Parenting Check-in (Nov 30)

[kh826]

Good Morning Parents!

Here is our roster for this check-in:

Parenting
healz413
Manada
kevinandjesse
foodislove
megd893
calsurb
andstilltrying
jazibel
kh826
karlamo
jgy
sherminator
mahler5
wittyandwaiting
kona
strings
mrsnorris
2mrsks (mrs&mrsk)
jennicole
amberreva
shemarie82
officerofthelaw

*If you would like to be added to the list, just let us know!

So, tell us about your parenting experiences this past week? Any new milestones? Anything exciting in your house?

QOTW: What is your biggest parenting-related pet peeve?

[kona]

O is 16 months.

It was so awesome to be off for 5 days with M. I feel like I'm too busy to work! O did really well over the holiday for the most part. Thanksgiving day was a bit challenging as M and I ran a race and were gone longer than expected the AM, then with turkey prep, so basically missed her nap completely. Then fell apart around 4 and slept till 6. So that threw a wrench in her bedtime. Overall she did really well with the extra company in the house though.

She is starting to become a toddler with opinions of her own. She is starting to use short sentences. It's still funny to me when she talks, she's growing so fast. M made her felt board this weekend and she might be a bit young because all she did was pull the felt pieces off the board. But it was something new anyway.

We had some luck with good sleep the past few nights. I know it's because she napped well. That will most likely end today with the nanny. I really wish that M could stay home so she would sleep!

QOTW: I do not appreciate unsolicited advice. From anyone.

[kh826]

William is 17 months (He will be 18 months on Friday! How did that happen?!?!)

He did amazingly well with the car rides to and from Boston. Both were about 7 hours door-to-door with traffic and stopping. He didn't sleep a lot, but he talked to himself/us and looked at books, played with toys, etc. and was happy 99% of the time. We are super lucky! He is such a laid back kid and just goes with the flow. All of my worries about the car rides were for not! Yay!

He also did great sleeping at my mom's house. We ended up putting him in my brother's old room (which my mother was very happy about, actually) in his pack-n-play. We were worried that if he was in the same room with us that he would hear us and wouldn't sleep. Or he would wake up in the middle of the night (which he often does now) and instead of just chatting with his animals and then going back to sleep, he would want to get up and play if he knew we were in the same room. He has come a long way from being in our room, and we are pretty sure that he thrives with his own space. Anyway, it worked out well, and he slept 12+ hours in my brother's room all three nights that we were at my mom's house. He also took two long afternoon naps in there, which really helped him since we had a lot of busy days with lots of visiting, etc. while we were there.

He got overwhelmed by the crowd of people at my mom's house on Thanksgiving a few times (it was really loud!), but he recovered quickly as long as we picked him up and helped him calm himself down. He was a little ham most of the time and was dancing to music that my sister was playing for him and playing with his toys (and walking around showing every toy to each person in the room!).

My mom's house was not baby/toddler proofed AT ALL. Whatever the opposite of toddler proof is (A death trap?!?!) that is what her house was like. Dear lord we did a lot of running, chasing, redirecting, picking things up and moving them, closing cabinets, closing cabinets again, blocking things, closing doors, redirecting, etc... it was exhausting, but by our last day there he was starting to avoid the things that we had been redirecting him away from for the previous 2 days.

We did have one pretty scary experience after we had only been at my mom's about 2 hours. My mom has a gas fireplace in her family room, and my middle sister is obsessed with it and always has it on b/c she is always cold. There is no way to block the fireplace -- it is right smack dab in the middle of the room. There is a black iron surround that goes around the gas insert for the fireplace, and it gets REALLY hot when the fireplace is on. We had asked my mom and my sisters to please NOT turn the fireplace on when William was awake. They said OK. We reminded them a couple of times. They said OK. Well, my middle sister turned it on and walked away and William walked right up to it and put his hands on the black iron surround part and it was REALLY hot. J and I were both within about 5-7 feet of him when he did it, but we couldn't get there fast enough. He luckily pulled his hands away immediately (probably touched the hot surface for less than 2 seconds), but he scared the crap out of himself. He screamed for about 10 mins (which is a really long time for him). I thought J was going to literally murder my sister. it all turned out OK and his hands are fine, but we got very lucky. J must have said a half a dozen times that we were lucky to not be in the ER with him that night. I know she is right. After that no one turned the fireplace on for the rest of the time that we were there. But my sister made it a point to complain that she was cold and couldn't turn it on. Again, I thought J was going to kill her.

We had a fairly nice visit with my family, and I am glad that we went. William got to spend time with my mom and his aunts, and they all seemed to really enjoy the time together. There were lots of little under their breath comments made while we were there that REALLY ticked J off, and bothered me as well (I am more used to my family's criticism, and I am better at ignoring them and choosing my battles). My sisters made comments about how we are over protective, how we don't let William eat sweets for the most part (my youngest sister was dying to feed him cookies and pie and we said no, and she thought that was ridiculous -- well, tough luck, he is our kid!). They didn't like how closely I followed him around at the playground when we all went together on Friday (he is still only 17 months old -- I will not apologize for keeping him close, especially in a park full of strangers), etc. It just felt like they were being judge-y of our parenting style, but they were being passive aggressive about it. At the end of the day I think we have a happy, well-adjusted, smart, loving kiddo, so we must be doing something right! There is no ONE right way to parent. You just find what fits your family best, and we have. If other people don't like that, tough! End rant.

QOTW: So, I think I just talked about my parenting pet peeve at length, above. It is DEFINITELY when others (especially those who are not parents themselves) judge and call into question our parenting choices.

[2brides]

Nothing really new around our house. We were all sad to have to get up and get out of the house this morning after a week of the kids being off of school - no getting up super early, no ironing of uniforms, no homework, no strict bedtimes...bliss.

QOTD: This doesn't happen much any more, but unsolicited parenting advice. The ones that start with, "You should..." or "you shouldn't..." or "If I were you.." That stuff used to drive me nuts. Other parents might think it now about various parenting decisions we make (electronics, car seats, bedtime, etc), but they pretty much keep quiet. Plus, I have found that it really is hard to be friends who people whose parenting style is vastly different than your own - those friendships fall away.

Also, Parents who belittle and are disrespectful to their children. I don't see this among my peers, but I see it all.the.time. at work and it drives me nuts.

[karlamo]

Late again:)

We got back from our trip to Indy yesterday. It went ridiculously well. We are both surprised at how great everything went. The boys did great on both flights, meaning no tears were shed. R loved all the new toys we brought him to play with on the flight. He loved playing with his cousins, there's 6 of them on my wife's side. My SIL has a bouncy house in her finished basement and R loved it. I think we may need to get one for ourselves. L was his usual self. Not much changed for him while we were there, the same old, boob, sleep, play repeat.
Nights were rough for the first 2 nights but by the third they both had their old routine down. We were there 7 nights so this is huge. We fully expected to have to sleep train R when we got back but last night he STTN again. Who is this kid? Even L slept last night. he got up once to feed. My girls were rock hard this morning!

We are now in full swing Xmas mode. I'm glad we aren't traveling far away for Xmas. Yesterday I did online shopping for R and have just one more thing to get him. L, not even started yet but he'll be easy.

QOTW: People giving advice annoys me but not at the top of my pet peeve list. I just say thanks maybe we'll try that. My peeve are parents who don't show their parenting struggles. You know the ones; every FB post is "my kid is a joy, and they're so amazing, being a mom is super easy..." I hate that. You're not a "bad" parent if you admit you're struggling or not loving the job at the moment. As someone who cried almost weekly for 2 years about not being able to have kids, I feel a lot of guilt when I have hard days with my kids and I'm ready to send them to the circus. I feel like I should be loving every minute of my time with them, but that's not the reality of being a mom. That's a winded answer to a simple question.

[kh826]

Nov 30, 2015 13:26:24 GMT -5 2brides said:

Also, Parents who belittle and are disrespectful to their children. I don't see this among my peers, but I see it all.the.time. at work and it drives me nuts.

THIS! A thousand percent!

I was just ranting to J about this over the holiday break.

I often see/hear parents doing this out in public (in line at a store, etc.).

It makes my stomach turn when I hear a parent call their child "stupid" or just scream at them for no apparent reason and be overtly mean. It breaks my heart. So often the children are really young too. I have seen parents screaming at their young toddlers (probably around William's age) to "stop being so stupid" -- ugh! I have SUCH a hard time with that.