The bedrock of successful parenting is, very often, a successful marriage.

That’s not to say that divorce isn’t sometimes the right choice, or that single parents can’t do an amazing job.

But when a child’s parents love each other deeply and, more importantly, work on their relationship — everyone wins.

There’s no doubt: Being a parent and husband or wife is hard work. The relationship tends to want to take a backseat to raising the kids, and paying the bills, and getting chores done, and on and on.

It’s a wonder anyone makes it work!

But they do. And to prove it, I’ve compiled some of the best true marriage stories from Reddit to give you hope and make you believe in the power of love!

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Baby bottles can be confusing, with lots of different bits and pieces to think about.

The most basic baby bottles have just three parts, but some can have as many as five or six.

It can be overwhelming for new parents!

Are complicated baby bottles with more parts better for our babies? Or do they just mean more things for parents to clean and assemble?

With so many types of baby bottles on the market to choose from, it can be hard to know where to start.

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Playing games in the kitchen with your children is a great way to get them involved in cooking, while also making it fun.

When preparing a meal, it can be tempting to send the kids off to another room to watch TV.

But having them join in with the preparation of food can be fun for everyone. Plus, if you train them well, having your very own sous chef can actually be pretty handy!

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With the big day about to arrive, it’s natural for you and your partner to have all sorts of questions about what you can expect when you step foot inside the hospital

Flipping through baby books might have given you an idea about what you can expect through pregnancy and new parenthood, but still leave you with questions about what will happen on your due date.

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We all do it.

The moment you pick up a baby — especially yours, but maybe even someone else’s — you start to sway.

You gently bounce your body and rock back and forth. If baby starts to cry, you shush them. If baby makes a noise, you babble happily back to them.

You don’t even realize that you’re doing it! No one ever taught you, and babies don’t come with instructions.

Is this your parenting instincts in action? Are these behaviors hard-wired into our evolutionary biology, just waiting for the right time to emerge? Do moms have stronger instincts than dads? Do all woman have a powerful urge to become moms?

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Handing out and lighting up cigars at the birth of a baby has been a long-standing tradition in the United States.

But, as smoking has become less popular, and certainly isn’t allowed at hospitals anymore, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to hand out cigars that will never be smoked.

If you’d like to celebrate the birth of your baby in style, but aren’t interested in lighting up yourself, here are some of the best cigar alternatives for a new baby:

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Knowing that your baby will sleep long and sound can give you great peace of mind.

For that to happen, you’ll usually need to have baby wrapped up tight in a good swaddle.

The thought of wrapping your baby tightly so that they can’t move their arms might sound like a crazy idea! However, many parents vouch for the comforting effect swaddling has on their newborns. Plus, it’s dangerous to put a baby to sleep with a loose blanket as they can easily suffocate.

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Imagine this: Your baby transitions from using a bottle to an open cup effortlessly overnight.

Wouldn’t that be perfect?

Sadly, this isn’t a perfect world, and making the switch from bottle or breast to a proper cup can be challenging for a lot of new parents and their babies.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends giving up a bottle somewhere between your baby turning 12 and 24 months old. But there is a learning curve involved in using an open cup, and understandably so.

So until your baby has perfected drinking from a cup, you could expect ample spills and messes to clean up!

This is exactly where sippy cups come in.

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There’s so much to buy and think about before you bring a new baby home.

First things first, you’ll need to stock up on diapers!

But when you start shopping, you’ll quickly realize buying diapers can be pretty complicated. You have to choose between cloth and disposable, and even then there are tons of varieties of each.

Let’s break down all the different kinds of baby diapers and make them easy to understand.

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There’s so much to think about when choosing the right bottle set for your new baby.

But along with considering bottle size, shape, and material, you’ll have to figure out what kind of nipple you want your bottles to have. And the choices there are nearly endless!

What type of baby bottle nipple is right for you?

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