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When Caitlin Clark signed her massive sneaker contract with Nike earlier this year, which included the announcement of a signature shoe, many wondered if the rookie sensation had jumped some other top stars in line for their own sneaker.

The biggest name among them was A’ja Wilson, as the Aces star has a strong argument for being the best women’s basketball player on the planet, leading Vegas to back-to-back titles. There was some backlash that Clark was getting a shoe before Wilson, but that appears to have simply been a matter of announcement timing.

On Saturday, Nike and Wilson announced the 2025 release of the A’One, and dropped some images of Wilson working with Nike’s design team over the last year on the sneaker (helping show this wasn’t simply a response to the outcry but in the works long before Clark signed her pro deal).

They also cleverly titled the campaign Of Course I Have A Shoe, even launching a website for it.

We will have to wait a bit for full details and images on Wilson’s sneaker, but one would expect it to be another low top model. How they differentiate it from the other signatures will be interesting, but given A’ja’s unique style there should be plenty of ways for them to create something that stands out. The importance of Wilson getting a shoe is significant, as she will be the first Black WNBA player with a signature shoe since 2010.

Jack Ryan will likely remain forever on Amazon’s list of Best Original Shows for delivering exactly what it promises: John Krasinski in a meat-and-potatoes series adaptation of the Tom Clancy spy-thriller novels. To be perfect real also, this series also stands proud in Amazon’s Dad TV collection, for which Reacher and Outer Range are still going strong.

Krasinski famously turned in his Jack Ryan badge in 2023 after four seasons, but there is zero reason that the franchise needs to die. In fact, there have been persistent whispers that another Clancy character (who was introduced in the fourth season), Domingo “Ding” Chavez (as portrayed by Michael Peña), will be doing the honors going forward. However, that isn’t the only reported Rainbow Six project on the table in recent years. Let’s talk this out.

Plot

Well, this is awkward, but we need to first discuss those preexisting reports that a Rainbow Six movie could have happened as helmed by John Wick director Chad Stahelski. This would have been a Michael B. Jordan followup (from Paramount) with his Without Remorse character, John Clark, who was actually the predominant character in Clancy’s Rainbow Six novel (which also includes Chavez). That film was meant to land in theaters but turned into a pandemic casualty in 2021 with Paramount plopping it onto Amazon for streaming. Hollywood Reporter then relayed in January 2023 that plans existed for Jordan in a Rainbow Six-titled film, and that “Paramount intends to release Rainbow theatrically,” but “No plot details have been revealed.”

Did this project go anywhere? Not yet, and Stahelski has loads of projects in development. Those include a Ghosts Of Tsushima adaptation, but up next, Stahelski is tackling a Highlander film starring Henry Cavill. That project is part of a deal with Lionsgate “that grants him oversight over the ‘Highlander’ and ‘John Wick’ franchises across TV and film.”

So, it’s safe to say that Stahelski won’t have time for Rainbow Six for awhile, if ever, but Amazon already has a willing and ready audience for the Krasinski-Ryanverse version of Rainbow Six to exist as a TV show. Domingo Chavez is already installed into that TV world, and Deadline previously reported that Peña’s character entered Jack Ryan with “the potential spinoff [being] in early stages, with no firm concept or a script yet.” However, this character could bode well for a multiseason series, given that Chavez exists in 22 Jack Ryan Universe novels with seven titles from the core Jack Ryan book series.

Consider this, too: Domingo Chavez previously surfaced onscreen (portrayed by Raymond Cruz) in 1994’s Clear and Present Danger movie starring Harrison Ford. He’s a no-nonsese, well-traveled CIA agent who has undertaken worldwide missions and joined up with the secret counterterrorist Rainbow group in the U.K., where he became a Rainbow Six-designated executive officer. He helped finish the Krasinski characters’s final TV mission and even rescued Ryan, so perhaps Amazon really meant set him up for a spin off. However, Amazon appears to have gone radio silent on the issue, or at least, Peña wasn’t allowed to tell Collider about his lone wolf’s future plans:

“I don’t know … It’s up to the fans and up to Amazon. There are a lot of people that have to do certain things, but if people like it, maybe they’ll chime in and say, like, ‘Hey, we want some more!’ So, you know, we leave it in their hands.”

This sure is a fine mess, but the odds currently appear to be greater for a Peña-starring series rather than a Jordan-starring movie.

Cast

Michael Peña would obviously be the dude to carry on as TV’s Domingo Chavez. Presumably, John Krasinski would at least make an appearance to formally pass the baton, but from there, Amazon would have 20+ novels to choose from while planning out a show on the new leading man.

Release Date

If Amazon does greenlight this series, 2025 would be the soonest that we see this happen.

Trailer

There shall be no spin off footage yet! However, here’s a look back at Domingo Chavez’s no-nonsense presence in Jack Ryan.

To a stranger I met at a coffee shop a few years ago who introduced me to what my life as a parent would be like:

My “welcome to black fatherhood moment” happened five years ago, and I remember it like it happened yesterday.

I doubt you’ll remember it, though — so let me refresh your memory.

It was a beautiful Saturday morning in Los Angeles in 2011, and I decided to walk my then 3-month-old daughter to the corner Starbucks. That’s when I met you — a stylish older white woman who happened to be ahead of me in line.

You were very friendly and offered up many compliments about how cute my daughter was, and I agreed wholeheartedly with you. She’s cute.

But after you picked up your drink, you delivered this parting shot:

“No offense, but it’s not often that I see black guys out with their kids, but it’s such a wonderful thing,” she said. “No matter what happens, I hope you stay involved in her life.”

And then you put on your designer sunglasses and left.

Meanwhile, I was like…

Here’s the thing: I’m not angry with you, but I want you to understand the impact you had on my life.

Do I think you’re a mean-spirited racist? No, I don’t. Actually, I bet you’re a really nice lady.

But let’s be real for a second: Your view on black dads was tough for me to stomach, and I want you to know a few things about what it’s really like to be me.

1. I want you to know that we have challenges that other dads don’t experience.

I know what you’re thinking: “Oh boy — let me brace myself while he ‘blacksplains’ how hard his life is while shaming me for ignoring my white privilege.”

But that would be missing the point. We all have our challenges in life, and I’m not about to bring a big bottle of whine to a pity party.

Instead, as you probably know, today’s dads are trying to shed the stigma of being clueless buffoons.

But black dads have an additional obstacle to hurdle in that we’re often seen as completely disinterested in fatherhood. Trust me, it gets old when people automatically assume you’re not good at something because of the color of your skin.

Our encounter was the first of many examples of this that I’ve witnessed, directly or indirectly, in my five and a half years of fatherhood, and I’m sure there will be more to come.

2. I want you to know that I’m not a shiny unicorn. There are plenty of black men just like me who love fatherhood.

During the months that followed our brief meeting, I felt a need to prove that you — a complete stranger — were wrong. I needed to prove there were plenty of black men just like me who loved being dads.

I knew a lot of these great men personally: My dad, my two brothers, and many others embraced fatherhood. But could any data back up how much black dads embraced fatherhood? Because the examples in mainstream media were few and far between.

Thankfully, the answer is yes.

A few years after I met you, a study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that 70% of black dads are likely to engage in common child-rearing activities such as diaper changing, bathing, toilet training, etc., on a daily basis. That’s a higher percentage than white or Hispanic fathers.

Full stop.

This isn’t about black dads being “the best” because parenthood isn’t a competition. It’s about showing that we’re not even remotely as bad as society makes us out to be.

And outside of the CDC study, I saw firsthand how hands-on black dads are when I was thrust into the public eye, too, because a lot of them reached out to me to tell their stories.

We nurture our kids.

We’re affectionate with our kids.

And we do whatever our kids need us to do.

And none of that should come as a surprise to anyone.

3. I want you to know that I believe you meant well when you praised me for being involved in my daughter’s life, but that’s what I’m programmed to do.

I will always be there for her and her baby sister.

Even though I just described how black dads are different from many dads, I hope the takeaway you have from this is that we have a lot of similarities, too.

Please don’t fall into the trap of saying that you want to live in a colorblind world because it makes it harder to identify with inequality when it happens. Instead, I hope you can recognize that we have the same hopes, dreams, and fears as other parents, but the roads we travel may not be the same.

And no, I don’t want an apology.

But I hope when you pick up your next latte and see a dad who looks like me that you’ll smile knowing he’s the rule rather than the exception.

This article originally appeared on 06.15.16

Nearly 12 percent of the U.S. population lives in poverty. That’s more than one in ten Americans—and the percent is even higher for children.

If you’re not up on the current numbers, the federal poverty line is $12,760 for an individuals and $26,200 for a family of four. If those annual incomes sound abysmally low, it’s because they are. And incredibly, the Trump administration has proposed lowering the poverty line further, which would make more poor Americans ineligible for needed assistance.

However, debates over the poverty line don’t even capture the full extent of Americans struggling to make ends meet. For many people, living above the poverty line is actually worse. These are the folks who make too much to qualify for aid programs but not enough to actually get by—a situation millions of working American families find themselves stuck in.

Amy Jo Hutchison is a single mother of two living in West Virginia, and a community organizer for West Virginia Healthy Kids and Families and Our Future West Virginia. She has also lived in poverty and been part of the working poor herself. In an impassioned speech, she spoke to the House Committee on Oversight and Reform about what poverty really looks like for working families—and even called out Congress for being completely out of touch with what it takes for a family to live on while they’re spending $40,000 a year on office furniture.

Watch Hutchison’s testimony here (transcript included below):

Ms. Hutchison Testimony on Proposed Changes to the Poverty Line Calculation

“I’m here to help you better understand poverty because poverty is my lived experience. And I’m also here to acknowledge the biased beliefs that poor people are lazy and the poverty is their fault. But how do I make you understand things like working full-time for $10 an hour is only about $19,000 a year, even though it’s well above the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour?

I want to tell you about a single mom I met who was working at a gas station. She was promoted to manager within 30 days. She had to report her new income the DHHR within 60 days. Her rent bumped from $475 to $950 a month, she lost her SNAP benefits and her family’s health insurance, so she did what poor people are forced to do all the time. She resigned her promotion and went back to working part-time, just so she and her family could survive.

Another single mom I know encouraged her kids to get jobs. For her DHHR review she had to claim their income as well. She lost her SNAP benefits and her insurance, so she weaned herself off of her blood pressure medicines because she—working full-time in a bank and part-time at a shop on the weekends—couldn’t afford to buy them. Eventually the girls quit their jobs because their part-time fast food income was literally killing their mother.

You see the thing is children aren’t going to escape poverty as long as they’re relying on a head of household who is poor. Poverty rolls off the backs of parents, right onto the shoulders of our children, despite how hard we try.

I can tell you about my own with food insecurity the nights I went to bed hungry so my kids could have seconds, and I was employed full time as a Head Start teacher. I can tell you about being above the poverty guideline, nursing my gallbladder with essential oils and prayer, chewing on cloves and eating ibuprofen like they’re Tic Tacs because I don’t have health insurance and I can’t afford a dentist. I have two jobs and a bachelor’s degree, and I struggle to make ends meet.

The federal poverty guidelines say that I’m not poor, but I cashed in a jar full of change the other night so my daughter could attend a high school band competition with her band. I can’t go grocery shopping without a calculator. I had to decide which bills not to pay to be here in this room today. Believe me, I’ve pulled myself up by the bootstraps so many damn times that I’ve ripped them off.

The current poverty guidelines are ridiculously out of touch. The poverty line for a family of three is $21,720. Where I live, because of the oil and gas boom, a 3-bedroom home runs for $1,200 a month. So if I made $22,000 a year, which could disqualify me from assistance, I would have $8000 left to raise two children and myself on. And yet the poverty guidelines wouldn’t classify me as poor.

I Googled ‘congressman salary’ the other day and according to Senate gov the salary for Senators representatives and delegates is $174,000 a year so a year of work for you is the equivalent of almost four years of work for me. I’m $24,000 above the federal poverty guidelines definition of poor. It would take nine people working full-time for a year at $10 an hour to match y’all’s salary. I also read that each senator has authorized $40,000 dollars for state office furniture and furnishings, and this amount is increased each year to reflect inflation.

That $40,000 a year for furniture is $360 more than the federal poverty guidelines for a family of seven, and yet here I am begging you on behalf of the 15 million children living in poverty in the United States—on behalf of the one in three kids under the age of five and nearly 100,000 children in my state of West Virginia living in poverty—to not change anything about these federal poverty guidelines until you can make them relevant and reflect what poverty really looks like today.

You have a $40,000 dollar furniture allotment. West Virginia has a median income of $43,000 and some change. People are working full-time and are hungry. Kids are about to be kicked off the free and reduced lunch rolls because of changes y’all want to make to SNAP, even though 62 percent of West Virginia SNAP recipients are families with children—the very same children who cannot take a part-time job because their parents will die without insurance. People are working full-time in this country for very little money.

They’re not poor enough to get help. They don’t make enough to get by. They’re working while their rationing their insulin and their skipping their meds because they can’t afford food and healthcare at the same time.

So shame on you. Shame on you, and shame on me, and shame on each and every one of us who haven’t rattled the windows of these buildings with cries of outrage at a government that thinks their office furniture is worthy of $40,000 a year and families and children aren’t.

I’m not asking you to apologize for your privilege but I’m asking you to see past it. There are 46 million Americans living in poverty doing the best they know how with what they have and we, in defense of children and families, cannot accept anything less from our very own government.”

In addition to Hutchison’s testimony, a coalition of 26 patient organizations, including the American Cancer Society Action Network, American Heart Association, and United Way, wrote a joint letter opposing the proposed lowering of the poverty line, stating:

“The current Official Poverty Measure (OPM) is based on an old formula that already does not fully capture those living in poverty and does not accurately reflect basic household expenses for families, including by underestimating child care and housing expenses. The proposed changes to the inflation calculation would reduce the annual adjustments to the poverty measure and therefore may exacerbate existing weaknesses, putting vulnerable Americans – including those with serious and chronic diseases – at great risk. Further lowering the poverty line would also give policymakers and the public less credible information about the number and characteristics of Americans living in poverty.”

This article originally appeared on 03.10.20

A pelvic floor doctor from Boston, Massachusetts, has caused a stir by explaining that something we all thought was good for our health can cause real problems. In a video that has more than 5.8 million views on TikTok, Dr. Alicia Jeffrey-Thomas says we shouldn’t go pee “just in case.”

How could this be? The moment we all learned to control our bladders we were also taught to pee before going on a car trip, sitting down to watch a movie or playing sports.

The doctor posted the video as a response to TikTok user Sidneyraz, who made a video urging people to go to the bathroom whenever they get the chance. Sidneyraz is known for posting videos about things he didn’t learn until his 30s. “If you think to yourself, ‘I don’t have to go,’ go.” SidneyRaz says in the video. It sounds like common sense but evidently, he was totally wrong, just like the rest of humanity.

“Pelvic floor physical therapist here, and I work with a lot of people with overactive bladders, stress incontinence, urge incontinence, the whole nine yards,” Dr. Jeffrey-Thomas began her clip. “And here’s why you shouldn’t go ‘just in case.”‘

In the video, Dr. Jeffrey-Thomas explains the three levels of feeling the need to pee.

“The first one is just an awareness level that tells you that there’s some urine in the bladder,” she said. “The second one is the one that tells you to make a plan to use the toilet, and the third is kind of the panic button that says, ‘Get me there right now, I’m about to overflow.’”

@sidneyraz

on vacation and remembering #vacation #tips #bathroom #travel #tipsandtricks #todayilearned #todayyearsold #islandlife #traumabrain #roadtrip #inmy30s

Then she made her case by giving a visual explanation of how going when we don’t need to teaches our bodies to prematurely send signals that it’s time to pee. The simple explanation has a lot of people wondering if their pee sensor is still working correctly.

@thepelvicdancefloor

#stitch with @sidneyraz I know it sounds counterintuitive and goes against everything your momma taught you – just out here trying to save your bladder 🤍

In a rare display of humility on the internet, Sidneyraz saw the video and thanked the doctor for the correction. “Oh hey thanks for correcting me!” he wrote.

The video shocked a lot of people who feel like their entire lives have been based on a lie—at least when it comes to something most of us do six to eight times a day. “TikTok is basically just a bunch of videos telling me I’m doing life wrong,” joked one commenter. “Like Jesus, really? I’m peeing wrong?”

Yes, you are.

“Who else hears their mom in their head say ‘go just in case’ when you’re out and about and near a bathroom?” another commenter asked.

The good news is that if you’ve always been the type to go “just in case” and you constantly feel like you need to go pee, there is hope. With the help of a doctor, you can retrain your bladder so that you only feel the need to go when it’s time. Now, who’s going to be the first brave person who doesn’t go when they feel the need, just to see if their body’s pee sensor is off?

This article originally appeared on 05.12.22

Women are often saddled with the mental load of the household in romantic relationships, there are multiple articles covering the topic. It can be daunting to be in charge of remembering all of the things, essentially becoming a house manager by default. Many times this isn’t an arrangement that is discussed, it seems to be either an expectation due to parental modeling or falling into gender roles.

Morgan Strickell was not planning to fall into the trap of being her family’s sole organizer and distributer of information. This was a boundary she and her husband were clear about before getting married but recently had to reinforce. The soon-to-be mom, took to her TikTok page to explain that she is not interested in being her husband’s “kin keeper.”

Strickell is pregnant with her first child and after news was posed on social media, her mother in law’s feeling were hurt after finding out the news second hand. It was this situation that prompted the woman’s video.

“I refuse to be the primary communicator with my husband’s side of the family,” Strickell starts. “A few weeks ago my mother-in-law was on the phone with us and she expressed that she was a little bit hurt because she keeps finding out things about our pregnancy from her sister who sees the posts on social media.”

The woman explains that this is news to her as she assumed her husband had been communicating the news to his mother. So when they had another ultrasound appointment she reminded her husband to send the information to his mom, to which he asked why she couldn’t inform his mom for him. That’s when Strickwell had to reinforce her boundary, reminding him that it is his job to inform his side of the family of important information.

Strickwell has a good relationship with her mother in-law and speaks to her on a fairly regular basis, so it’s not a matter of an unpleasant relationship. The soon-to-be mom is simply not adding additional things to her plate that then become the expectation. Many people in the comments agreed with her approach.

@morganstrickell #family #momsoftiktok #inlaws ♬ original sound – Morgan Elisa Strickell

I’m on your side and I’m actually the mom of three boys who don’t communicate with me, but it is their responsibility to keep me in the loop not their wives,” a commenter says.

“Last year my husband told me I was wrong for not including his mom in my Mother’s Day shopping and I kindly reminded him that we in fact do not share the same mom,” another writes.

“Stay strong on this, it only gets worse after the kid is born,” someone declares.

“You are correct and the next thing he’ll have you do is buying birthday presents birthday cards for his family and everything becomes your responsibility,” another person says.

In another video, Strickell clarified that her husband isn’t worried about his communication in with his mother. She also says this isn’t an issue that comes up often in their relationship because he is very good at communicating with his family. But Strickwell’s intention was to use that example as a means to make sure people are aware that the responsibility of communication doesn’t have to fall on the female partner in the relationship.

If you’ve never heard of the Cat Distribution System, then you probably don’t own a cat, or you do, but you acquired your cat in a normal, non-weird way. You know, like at an animal shelter or from some nice lady on social media who had a box of kittens. Some people do get cats that way, and it’s one thousand percent a valid way to attain cat parent status.

But some lucky folks get cats through the Cat Distribution System (or CDS for short). Is this system real? The only people who know this are cats. They’re also the ones that run the system, so the rules and the way in which you attain your purr machine may be a bit wonky. You may wake up with an unknown cat in your bed even though all of your windows are closed, or you just may be like this delivery driver.

The driver was out picking up orders when a cat came out of the CDS and jumped on the man’s leg as he attempted to get back to his car. Thanks to his dash cam, you get to see CDS at work, and so did his mom. The video currently has over 2.8 million views on TikTok.

When the driver asked his mom if he could keep the cat, at first she said no. Then she saw the footage of the cat aggressively and desperately choosing her son to be its new cat dad—and that’s how you get a cat through the CDS. Once the cat realized she made the right choice, she snuggled up on her dad’s lap as he drove her home.

“We are not cat people,” reads the text overlay. “My youngest son was out making deliveries last night. A cat kept following him. Then jumped on his leg and would not let go.”

I have news for you, Mom, you’re cat people now. It’s how the Cat Distribution System works. They train their recruits to turn non-cat people into cat people, one unsuspecting human at a time. If you don’t make it to the end of the video, yes, they kept the cat and her name is Venus. That’s how the system is designed.

Watch the CDS at work below:

@dretontheborder

#catrescue #catrescueroftiktok I am not a #catperson but maybe now I will be after today. I #Love my #son has a #huge #compassionate #heart #momsoftiktok #rescate #gato

This article originally appeared on 4.12.23

No matter how long you’ve skied or snowboarded or how much of an expert you are, there’s one nemesis on the mountain that poses an underappreciated threat—the tree well.

People may think the main danger of skiing through trees is the risk of running into one. But falling into a tree well is a less obvious, but still potentially deadly risk due to the possibility of snow immersion suffocation (SIS). Essentially, the area around the base of a tree creates snow conditions that are quite different than those out in the open. Air pockets in the snow combined with water vapor rising from the tree base turns the snow into a quicksand-like texture that is nearly impossible to escape from—the more you struggle, the deeper in you fall. Skiers and snowboarders die every year from SIS due to falling into tree wells and not being found in time.

That could easily have been snowboarder Ian Steger’s fate in March 2023 if not for the eagle eye and quick thinking of backcountry skier Francis Zuber.

Zuber had just begun a backcountry ski run with a buddy on Mount Baker in Washington State when a flash of red caught the corner of his eye. Zuber’s GoPro footage shows him stopping and turning to see a colorful snowboard upside-down next to a tree.

“I knew there was somebody attached to it, and obviously they were still alive,” Zuber told Vancouver’s City News. “I shout out to the guy…he can’t hear me, he’s five and a half to six feet into the snow at that point.” Zuber knew he had to work fast.

As the video shows him struggling to make his way back toward the tree through the deep snow, we can hear him muttering expletives to himself and calling out to the snowboarder. At first, we can’t see how Steger is positioned, but as Zuber gets closer and starts digging, it becomes clear that the snowboarder is completely upside-down, with his face buried deep in the snow.

Watch the harrowing GoPro footage Zuber shared on YouTube:

[Warning: This video contains strong language.]

Zuber told the CBC that they estimated Steger had been buried between five and seven minutes, “probably at either a third or just the halfway point of his possible survival time in there,” when he found him. Zuber said Steger hadn’t been snowboarding alone—he was with a group of three other riders who were carrying safety equipment including shovels, beacons and two-way radios—but as we could see in Zuber’s GoPro, getting back up a mountain when you realize someone in your group isn’t behind you anymore is no small or quick task.

Steger and Zuber have since become friends since the March 3 rescue and have even gone skiing together on Mount Baker.

Steger told the CBC he just wants to “enjoy being alive.” Indeed, after a close-call experience like that, every moment you have would feel like a gift.

This article originally appeared on 4.6.23

We’re all well aware of the sounds most common animals make, due in no small part to that classic Fisher Price “Farmer Says” toy (remember those?).

But more exotic animals…not so much. Their calls remain a mystery.

Like the hippo, for instance. Who the heck knows off the top of their head what those sound like?

Well, thanks to the Saint Louis Zoo, we can quell that curiosity.

In a video posted to the zoo’s TikTok account, we see three female Nile hippos—Mashavu, Kiboko and Tombi—make a noise that viewers feel is somewhere between a “whoopie cushion” and a “murder kazoo.”

Listen:

@stlzoo Ever heard a hippo? 🔊 The three female Nile hippos here at the Zoo make lots of different noises. They wheeze, honk, grunt and squeal to communicate with their group – known as a bloat – both above and below water! The sounds can be heard for more than a half a mile in the wild. #hippo #hippopotamus #animals #animal #animalsounds #zoo ♬ original sound – Saint Louis Zoo

Pretty accurate description, right? According to the video’s caption, hippos make a variety of noises. They can roar, grunt, squeal and even communicate underwater! According to the New York Times, hippos will also announce their presence using a “wheeze honk.” Talk about knowing how to make an entrance.

Hippos aren’t the only members of the animal kingdom to make strange sounds. Have you ever heard…

A chirping cheetah?

Cheetahs will typically issue this call during distress or to locate their young, but have been observed using it in all sorts of scenarios, per Earth.com.

How about a screaming armadillo?

The Cincinnati Zoo explains that hairy armadillos will scream when threatened. Relatable.

Or a laughing fox?

It is theorized that foxes only make these “hehe” sounds to get human attention. Mission: accomplished.

It never gets olds learning something new about the cool creatures that share this planet with us.

Becoming a parent is simultaneously one of the most rewarding and terrifying life experiences a person can have. And try as you may, no matter how many books or blogs you read, there’s really no way to fully prepare for the ongoing reality of parenting. There’s always something you didn’t expect or account for, some surprise child-rearing delight or horror that catches you off guard.

Parents on X are sharing the one thing that most caught them by surprise about parenting and it’s a treasure trove of “What to Expect” wisdom and experience that might—might—help prospective or new parents feel a little bit more prepared.

The thread started off with @realgirl_fieri posing the question and sharing her own unexpected parenting plot twist.

“What is one parenting thing that caught you completely by surprise?” she asked. “I was prepared for sleeplessness, tantrums, picky eating. But I genuinely didn’t believe until I saw it with my own two eyes just how hard it is to find childcare that fully covers your working hours.”

— (@)

Other parents hopped right on in with surprises that run the gamut from food to sensory overload to kids’ hilarity.

Let’s start with sleep. We all know to expect to be tired with babies, but until you’re in the thick of it with a baby who really doesn’t sleep well, you don’t know how life-altering it can be. There’s a reason sleep deprivation is used as a torture technique, after all.

@Hardley76 @realgirl_fieri I spent 4 years with such severe sleep deprivation I was literally hallucinating. It’s actually the theme of the next thriller I’m writing. I was prepared for “tired” – I never imagined how much it would break me. Not enough support out there. 13 years later I’m still not over it

— (@)

Some parents were taken aback by having less socialization than they expected.

“Honestly, I thought I’d see my friends with kids more,” shared one mom. “My two best friends had babies when I did in 2022. I’ve seen each twice. I thought we’d be together all the time,” offered another.

“I thought there would be more play dates,” agreed another. “Maybe we’re just not there yet, but with work, school, life it just doesn’t happen? Sometimes with my friends with kids but rarely with friends from school.”

@sarahradz_ @realgirl_fieri My oldest friend has two little kids around my kidsu2019 ages, and the best we can do these days is like a 5 minute FaceTime whenever the stars align. Always interrupted by the kids talking to each other, then over within minutes ud83dude2d

— (@)

Some have been surprised by how true the stereotype of Mom always having her meal interrupted can be. When kids are little, it’s shocking how many times you find yourself getting up from the dinner table, even when you think you had everything ready to go.

“The line from A Christmas Story resonates,” shared one commenter, “watching his mom getting up/down at dinner and Ralphie narrates ‘My mother had not had a hot meal for herself in 15 years.'”

@clhubes @realgirl_fieri I have long thought this needs to be a SNL sketch bc it truly feels like the kids have perfect comedic timing with a new request every time my butt almostttt hits the chair!

— (@)

And then there’s the not really getting to sit down at all part due to snacks, spills, finding things, breaking up fights, etc. And when you finally do sit, you immediately becoming a lap to sit on or a climbing apparatus.

@IBD_AGatlin @realgirl_fieri Thissss. I was a nanny for almost 10 years before I had my daughter so I knew what I was in for. 4 years later and itu2019s NOTHING like nannying. If Iu2019m sitting down, Iu2019m getting climbed onud83dude29

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Some parents were surprised by the number and variety of toys and the noise that came with them. “Nobody told me there would be so much smashing and crashing of toys,” wrote one parent. Others were amazed by how quickly you become overrun with toys even when you don’t buy any. It’s like they just appear out of thin air.

Others offered up the out-of-left-field, unexpectedly-expensive need for berries. All the berries. So. Many. Berries.

As one dad shared, “One of the most ernest pieces of advice I got from a friend with two toddlers was to never introduce your children to blueberries. They are so expensive and children will eat an unlimited amount. They will bankrupt you.”

@throeingit @realgirl_fieri And strawberries, blackberries, bananas, grapes, raspberries, the list goes onnnI swear Iu2019m going to have to get a second job just to feed my kids berry habit

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On the up side, kids can also be delightfully bright and rip-roaring hilarious right from the get go.

@andeholmes @realgirl_fieri Yes! My brother was trying to get my son (6mo) to smile and asked me how I make him laugh. I very seriously said “oh just act like you are going to eat his hand, he thinks that’s hilarious” and my brother was confused then delighted when he tried it and my son laughed. u2764ufe0fud83dude02

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And then there’s the sheer relentlessness of it all and the constant space your beloved children take up in your psyche.

“You’re never alone, never off duty, never just responsible for yourself, never just thinking about yourself and your wants/ needs,” shared one parent. “This is the one,” agreed another. “I haven’t been alone for any meaningful period of time in eight years.”

Even if you manage to carve out some time for yourself, you’re never not thinking about your children in some part of your mind, and your parental instincts are always “on.”

@osimonsays1 @realgirl_fieri Never 100% relaxed again is SO true. I think the only times Iu2019ve felt truly rested in the last 21 years has been when Iu2019m under anesthesia for surgery. And they wonder why I laugh and cry simultaneously like a bipolar hyena.

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It’s good to share these things as parents so we know we’re not alone and so that people becoming parents aren’t totally blindsided. No matter how much people tell you, there will certainly be some things you still weren’t prepared for, so anything that makes prepping for parenting even a tiny bit easier is worth sharing.