Parent Methods I Swore I’d Never Do

Let’s be honest. When our first child is born, we are all pretty sure we know everything about, well, everything. 

I scoffed at advice offered (sure that I was doing the right thing) because I’d read every book, blog and news article about every thing that could possibly happen in the first year of my son’s life. I enjoyed the long, lazy days of having only one child, lunching with friends while keeping track of only one child, and napping when my son napped.

This second time around, life sure is different. Gone are the days of naps, having a clean house, easy trips to the grocery store and calm trips to the park. My life is now chaotic, messy, tiring and filled with more joy than I ever thought possible.

In honor of the fact that I haven’t had a moment to myself in 2 months and 15 days, here’s my top 5 countown of parenting methods I swore I’d never do but have invariably thrown out the window:

5. Co-sleeping.

With my first, I swore I’d never pull him in bed with me (the horror! the risk! the uncertainty that he’d never sleep on his own!). Um yeah, our second night home from the hospital when our precious son wouldn’t sleep at 2am in his bassinet but he’d conk out in our bed? Yeah, he stayed there. For a looooong time. And we all slept great.

4. TV watching

Before babe #2 entered the scene, my first born watched maybe 30 minutes of TV a week. Today, he sung me the entire Bubble Guppies theme song, recited a scene from Curious George and asked when we could visit Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood. Oops.

3. Mommy Fashion (or lack thereof)

In my days with only one babe, I made it a point to always be dressed (aka out of pj’s) in something cute when my husband came home from work. Yeah. I’ve been in pj’s the last 3 days he came home. And you know what? He doesn’t love me any less.

2. Store Bought Baby Food

My firstborn exclusively ate homemade, organic baby food. My second? He eats when I remember to feed him solids. And it’s not homemade. It also is probably not organic. I also pulled a goldfish out of my mouth last week. Oh well.

And last but not least…..

1. Sleep Training

My first born was sleep trained and sleeping through the night at 3 months old. Babe #2? Yeah, I just spent over an hour rocking him to sleep and I’m sure I’ll end up back in there rocking him to sleep again at some point.

But you know what?

Who cares about any of these.

I am pretty sure that my kids will be sleeping in their own beds by the time they go to elementary school. They won’t remember what I wore when their dad came home every day. They won’t remember the amount of TV they watched on days we were just trying to survive. They’ll have a good foundation of healthy food choices and they’ll fall asleep on their own.

But today? Today I am going to love where we are now and enjoy being with them; before time has flown by and I’m dropping them off for their first day of school. And you know what? On that day, I will probably have the time to be dressed cute, make a healthy organic dinner, and take a nap in the middle of the day. I’ll also probably be an emotional wreck and missing these sweet days at home where I get to spend all of my time with just them.