sharing a guide, keep in mind that you’ve got to follow some simple rules when naming your post, to help keep everything uniform. You should name your posts “A cool guide” and then fill in the rest of the title, explaining what the image is about. That way, there’s less variation in headlines, so the internet audience immediately understands the context and knows what it’s looking at. Obviously, nobody should be sharing any guides that could be dangerous.
Why Children Need To Read Every Night
This is just a chart of numbers that are all 1/5 of other numbers.
My Body Safety Rules: How To Talk To Your Kids About Safe Touching
What To Say To Kids Instead Of “Be Careful!”
A while ago, Bored Panda had gotten in touch with the founder of the r/coolguides online community, redditor u/dadschool. He was kind enough to walk us through the history of the group.
"I had a bit of a compulsive habit of saving every guide I came across on Reddit with the idea that I'd somehow reference it when I needed it later. There weren't really any subs for general guides so I made one and uploaded all my guides at once. I think a lot of people have a similar affection for bitesize trivia and hoarding generalist knowledge,” he told us during an earlier interview.
Raise A Body Positive Kid
I might get downvoted to infinity. I believe Disney princesses movies and Barbie have crippled a whole generation of women on this area. They are trying to improve lately, but the damage before the 2000s is already done.
15 Life Skills For Kids Before Leaving Home
Maybe number 14 is not a life skill before leaving home but it should be encourager or taught, Never know when it will come in handy. I was self taught so I can swim.
Baby Feeding Cues
With my daughter, this worked very well. With my son, roughly 10 seconds from 1 to 3...
According to the founder of the sub, no success would have been possible without the support of the community’s fantastic moderators. It’s they who volunteer their time to keep the entire group running smoothly. All of the mods are working professionals, so one of the biggest challenges is quickly reacting to some of the hateful posts that some internet trolls make.
A Cool Guide On Common Type Of Bites Problems In Children
Just A Reminder Of This Cool Trick
9 Things To Say To Your Anxious Child
"The unique thing about Reddit is that subreddits really are independent and are autonomously moderated communities,” u/dadschool told us before that the moderator team had remained more or less unchanged. The team continues to be excited about the growing community, as well as ensuring that people don’t post the same guide hundreds of times.
Abusive Behaviours Of Narcissistic Parents
9 Parenting Practices From Around The World
I have NEVER heard of overnight trips for nursery age children here? Where does that come from? The kindergarten offered a one-night-sleepover for the kids who were going to first grade after the summer, but that was inside the kindergarten and very much optional. No one "packs off" their children anywhere. If anything we have more cases of parents wanting to come along on class trips.
Guide To Parental Leave Around The World
Yet the country that offers the most, somehow isn't on the list. Romania has a BASE of two years, or to use the scale of the post, 104 weeks. But....that can be extended to 156 weeks in some circumstances. All of it paid, with the minimum amount being equivalent to the minimum wage, but they base the pay scale on the average monthly income over the past 12 months, paying out 80% of up to 10,000 euros per month. And it can be used by EITHER PARENT.
The founder told Bored Panda before that he has a far more relaxed attitude toward infographics than he did nearly a decade ago when he created the subreddit. He’s very keen on letting the community decide the direction in which the group will go in, through their upvotes and engagement.
"I see the moderator role as more akin to a landscaper: pruning [troll] posts, removing harmful posts, and moderating for content diversity. Subscribers are much better judges of content quality and validity than moderators and I think it's important to trust them in that role. I will admit, however, that the majority of guides I enjoy most myself rarely break 50/100 upvotes.”
Teaching Kids About Money
Tips To Build Emotional Resilience In Kids
Keep Ya Kids Safe
Meanwhile, the founder had some awesome advice for anyone who wants to post on r/coolguides in the figure. "Go for it! We do try to maintain some content diversity, so don't upload all ten of your favorite ab workout guides at once. If you have the source, be a buddy and list that too in the comments or title to give credit where it's due!"
Baby Teeth Timeline
How Your Eye Color Can Help Predict Your Baby's Eyes
My mum has one green eye, one brown, dad's are blue, mine blue with a brown central halo, heterochromia is fun.
Just makes me think of XMen First Class "Mutant and proud" (not that I'm calling or claiming mutant, of course, but certainly be proud of just being you).
Load More Replies...This is a complete oversimplification of human genetics. We now know that two brown-eyed parents can have a blue-eyed child. Since eye color is determined by more than one gene(as are many human traits) and how those genes interact with each other it's never this simple. https://udel.edu/~mcdonald/mytheyecolor.html
Both of my grandson's parents have brown eyes; his are blue.
Load More Replies...This doesn't take into account grandparents nor dominant genes. Brown eye gene expression from a set of parents where one has green or blue eyes and the other brown is different from brown eyes where both parents have brown eyes.
According to this list we have birthed a miracle baby. My husband has brown eyes, I have blue and our son has green eyes. Guess it depends on the shades of blue and brown…
What about hazel?? There is so much more to it, go back to genetics in #1. Mum has brown, dad has blue, 2 brothers brown then me with hazel.
To tell you the truth, this chart was probably made by man. And for men hazel is brown :)
Load More Replies...My parents both have blue eyes, although my mam has central heterochromia which is light brown. My eyes are green with light brown central heterochromia and dark grey outer edges, and are almost the same as my dad’s mam’s eye colour
My mum's were brown & my dad's blue, so my green eyes seem to be impossible 🤔
My dad has blue eyes, mum has brown, me and 2 brothers have brown eyes, 3 sisters and 1 brother have blue eyes. My oldest sister has 1 blue & 1 green it looks so cool! (My dad was obsessed with David Bowie, so when his first child was born with heterochromia that looked just like his idol's he was ecstatic!)
My grandma had blue eyes, and my grandad brown. They had six children, four of whom somehow have green eyes, and two blue. However, my mum (green) and my dad (grey-blue) had three kids with brown eyes. So now I’m wondering all kinds of things 😅
This is a very simplistic and old fashioned view of hereditary traits. My parents eyes are blue, my siblings eyes are all blue but my eyes are hazel. Have done DNA am definitely my parents child.
My husband and I both have green eyes. Girl #1- blue, girl #2- blue with flecks of green, girls #3 & #4- green, boy- brown. When my son was younger, his eyes were more of an amber colour than brown.
Father has green, mother brown, mine are green, I feel lucky seeing this chart
I have brown eyes one child's father has blue eyes, that child has blue eyes. My other child's father has green eyes and the child has brown. Seems accurate to me
Same combination of parent eyecolors (mine are brown, dad 1 blue-gray and dad 2 green). The kids have brown (from dad 1) and green (from dad 2)
Load More Replies...Dad has blue, mom had brown, and all three of us kids ended up with blue eyes. I have often wondered if there had been kid 4 if they would have ended up with the brown eyes.
What a crock both our eyes are blue and all 3 of our kids' eyes are brown! (uhhhhhh)
Had this been true you really should do paternity testing. But as it is obviously fake, you can save some money by not doing the testing :)
Load More Replies...Ways To Support Kids Working On Something Tricky
Note: this post originally had 62 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
Which of these parenting guides and charts did you find the most useful, Pandas? Were there any tips and pieces of info that were completely new to you? What’s the most important advice that you’d give new parents? Scroll down to the bottom of this post and share your thoughts in the comment section!
This makes me sad, because these are all the things my dad could've said to me growing up. I wish he would've listened to me and tried to understand me. He didn't know how to raise two girls and kept trying to treat me and my sister like we were r******d or something. Sending you other Pandas lots of love, I'm sure some of you guys understand ❤️
Too many things for me to remember and say just right. Remember folks, a parent only has to be "good enough" to raise a healthy child. If this helps you, great. But don't get bogged down in the lie of perfect parenting. You'll give yourself an ulcer and end up with a neurotic kid.
My son is grown up now but these ideas are great for everyone who is ever around children of any age. There were so many things we didn't know when we were raising our own that makes so much sense. Thank you.
This makes me sad, because these are all the things my dad could've said to me growing up. I wish he would've listened to me and tried to understand me. He didn't know how to raise two girls and kept trying to treat me and my sister like we were r******d or something. Sending you other Pandas lots of love, I'm sure some of you guys understand ❤️
Too many things for me to remember and say just right. Remember folks, a parent only has to be "good enough" to raise a healthy child. If this helps you, great. But don't get bogged down in the lie of perfect parenting. You'll give yourself an ulcer and end up with a neurotic kid.
My son is grown up now but these ideas are great for everyone who is ever around children of any age. There were so many things we didn't know when we were raising our own that makes so much sense. Thank you.