I am in the process of writing a few posts that will appear soon…
“AP may be my religion but Sears is not my god”
“Parenting and Guilt”
“Holier-then-thou? who’s really doing the judging”
and “100 things about me”
But for now….
Add your self to the Map
&
Open question period… Ask me anything and I will answer!
I am always curious about this one for everyone I know: What is your very earliest memory?
My earliest memory is from when I was 2 years old and I was playing in a ‘Walker’… my mom was making cookies and I went out side and rolled into a little fish pond that was in the front yard…
Yikes!
My earliest memory is from probably about the same time – I remember having photos taken at a photo studio for the relatives. A year or two later my first memory in which I actually remember thinking in words was when I was riding in the car with my dad to see his friends at the army base where he worked. “Whole Lotta’ Love” by Led Zeppelin came on and I remember liking the song but also being creeped out by the crazy middle bit.
Thanks for answering!
Hello –
I have been reading your site for a few weeks now and I really enjoy it! I am a stay at home mom with a daughter who just turned 3, and another daughter expected in January. I believe in nearly everything you’ve written about parenting, and I would like to know your thoughts on co-sleeping. My daughter currently sleeps with me and I love it, but I also receive alot of hassle about it. I am fairly new to reading blogs, and am not sure if you are interested in my personal information, but I am 35, live in Illinois, and before I had Sara, I worked as a pastry chef. Please feel free to write with any questions. My email is “chefangela@mchsi.com”.
Do you have SuperNanny or Nanny 911 up there in Canada? What are your takes on those shows?
Angela:
I think that co-sleeping is great and I believe that kids need to have that closeness or at least need to know that it is open to them at any time!
We are actually partial co-sleepers because we don’t go to sleep at the same time as the kids and I have trouble getting to sleep… I nurse the kids to sleep and then put them down in their own beds in their shared room… however, if/when they wake up they come into our bed. We most always wake up with 4 people in the bed… However, when Colin arrived we were full time co-sleepers for quite a long time…
Sleeping with a Toddler and newborn can be a challenge sometimes but it is very doable … What we did was have our oldest son on the outside of the bed (so either on Simon’s side or my side) and have Colin between us…
Another thing is that when people talk about co-sleeping they are in most part talking about the Family bed but it doesn’t have to be… if you have the space (which we don’t) a bed or mattress can extend the bed can be very helpful also….
Anonymous said…
Do you have SuperNanny or Nanny 911 up there in Canada? What are your takes on those shows?
There are only two things that I that I like about the shows and that is that they don’t agree with using scare tactics, spanking etc and will tell that to parents and that they talk about getting on the child’s level to talk about things.
They also talk about some common sense stuff that I can’t dispute either (though I do wonder how some parents can be so ignorant)
However, there are many more things that I don’t like and don’t agree with…
First… they are not professionals… yes they are Nannys but that is it… they have raised other peoples kids according to way that they have been taught and do so without making emotional attachments and that shows up in their work. So many people see them as professionals though which is a little scary. (I have a book that was given to me by a friend written by the ‘head†Nanny and it is a very scary book!
I don’t like their need for scheduling every second…I agree that kids do good with routines but scheduling down to the minute is a bit excessive and unrealistic aand though it can be ok for older kids, it can be dangerous when it comes to newborns (they believe that feedings should be on a schedule too)
I also don’t like their constant use timeouts. It is true that it is better then spanking but it has other consequences and is not past of positive parenting.
I have to admit that I have been guilty of doing timeouts with Xavier in the past and I feel awful for it, but I working on it… I heard Gordon Neufeld speak a little while back on the radio about attachment and how timeouts promote unattachment and it made me understand why timeouts didn’t feel right…
Also, They seem to not think that it is healthy for kids to depend on their parents emotionally. They think that “parenting to sleep†is wrong, they think that co-sleeping is wrong, they think that kids should be able to self-soothe and they think that you should ignore a tantruming child and never hold them or console them even though they are pleading to be held.
I believe that these shows are edited in a way that makes it look like all of these methods work 100% of the time and that they are the only solutions and that they are quick fixes to all problems…
They also take families that are way out of control and a bit extreme…
Anyways… I see these shows as a mainstream fix for mainstream families… but the techniques are not part of the AP lifestyle and positive parenting….