(I started this post on March 1 but didn't get finished until today)
Today my baby turns 3. I'm so weird that I made The Ex go upstairs at 11:00 last night to take a picture of her while she was sleeping so that I could capture her last moments as a two-year-old on camera. Tonight my family comes over to celebrate. I'm sure I'll have more to write about after they leave. That's a whole lotta crazy in one house.
After work today I went and got my nails done. I was in a hurry to get home to
lay on the couch get the house ready before everyone got here so I didn't wait for my nails to dry. I had to stop at Toys R Us on my way home to pick up mh3's birthday present (I love ordering stuff online and picking it up there, no shipping or shopping). I had to walk through Toys R Us pretty much like this:
(I was even wearing a shirt like that). I was walking through the store feeling like an idiot with my hands in the air and I started to think about the article that I read this morning.
You can find it here but I will condense it for you. It's basically saying that before moms have kids we have all these ideas about how we will treat our kids and how those ideas never come to fruition. These are the things that she said before kids (
in bold) and then everything changed after kids (the original writer is in black, I'm red)
I will never let my kids sleep with me: "In a desperate measure, I tossed him into bed with us one night and we've all had a good night's sleep ever since". I always knew my kids would not sleep with me- after I had kids they only slept with me while they were still young enough to need to nurse in the middle of the night. Once they were big enough, they were kicked to the curb crib. Anyone who knows Conni Jo knows that Conni Jo needs sleep and stinky breath little kids are not the way to get it.
My kids will eat what they are fed "don't like dinner? Well, I guess you're not eating. Then I walk away and think about how I'm already worried about his calcium intake and if he's eating enough protein." I never feel guilty about this- I make food, you eat or not. Mothers need to realize that kids won't die from one night of not eating their dinner. They WILL wake up very hungry in the morning and they WILL not skip dinner again (usually- that dag on mh3 does this regularly but I'm starting to think she's a robot spy so she's trained for that kind of thing) I have too many people around here to feed. (Let me be clear though, I know what they truly like and don't like and I try to work with that). With this mentality, my kids pretty much eat anything and everything. We eat lots of vegetables and you won't see them turn down a piece of fruit.
I will never ignore my kids like that I have never thought about this one, but I ignore the ish out of them. There is no particular time of the day or need that I ignore. It's all fair game and sometimes I ignore them more than others so as to spare their lives.
Why don't you take your kids to the park, it's so easy I'm confused why this one is even in here. It's freaking weird. I must have not thought about this stuff as much as some weirdo moms did
Why would you take your kids swimming, it's so hard? Again, weird statement..we swim, it's a pain in the arse changing clothes, protecting skin from cancer, drying off, making sure no one drowns, but it's fun
Kids shouldn't eat crap "I once threw an open bag of cheesies down the basement stairs to stop my kids from fighting like drunk white girls while I was on a really important phone call". My kids eat crap, but mostly they eat fresh, whole foods. I don't sit around and think about any of it or feel guilty for going to Mickey D's every once in a while when I'm too lazy to make a real dinner. But, if they lived with any one of our parents that would be little fatties. Why must grandparents pump their grand babies full of sugar?
How hard is it to look half decent after you've had a kid? "I wore glasses with one arm missing for a year-and-a-half because it broke off and I couldn't find time to fix it. I haven't been to the dentist since my second son was born and he just turned two" This is a problem a lot of women experience. I say STOP IT. Stop letting yourself go in the name of kids. Take care of yourself so you can feel good about yourself.
How hard is it to keep your cool? "Pretty hard sometimes" Agree. This is something I do feel guilty about. I try to stay calm and when I focus on being calm I usually am, but sometimes I don't think about it and I end up losing my mind and then remembering that beating and killing is illegal.
I would never let my kids become my whole life "I used to go over to my "previously cool" friend's place and think how sad it was that her house was overrun with sippy cups, Polly Pocket shoes and Dora the Explorer crap. Now I lay in my hippy bed reading Goodnight Moon until my right eye twitches and they fall asleep. Then I look at their perfect, little faces and wonder how I ever lived without them". If you are a good parent, your kids should be your whole life. Good parenting means putting them in front of your own needs.
She wrapped it up saying basically saying if you don't have kids don't put all these stipulations on yourself because you have no idea what you'll encounter. I agree and furthermore, if more mothers trusted themselves, instead of the government, doctors, nurses, authors, "experts", etc. they would realize that they were already know everything they need to know by way of their instincts. Put your kids first, then trust yourself and they'll turn out fine.
And, I had to throw this in here because it's so freaking creepy and disgusting. The first thing I thought of is "What are they looking at?" Then I realized I'm the weirdo for my first thought not being, "why are they naked like that?"
