When the trees were greener, the sun shone brighter,while I was just going on my own way of motherhood, in my head they were supposedly making the film “The Perfect Parent”. As the baby grew in the stomach, the picture became clearer. I knew exactly how I would raise a child, how I would behave in controversial situations and how I would never act. If at that moment they tried to convince me of the opposite, I would just laugh at this well-wisher in the face. My son is almost six years old. It’s time to come out: I'm a disgusting director and a talentless screenwriter. Everything that I imagined before birth was complete bullshit. For all items.Photo: GettyImages
Separate sleep
The battle for a separate bed was lost back inmaternity hospital. On the first night, the baby was taken away from me so that I could recover from the epidural. They promised to bring him at six in the morning. They brought him at five. Apparently, they couldn’t hold out any longer. Exactly three seconds after Timofey was placed next to me, he was already asleep. The second attempt was made on the very first night after discharge. My husband volunteered to put him to bed. At four in the morning, he woke me up with the words: “I can’t take it anymore.” For six hours straight, he walked around the room with the baby in his arms. The sly one opened his eyes exactly at the second when they tried to lower him into the crib. From that day on, it was just an extra piece of furniture and sometimes a storage place for baby things. It was never used for its intended purpose. But my husband and I didn’t know what a sleep problem was. We all slept well together.
Healthy food
- Fast food? Ugh!— I turned up my nose in disdain at the burgers, nuggets and French fries. — My son won’t even know what that is. Level 80 naivety, yeah. My son’s eyes lit up with greedy fire at the sight of the yellow letter “M”. — I’ll have fries. And country style. And a toy too. At the same time, for some reason my child considers fruits and vegetables to be the most unhealthy food in the world. Just like yogurts, by the way. What does he eat? Meat, and lots of it. Pasta. Potatoes. Soups. Certain ones, yes. Scrambled eggs. Cookies. I won’t go on and on, this is enough to give grandmas a heart attack. No, I do care about his diet. But it’s physically impossible to force him to eat differently. Food that he doesn’t like involuntarily ends up on the floor in the form of another, not-so-pleasant substance. The psychologist said to leave the child alone: food abuse is the worst. I left him alone. I'm waiting. You can throw stones at me.Photo: GettyImages
Proper upbringing
"I'll never be as boring as you, Mom!» Everyone had these thoughts, right? I knew for sure that I wouldn’t have to raise my voice at my son. We would always be able to come to an agreement calmly. I would patiently explain the rules of conduct to him. And smile proudly and a little embarrassedly when strangers would say: “What a well-mannered boy.” Yes, I even rehearsed this smile. So, when my son tells me something like this, I will laugh right in his face. I will laugh even louder if he promises never to say the phrase: “I said so!” Or never to raise his voice at his child. Why? Because nerves are not made of steel. Because children are in a period of defending their “I”. Because sometimes yelling is more effective and faster than explaining something, and situations are different. I asked other mothers if they made any promises to themselves in communication or relationships with children that they did not keep. It turns out that most of them did. And here's what they can't control themselves about. - Don't sort out relationships between adults in front of the child. Sometimes you're simply forced to answer rudely. - Never lie to the child. There are times when you have to keep things from the whole story. Show me a kamikaze who, before going to the dentist, would honestly tell a five-year-old that they're going to give him an injection in his mouth and then drill his teeth. - Don't make the older child a nanny for the younger one. And what can you do if the husband is at work, and help is right there, in the next room. - Don't interrupt the child's activity because of some "urgent" thing. Well, what can you do if you really need to go somewhere urgently or do something, and the child at that very moment decided to put together a puzzle. - Let him grow up independently. It doesn't work out because of fear for him. Read more: