I will admit to taking the occasional. . . shortcut. . . in parenting. The easy route, you might call it.
For example:
1) I never take Will out of his stroller at the mall or other random places because I know it is virtually impossible to get him back in without a fuss. Sometimes, I feel bad, keeping him penned up. But it's so much easier.
2) I will give Will Cheerios whenever I need a few minutes to get something done. The boy loves his "o's".
3) I get impatient with stairs (we have a lot of them in our house), so a lot of the time, I pick him up rather than let him climb them himself. He loves to climb stairs, so it's really not nice of me, but when going up them for the umpteenth million time in a day, I just am over it.
4) At bedtime, if I am really tired, I will pick short stories to read to him. He likes the longer stories and I usually try to do at least one long one and two short ones. We do read a lot during the day, so I don't feel too badly about this.
These are just a few examples. What are some of your parenting shortcuts?
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12 comments:
I let the fusspot 'unpack' the groceries once I've taken out the eggs. This usually entails her spreading all of our groceries out on the (not exactly spotless) kitchen floor and occasionally banging them together. I let her do this even though she broke a porcelain plate last week, so I know she's plenty strong enough. Sometimes I just need a few minutes to make dinner.
I don't think a single one of these is bad. As the mother of twins, trust me when I say that you will NEED to do all of these things when you have a second major demand on your time. And he will be just fine because you've been doing it all along. :)
You probably don't want to know all my shortcuts, but I do each of these (with the exception of the stairs, though I have been known to carry the second, pokey twin here and there.)
Here's a couple, though.
1)I haven't been good with letting them use utensils. They do occasionally, but mostly it's finger eating. It's hard to work with two, and they're much faster. Plus, while they're busy eating, I can get some kitchen-work done.
2) If one of them finishes a sippy, but wants more, I will give them their sibling's if the other is done with it, rather than going to get a refill. We did this with bottles, too. We figure they're sharing all their germs anyway. And half the time they're stealing from each other without our involvement.
3) Yo Gabba Gabba.
That's just a few. You can imagine that I have countless necessary shortcuts throughout the day...including babyproofing. Those people that say you should teach your kids not to get into things rather than babyproof your whole house should try ONE day with twin toddlers. (for the record, I do agree to some extent, but on the other hand, I don't want to spend my entire day correcting two toddlers. It would cease to be fun very quickly.)
I am with Tracy, those are nothing!!
I honestly let Lauryn dictate her days, but the one thing that she has started doing lately is asking for food every five seconds... since I am not a short order cook and I know she isn't really hungry, I give her a bag of crackers.
I am also totally guilty of having the TV on... that kid LOVEs Caillou and Elmo. She has actually learned a lot form those shows so i let her at them.
Don't feel bad for shortcuts, esp. as Tracy said with another one on the way, you have to take them. Anyone who tells you they don't take them is FOS!!!
Hugs,
Erica
I put them in their bouncy seats so that I can steal a shower... And, sometimes, I give them a pacifier if I am trying to finish laundry or get dinner cooked before hubs gets home. Usually, though, I let everything else go so that I can be with them and do whatever they want.
Oh, and I bottle share too!
Yeah, I don't think those things are bad either. Elizabeth does the same thing in the stroller too, so she stays in.
We don't even read books at bedtime. Books during the day only. I just don't have time then.
Trader Joes kettle corn (in the high chair) when I just need something going into the mouth instead of pre-verbal shouts OUT of the mouth for 5 minutes. (or maybe its 15 minutes, or 20...)
While I try to make dinner, I always put a show on the DVR. It's so much easier than cooking at the stove with a child between my legs.
I call those sanity savers...not short cuts!
Sesame Street sponsors most of my blog posts (and many that I suddenly have the time to read)!
We take the entrance that DOES NOT go through the children's library when we leave storytime. It's so much easier if they don't want to rip every single book off the shelves on their way out!
I defrost frozen vegetables for Champ at 5.30 most nights. Then he sits and eats them in front of one of his tv shows while I cook dinner. It is a double saver because then I don't worry how many vegetables he eats at dinner because I know he has had a whole heap already.
Also (in summer) a small container of water to play with outside buys a whole heap of time. It an be used for 'painting' the walls, spraying the car and plants with a spray bottle, making footprints on the back porch or tipping into the sand pit.
Hmm, let's see...
1. I, too, am bad about having Lemy use utensils. I want her to eat, not play so finger foods are just easier. I know she can use them, I've just got to get better about that.
2. I let her brush her own teeth. Mind you, she mostly just eats the paste, but she's getting better about actually brushing. It definitely beats fighting with her.
3. I carry her upstairs sometimes too. Yes, even at 39 weeks pregnant. But she can crawl up if I need which Is good.
4. Yo Gabba Gabba while I cook.
5. G and I share our breakfast foods with her so I don't have to make her something special.
I am all about the "shortcuts." I wish Roo would watch TV...I'd be all over that. My main shortcut is giving her a snack and locking..I mean putting her in her highchair so I can get things done without her "help."
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