1. S T Y L E
I am not going to lie. When I was first pregnant with Silas, and people would ask, "Are you hoping for a girl or a boy?" you know the answer would always be, "It doesn't matter as long as I have a healthy, happy baby!" ...but secretly I was kind of hoping for a girl. There were a lot of boys in the family already, and girl clothes are WAY cuter, amiright? Obviously, those reasons are not super important at all (and I am totally loving having a little man). When I did in fact find out I was having a boy, I decided that I would dress him like such a little dapper stud-muffin, and found images like these on Pinterest for his style inspiration....
HAHAHA. I laugh in the face of those pictures now.... most days I am lucky if Silas' outfit even matches, or he is not wearing sweatpants. A couple of things: cute STYLISH clothes can be expensive, and they are just going to get dirty, and the kid is going to grow out of them in about 30 seconds. Why bother? Also... I mean, does your one year old really need a sports jacket, or a cardigan? Heck no. And those shoes? Can he even walk in those? Don't even get me started on Silas wearing hats...
2. T E C H N O L O G Y :
Pre-Silas, often times when Jordan and I were out at a restaurant etc. I would see parents with young children sticking an iPad or a cell phone in a child's face immediately after being seated to keep them entertained. Really? I was almost disgusted by this. Have we done this since having Silas? YOU BET. We don't don't do it all the time, and we never do it right off the bat, but if he is getting antsy and he wants to get up or starts whining, it has been such a lifesaver. You learn you would rather have him quiet and sitting still than causing a raucous and disrupting the whole place, annoying other patrons. Maybe there are better ways to do that, but we find this to be very helpful. And.... everything we do show is educational (or nursery rhymes) and we DO limit his "tech-time". He uses the phone and iPad at home as well (mostly ABCs, numbers, and other word apps - he actually has learned a lot from these).
3. P U B L I C A P P E A R A N C E :
We have all seen it. That snotty, yet crusted nose kid out at the grocery store with stains all over his clothes. Well, maybe not that extreme, but y'all know what I am talking about. Gross, I would think... I would never let my cute kid look like that out in public. But ya know what? Kids get dirty. They don't care if something is on their face or they have some pasta sauce on their shirt... in fact they actually like to rub that sauce, or grease, or banana goo into their shirt and pants at every meal. I know there are moms out there that DO make sure their child looks perfect out in public...with the most adorable, pristine outfits with immaculately clean faces. Me? I gave up on that at about month 4 or 5. If things are REAL bad I never leave the house before an outfit change or a wipe down, but if Silas has a little smudge of something on his shirt, or if he got some gunk around his mouth from eating snack in the car, I really don't bother with it much. And he has definitely been at the grocery store with a crusty nose before... and I just don't really care that much.
I am sure there are other things as well in which I had previous intentions of how things would happen, and things changed, but that is life.
Hence why I am not the perfect parent, and never will be. Maybe I thought I was going to be before I had children, but you never know what you will do until that child actually comes along, and you change your mind, because kids are not easy. I don't think it is being lazy or not trying, I think it is just realizing what makes your kid happy, while keeping you sane and not worrying too much about every little thing.
Oh, and I am probably going to have to read this book.... because, yeah.....
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