Why People Who Don't Have Children Make The Best Parents

I was at my Mothers Group Get Together and bitch about our husbands today and I brought up a topic that is close to my heart, and the fellow mothers at the bitch fest meeting...

Image credit can be found here

How we were the perfect parents until we had kids, and how people who don't have children yet make the best parents! This topic was brought up after I encountered not one but FIVE disapproving stares as I pushed my pram containing my screaming baby, over to our meeting spot. As I walked passed these women with their toned abs and perky breasts I asked myself why I was the one that suggested a wake park filled with hot women to meet up I smiled at them, as sweet as I could, and thought to myself, I was once you, and one day, you will be me sweetheart! So enjoy your perfect bodies smugness while you can, because one day, it will be you pushing your pram containing your screaming child as younger versions of yourself give you the disapproving stare! *end rant, sort of...*

So I thought I'd make a list of a couple of the reasons people who don't have children make the best parents, feel free to add yours in the comments section...

*Please realise that I AM TAKING THE PISS! Most of these reasons are thoughts that I had before I became a mother - this is not a post criticising the childless*

1. They will never yell at their children in public, they will never have to, they'll be so well behaved!
2. Their children will never leave the house in mismatched clothes or with a snotty nose.
3. They'll never annoy the childless and take their children out to restaurants.
4. They'll loose their pregnancy plump easily because they'll keep up their gym schedule - after all, their babies will sleep through the night so they'll still have energy. Even better, they won't get plump when pregnant because they'll adhere to a strict healthy, balanced diet.
5. They'll never bribe their children, like, ever!
6. They will be able to go to the toilet with the door closed/have a conversation without being interrupted/go back to work after 6 weeks because babies sleep all day and toddlers can amuse themselves - at least theirs will.
7. The TV will not be used as a babysitter.
8. Their children will never sleep in their beds.
9. Their children will never have tantrums in public, or at all for that matter.
10. Their children will adjust to fit in their lives, not the other way around!
11. They'll never have to resort to a dummy.
12. Their children will spend most of their days playing outside, not in front of a computer.

Luckily for me, I have the perfect baby who eats well, sleeps through the night all night, every night, self settles, never cries and is studying advanced physics at 10 weeks of age, leaving me free to learn another language in my spare time and catch up on my reading...

What misconceptions did you have about parenthood?

To Hold or Not to Hold

In case you missed it, I'm a first time Mum.

According to mums of more than one child, I'll probably do a pretty good job of over-indulging my first child and giving her some bad habits, like not self settling...

I'm okay with this. 

I want to enjoy every second with my beautiful daughter, she's the best thing I've ever done!

So I cuddle my daughter each night, and she falls asleep in my arms, and I put her in her bassinet which is still in our room because Mr Hat has finally given up trying to convince me she needs to go into her own room. 

I love our cuddles. I couldn't breastfeed, so this is our bonding time. I love providing her with the comfort and security she needs to fall asleep. And she is beautiful when she sleeps. She sleeps so beautifully that she doesn't wake me up until her 7am feed, bless her for that! She's been sleeping through the night since she was 6 or 7 weeks old.

Image credit found here

She wakes during the night, but she settles herself back to sleep. I often hear her stirring somewhere between 5am and 6am, but she either goes back to sleep or she just lays there and amuses herself until she's hungry.

My MIL told me she rocked all of her children to sleep. Then she told my husband I was overindulging our daughter and I needed to put her in her bed and leave her to scream if she didn't go to sleep. I don't think this was malicious. I think she doesn't want to disagree with my choices for fear I'll be angered or annoyed and she'll be left out, so when she disagrees, she uses the backdoor and talks to my husband.

Never the less, it did cause an argument between Mr Hat and myself.

But as most of our arguments end in a calm conversation where we air our feelings and opinions freely, Mr Hat and I soon discovered why we were on separate pages. And then we agreed that what we have, though not ideal, works for us so, I still get my cuddles each night!

Missy Moo is only 10 weeks old. I want to re-evaluate our bedtime ritual at 6 months and then perhaps put her in a sleep routine...

According to the ABC (via mamamia.com.au)

Paediatrician Harriet Hiscock from The Murdoch Children’s Research Institute was part of a world-first study that followed up 225 six-year-old children who had received behavioural sleep intervention as babies to assess their health including emotional wellbeing, behaviour and child-parent relationship. The study showed intervention during infancy significantly reduced sleep problems in children and depression among mothers during the first two years of the child’s life.

It found techniques including ‘controlled crying’ – which helps babies learn to put themselves to sleep by letting them cry for set periods of time – and positive bedtime routines, had no adverse affects on the emotional and behavioural development of children or their relationship with parents when “ compared to children who as babies had sleep problems but received no sleep intervention.

The study helps to reassure parents and health professionals about the safety of sleep interventions in infants aged six months and older, especially as a strategy to prevent and treat postnatal depression. Parents can feel reassured they are not harming their babies by using sleep interventions like controlled crying.”

There are so many pro's and con's for so many methods, I'm simply using the one that works for us right now. But I am open to change when I feel she's secure enough to handle it.

As for my MIL, I'm tossing up whether or not to say something to her. On one hand, if there's something Mr Hat and I have got down packed, it's good communication. I can't see her backdoor efforts causing future arguments, so perhaps I should leave it. On the other hand, while I want her to feel comfortable enough to have a different opinion to me and be able to share it, I know myself and I can get my back up pretty easily and feel like I'm being judged... which is probably why she went through my husband in the first place! But this annoys me too because I'm simply impossible to please some times!

Any suggestions???