These are my confessions…..
April 14, 2008 by sleepynita
I love to blog, really I do. BUT, I find the Mommy bloggers out there are divided into two distinct groups:
- those who read the books (which I like to call the fear mongering books), know it all and are not afraid to tell you how to do it (this group can usually be found bitching at Linda and Kristin in the Parent Dish comment section)
- those who are getting by day by day and happily bend the rules in the books to their advantage and personal sanity
I confess I am definitely one of the latter group. Here are my confessions:
- My son had a bottle at every nap and bedtime until he was 18 moths old
- He also was on formula until 18 months old
- My son almost never slept through the night (and remember my medical specialty is Sleep!) until he was 18 months old - I got up nightly to feed him, sometimes several times (feel free to cry a little tear for Stewart and I)
- The Dictator still has a soother - though mostly at bedtime
- I let my child watch The Backyardigans so I can put away laundry
- The Dictator gets to play in the tub beside out shower while I am in the shower
- I give him chocolate sometimes to bribe him to be good
- Ditto with the gum
- And the mints
- I am excited my son likes Bologna - because he hates meat. I think deli meat is better then nothing at all….
- I have to hide vegi’s in his food to get him to eat enough
- I make many of his meals in advance and freeze them so I do not have to cook from scratch every day
- I am pleased he likes cucumbers because they are easy to make - some kids steal a banana at the grocery store to munch on. Me? I unwrap a cucumber and he goes hog wild.
- I let him have temper tantrums - because some days I have no idea what to do about them
- I threaten him with time outs when he is acting up - and usually follow through if the behavior continues
- I put tape over some of his toys speakers so I do not have to listen to the noise
- The Dictator gets to play on the deck while I stay in the house to wash dishes
- He eats ice cream most days after dinner
- I still rock him to sleep at nap time (because I like love to - not that I have to)
- He still eats baby cereal as a bedtime snack
- When we are out and about all of his snacks are usually the “pre-packaged” variety
- I add chocolate milk to regular milk on the days he refuses to drink just plain old milk
- At dinner, we have been known to give him apple juice or milk in a small wineglass so he won’t ask for our wineglasses
I am sure I could add way more to the list. For the Moms out there what are your parenting confessions?
And to round it all up - a personal confession of my own.
- Some days I drink wine at 9am after a long night shift at work before heading off to bed.
I am an awesome Mom, really. Just ask my adoring son 
Great to hear honesty! I am guilty of a lot of those things. Not that I FEEL guilty about them, So what? Life goes on and they grow up fine in spite of our parenting. Keep a smile on your face and a sense of humor and none of the rest matters. I may read all the books but I definitely bend the rules and feel lucky to get by day today.
i love this.
i’m so the kind of mom who doesn’t read the books.
I love this confessional, and the wine glass trick!
Okay, I’ll confess, too:
-I still rock my huge, 30-lb 3-year old to sleep at naptime because it’s so much easier to knock him out that way than to tell him to get into bed and stay there, then have to come in every 10 minutes for the next hour and tell him to get BACK in bed.
-He eats almost nothing but meat, which can’t be good for him. He also eats breads, crackers and fruit, but one hell of a lot of meat. No veggies. We let him get away with this because we’re thrilled when the little bugger eats, period.
-Sometimes when he’s crabby I park him in front of the TV because it’s the fastest way to cheer him up. I really try not to let him watch a lot of TV, but man, it’s nice to have as an alternative to choking him to death.
Other than that, I rock as a mom. I swear.
Ah, the confessions…good for the soul, no?
Lately, on my late-to-work mornings (my schedule varies by day), I let Pumpkinpie watch TV while I snooze for an extra hour beside her in the morning.
I was way too shouty this winter - but so much better now that there is sun again. It’s made a huge difference.
We eat out way too much, and typically one lunch on a weekend is kraft dinner.
And I must say - damn, I wish I could finish off the days with a glass of wine, if only I wasn’t pregnant!
(PS thanks for dropping by Life of ‘Pie! It’s always nice to meet a new blogger, and a Canadian, at that.)
Ooooh, I love this list. I want to make one too, so keep a watch on my blog, though I already posted tonight so who knows when I will be motivated again, but since I have a topic, I am hopeful. I love your mommy confessions, because they are honest and if you think of all the things that you could be doing to your kid, are Fruit-O’s really so bad? Boo to all the pressure we get as moms that we think we are somewhat evil for letting our kids eat chocolate once in awhile or god forbid, watching TV!
-my 22 month old still has a sleep time soother, and I can’t even think about taking it away.
-I think putting on the Backyardigans is better than me getting snarky at her, so it gives me a chance to refresh my thoughts when the whining has worn me down. If that happens to be three times on a bad day, oh well.
-I don’t really know how to potty train her but I don’t really feel like reading about it either. So I am winging it. It may be selfish but if I have time to read, it is going to be a novel that I WANT to read, not some dumbass “expert” telling me how my kid operates.
I love this list!
- We gave our two-year-old a bottle at nap time and bed time (of formula) until she was 20 months old.
- If Mommy or Daddy is having a bad day, we turn on the Sprout network and let her watch - just so we can get a break, or sleep an extra hour.
- _I_ was secretly thrilled when she went nuts for the fried bologna sandwich we tried - something I love, but my husband can’t stand. She declared it “bacon.”
- Our oldest still gets rocked at nap/bed time. Book, song, bed is the ritual, all while rocking.
- We tried one of the book methods for potty training - but are having more success doing our own thing with her. She seemed to have outsmarted the book method.
- We have a glass of wine with dinner almost every night, and have taught her that “only Mommies and Daddies drink wine.” Which she says repeatedly as soon as the glasses appear. Love, love, love the idea of giving her some juice in a wine glass.
hmmm. you sound perfectly normal to me! who makes up all those stupid “rules” anyways? I hate those parenting books. I stopped reading them a month after my first one with colic was born. Burn baby burn…