Unpopular Thoughts & Opinions

[lakegirl]

Anybody?

Bar soap at a bathroom sink, especially one guests will be using, is awful. To not want to touch.

[flcl]

Jul 14, 2016 6:52:40 GMT -5 lakegirl said:

Anybody?

Bar soap at a bathroom sink, especially one guests will be using, is awful. To not want to touch.

That's a good one!

Mine is that my H is out to get me. I mean, I think it's his secret mission to make my life harder by having to constantly clean up his stupid decisions.

[peaseblossom55]

I don't have any. H & I were having fun trying to pick girls names. Girl's names are not easy. I guess my unpopular opinion- Penelope is not a cute name. Sorry if I offend.

[meeggaannw]

Jul 14, 2016 8:39:12 GMT -5 peaseblossom55 said:

I don't have any. H & I were having fun trying to pick girls names. Girl's names are not easy. I guess my unpopular opinion- Penelope is not a cute name. Sorry if I offend.

I think boys are harder! I'm really hoping this baby is a girl so I don't have to think of a boy name.

[peaseblossom55]

Jul 14, 2016 8:59:38 GMT -5 meeggaannw said:

Jul 14, 2016 8:39:12 GMT -5 peaseblossom55 said:

I don't have any. H & I were having fun trying to pick girls names. Girl's names are not easy. I guess my unpopular opinion- Penelope is not a cute name. Sorry if I offend.

I think boys are harder! I'm really hoping this baby is a girl so I don't have to think of a boy name.

I feel the opposite. I had a long list of boys names I loved.  I can share them in case you need some.

[heybulldog56]

We have one girl name and like 100 boy names!
I can't remember my UO but if it returns to me I'll share!

[flcl]

Jul 14, 2016 8:59:38 GMT -5 meeggaannw said:

Jul 14, 2016 8:39:12 GMT -5 peaseblossom55 said:

I don't have any. H & I were having fun trying to pick girls names. Girl's names are not easy. I guess my unpopular opinion- Penelope is not a cute name. Sorry if I offend.

I think boys are harder! I'm really hoping this baby is a girl so I don't have to think of a boy name.

I agree. There are so many pretty girls names but we really struggle with boy ones. We already used one our favorite up on LO!

[osumegs]

I think bar soap is gross in any setting. I finally got H to switch to body wash and it made my week.

We have nothing in the girl name department. We were so hoping for a boy for that reason. Oops

[judyblume14]

Sparked by the movie thread. I'm not impressed with Gone with the Wind. It was one of my maternity leave bucket list items. I wasted my last day of maternity leave watching it. Meh. I would have rather watched... anything else.

[geekmama]

As someone who is desperately hoping for a girl mostly because of our lack of boy name ideas, I would love to see people's lists who think boy names are easier.

[geekmama]

I have something that might be a UO ... not really an opinion so much as a frustration. I was watching Jane the Virgin and, like so many shows about parenting young children, they treated her choice to try and avoid cry-it-out as some kind of moral failure. Of course, when she tried CIO, as suggested by her grandma, it worked within 10 minutes and her baby went to sleep all by himself from then on.

DS didn't go to sleep on his own until he was at least 18 months old. He still needs someone to sit next to his crib so that he can go to sleep at night. The couple of times I tried CIO out of exhaustion and desperation, he screamed until he puked, and then besides cleaning up I had to deal with a distraught kid who took hours to calm back down. I'm really tired of moms who do anything besides CIO being portrayed as weak-willed women who just need to suck it up and do it.

[silvermelody]

geekmama CIO is one of those very polarizing things. I don't think anyone who avoids it has a moral failing. You know your child best.

FWIW we did a modified CIO with my son around 5 months, when we started putting him in his own room and in his own crib. 10 minutes was my limit and if he started really hollering I would get him immediately. It quickly became apparent that if he cried for more than 2 minutes, he was not ready to sleep yet. We would nurse more and try again and usually the second time was the charm.

Thankfully he's always been a good sleeper, so once I learned his cues, it was smooth sailing.

I also know people that have kids my DS age (23 months) that have never slept through the night. They tried harsher CIO methods out of desperation. I do not judge them either for trying everything in order to get some sleep.

[lakegirl]

geekmama so many aspects of parenting are poorly portrayed on tv. I'm actually super excited about that aspect in Broadchurch! One of the characters had a baby during the trial. She said she was showing up to court no matter what, even if she was hopped up on painkillers. Then she actually shows up with an incredibly realistic postpartum floppy belly and her husband brings her a pillow to sit on. I was super excited and ranting to mh about how awesome it was.

[lakegirl]

Jul 14, 2016 10:55:31 GMT -5 opheliainwaders said:

OK, my UO is kind of silly, but I really don't like names that are popular. I grew up with a weird name, and the idea of naming a kid something that is in the top 20 in a given year just bugs me. (MH, who has a name that was popular when we were kids, couldn't care less, and was bugged when I vetoed Liam as a potential boy name before DD was born).

Yes! I hated being 1 of 3 in my grade! And mh dated two other girls with my name! Mh really wanted Charlotte last time, thankfully we had a boy, and is pushing for it again. I love the name but waaaaay too popular right now.

[lakegirl]

I dislike dust jackets on books. Especially children's books.

[heybulldog56]

I have a rare-ish name and I love it. DS however, has a good old classic boy name. Not necessarily popular but... It's a pretty solid, traditional name.

[heybulldog56]

Jul 14, 2016 11:15:43 GMT -5 lakegirl said:

I dislike dust jackets on books. Especially children's books.

+1 I HATE them. I remove them ASAP. I actually just found a whole bunch that I shoved between the wall and bookshelf in DS's room.

[aprilz81]

Jul 14, 2016 8:39:12 GMT -5 peaseblossom55 said:

I don't have any. H & I were having fun trying to pick girls names. Girl's names are not easy. I guess my unpopular opinion- Penelope is not a cute name. Sorry if I offend.

I also think girl names are harder.  They are so trendy (and I don't want something too trendy) and so many spelling variations (I want the most common spelling of any baby name) that it is crazy.

We have a few girl names we like but I have more boy names that I like.

[aprilz81]

Jul 14, 2016 10:11:52 GMT -5 geekmama said:

As someone who is desperately hoping for a girl mostly because of our lack of boy name ideas, I would love to see people's lists who think boy names are easier.

My top pick is James Anthony but DH doesn't love it.  James after my Dad and Anthony goes back three generations in his family as either a first or middle name.

Other names I like:

Oliver
Allen (after an uncle who died before I was born)
Walter (used as a middle name to honor a family friend who was like a grandfather to me)
Lincoln (DH's suggestion that I don't hate but not my favorite)
Matthew

I find boy names a little easier because they aren't as trendy and you can find a solid, "normal" sounding name that will work for a kid and a future president or Supreme Court Justice.

[peaseblossom55]

Our boy's list included Desmond, Wesley, Christian, Colin, Daniel, Jonah, Warner, Preston, Nathaniel, Henrik and Harrison.

[jrun2013]

I'll preface this by saying I'm in the caboose and to each their own, but I think it's too early to come up with names. Maybe I'll feel differently in a few weeks.

Also, with DD, prior to knowing she was a girl, we had a boy's name picked out, but not a girl's name. She actually wasn't named until the day after she was born because we couldn't decide. We used the white board in the hospital to write out our choices and narrow then down. Hopefully we'll be more prepared this time.

[jrun2013]

Also, DH is still sold on our boy's name, but I don't think I am, so hopefully he's open to change if this baby is a boy.

[jrun2013]

Also, s/o from the movie thread: I don't like The Wizard of Oz. that said, Wicked was phenomenal.

[thelittleredm]

Jul 14, 2016 12:03:23 GMT -5 jrun2013 said:

I'll preface this by saying I'm in the caboose and to each their own, but I think it's too early to come up with names. Maybe I'll feel differently in a few weeks.

Also, with DD, prior to knowing she was a girl, we had a boy's name picked out, but not a girl's name. She actually wasn't named until the day after she was born because we couldn't decide. We used the white board in the hospital to write out our choices and narrow then down. Hopefully we'll be more prepared this time.

My cousin and her husband did this, too. They couldn't agree on a name until they were about to be discharged.

[geekmama]

Jul 14, 2016 12:03:23 GMT -5 jrun2013 said:

I'll preface this by saying I'm in the caboose and to each their own, but I think it's too early to come up with names. Maybe I'll feel differently in a few weeks.

Also, with DD, prior to knowing she was a girl, we had a boy's name picked out, but not a girl's name. She actually wasn't named until the day after she was born because we couldn't decide. We used the white board in the hospital to write out our choices and narrow then down. Hopefully we'll be more prepared this time.

We started talking about names before I was even pregnant with DS and he still didn't have a middle name until the day after he was born. He only had a first name because DH insisted on him having the same first name as him. If we don't start discussing names early on, we'll end up leaving the hospital with a baby with no name.

Unless it's a girl. Then she'll have a name the moment the anatomy scan is over.

[siouxsieq]

Jul 14, 2016 10:15:58 GMT -5 geekmama said:

I have something that might be a UO ... not really an opinion so much as a frustration. I was watching Jane the Virgin and, like so many shows about parenting young children, they treated her choice to try and avoid cry-it-out as some kind of moral failure. Of course, when she tried CIO, as suggested by her grandma, it worked within 10 minutes and her baby went to sleep all by himself from then on.

DS didn't go to sleep on his own until he was at least 18 months old. He still needs someone to sit next to his crib so that he can go to sleep at night. The couple of times I tried CIO out of exhaustion and desperation, he screamed until he puked, and then besides cleaning up I had to deal with a distraught kid who took hours to calm back down. I'm really tired of moms who do anything besides CIO being portrayed as weak-willed women who just need to suck it up and do it.

I have a lot of opinions about sleep. I'm a huge proponent of, you have to do what's best for you, your baby, your family, your parenting style. There's not a one-size-fits-all answer.

Also, IMO, CIO is only one aspect of sleep training. There are methods of sleep training that do not involve CIO. For anyone looking for sleep help down the line, there are so many methods out there, and the glorious thing is we all get to make the choice for ourselves of what we want to do. The only advice that I think applies to everyone is whatever you do, be consistent.

So in sum, I got you're back. Nobody should be shaming anyone for their sleep choices, because you're so right. All babies are different and have different needs.

Having said all that, sleep training saved me, and the method I used involved some CIO. And I'm happy to help anyone who decides to go this route. I needed a lot of support, and I'm happy to pay that forward. But yeah, it's not for everyone, and that should be respected.

[ashtog]

I also did a variation of sleep training with my kids, it involved very little crying and a routine- that was the most important step to me- the routine. If he knew it was coming he would settle and be ok and i could lay him down awake and leave him. Sometimes he would cry but more in protest and then he'd be fine.

But I 100% agree that it is up to each family to figure out what works for you.

[siouxsieq]

Jul 14, 2016 15:05:37 GMT -5 ashtog said:

I also did a variation of sleep training with my kids, it involved very little crying and a routine- that was the most important step to me- the routine. If he knew it was coming he would settle and be ok and i could lay him down awake and leave him. Sometimes he would cry but more in protest and then he'd be fine.

But I 100% agree that it is up to each family to figure out what works for you.

That's kinda one thing I hate about the term "cry it out." I feel that a lot of times it is used to shame moms that go this route. I prefer "sleep training." Yes, my kid cried a little at the beginning of sleep training, but that was only part of it. Changing up our routine in a major way, eliminating bad habits, and then being super strictly consistent with the new routine was a greater component. And now he only very rarely cries at bedtime. I say good night and tuck him in, which makes him giggle, I leave the room, and he lets me know when he's ready to get up, which is usually 11-12 hours later.

[flcl]

Jul 14, 2016 11:24:43 GMT -5 heybulldog56 said:

Jul 14, 2016 11:15:43 GMT -5 lakegirl said:

I dislike dust jackets on books. Especially children's books.

+1 I HATE them. I remove them ASAP. I actually just found a whole bunch that I shoved between the wall and bookshelf in DS's room.

+2, we have a drawer dedicated to them.

[silvermelody]

Jul 14, 2016 10:55:31 GMT -5 opheliainwaders said:

OK, my UO is kind of silly, but I really don't like names that are popular. I grew up with a weird name, and the idea of naming a kid something that is in the top 20 in a given year just bugs me. (MH, who has a name that was popular when we were kids, couldn't care less, and was bugged when I vetoed Liam as a potential boy name before DD was born).

We're the same way. We both like classic names but wouldn't use any that were in the top 10 and ideally were higher than top 20. 

For baby 2 if it's another boy we have the first name basically set: it was our second choice for DS. Then we just need a middle name. 

If it's a girl we have the short list we started on for DS still saved and we'll start there. I love the name Stella and it was my great-grandmother's name but it is too popular right now. Could use it as a middle potentially.