Wednesday confessional

It was such a relief to hear that I'm not the only mother who allows her child to become encrusted with filth for days on end doesn't do a daily bath, I thought I'd confess a few more of my less-than-perfect parenting habits:

I let Riley get in food ruts. That is, if the meal rotation that he finds acceptable dwindles to macaroni and cheese, bananas, and Campbell's "Chicken and Stars" soup (just the condensed gloppy part!) then that is by-god what he eats over and over until his preferences inexplicably change. I know I should be repeatedly presenting fresh kiwi and tofu cubes and baked sweet potatoes, but I figure as long as he doesn't develop scurvy or a visible facial twitch everybody's doing okay.

I give him juice. Oh, I had lofty ideas about avoiding juice at ALL COSTS, because of the sugar and the lack of nutritional value and blah blah blah. Now he swills it like a freshman with a beer bong. Currently I do buy the fortified stuff that purportedly contains actual juice rather than flavorings, and I dilute it with water, but it's a slippery slope—surely it will be only a matter of time until he's running around in a little stained white undershirt, sucking on a Capri Sun Blue Ocean Blast-o-Rama with "10% REAL JUICE" and demanding his turn on the Xbox.

I plop him in front of the TV. Riley gets a hefty dose of Blue's Clues or Elmo several times a week in the mornings, and I might feel marginally bad about that if it wasn't so darn convenient. TV means we can actually enjoy breakfast, read the newspaper, and drink coffee. Am I prioritizing those activities over the potential brain damage the television causes? You bet your bippy.

I'm sure I could think of more (I forget about scheduling his pediatrician appointments until he's past the month he was supposed to come in! We only clip his fingernails when they start to display a permanent band of grime underneath! Sometimes we mock his tantrums by making comically sad faces and yelling "OH BOO HOO HOO WAHHH!") but I should probably get Riley's snack ready for when he wakes up. I'm thinking macaroni and cheese, with a juice chaser.

Comments

[birdgal]

Yes, yes, and yes! I sort of have a food rut 'cycle' (take the foods my daughter will eat and rotate them), but other than that we sound alot alike when it comes to the parentin'. My husband and I will also 'mock' our daughter when she throws a fit, so I wouldn't feel too bad about that one either :).

[Cara]

I do all of those things too! If Payton likes a blueberry waffle sans syrup every day, then why shouldn't he eat it? It's not like I'm feeding him Raisinettes for breakfast!

Juice? Yep, he gets that too (only 100% juice and always diluted at least 50/50 with water, but STILL).

And there's no way that my 7 week old would ever get fed if I couldn't turn on the Curious George movie and let Payton watch it for the umpteenth billion time. What can I say? He loves that monkey!

[DaisyCake]

V8 Splash is our latest juice drink -- it has a serving of vegetables in it! Try it out -- you won't feel guilty!

[Mary]

Is it wrong that I looove to read about other parents' less-than-perfect parenting habits? It makes me feel human and that I'm not the only one out there!` I think we ALL have our confessions.

Anyway, on the bath issue, we are TRYING to remember to give Baby Dear, age 1, a bath every other day. It doesn't always happen that often though and I'm not really that concerned about it. She truely doesn't get THAT dirty. She's not in day care, her face, hands, and bottom are washed repeatedly throughout the day, and it's not summer so she's not out in the dirt.

As far as food ruts go, we are so lucky that Baby Dear will eat almost every single thing we put in front of her. She loooves food.

And we give her juice too. 100% juice though and it's always diluted atleast 50%, usually even more than that. But, she just started drinking water and also milk, so that really cuts down on her juice consumption.

Oh, and the tv. Baby Dear looooves Elmo and can't get enough. She watches Sesame Street every morning and watches a video every afternoon or evening.

[Jennifer]

I don't even dilute the juice. Call the Parenting Police right now!

[jaime]

We mock my niece when she cries, too. She tends to stick out her lower lip, which has been named her "boo-boo lip", as in "Awwwwwwww look at that boo-boo lip!". The best is when she's in the middle of crying and starts exclaiming "No boo-boo lip! No!"

[Brandi]

And I thought I was the only bad parent out there! What a relief.

[Amy N]

Amen, sista! Movies, juice, chicken dino nuggets four nights a week. They even occasionally get POP-TARTS!!!! Have you given Riley french toast stix yet? My OB's wife actually turned me onto them after #2 when we met at a play group. 40 secs in the micro and Abracadabra.....breakfast. And if they don't finish it in time they can eat it in the car on the way to preschool!

[Michelle]

LOVE the tantrum mock. Ours sometimes goes like this:
Me: "Are you beating her, Daddy?"
DH: "I surely am, Mommy."
Me: "Well, let me know when you're done."

Also, french fries are totally a vegetable. And we don't cut fingernails until someone is injured. Long fingernails are appropriate on a little girl.

[jen]

I missed your bath entry! My kids are lucky to get a bath once a week in the winter, I can't remember the last time. Well that's not true but I definitely don't do it every day. I am not stupid enough to get sucked into anything that requires that much work that a baby might consider part of his nightly routine...

They do drink more juice than I like, but they will drink water if I put ice in it.

I forget to cut fingernails until one day I look at them and realize they are gross or bent back! eck!

And we totally mock them. If dinnertime turns into a whine fest, the husband and I stare at each other and then we start crying and whining at each other. Usually shuts the kids right up.

[jamie]

Ditto to everything.

[laughing mommy]

Well, I may have to bathe the stinky twins every day, but I'm guilty of the TV babysitter thing, and also the food rut thing.

And juice. Oh! The war over juice. I dilute. I limit. But they still want! the! juice!

[laura]

don't feel bad about any of it!

Sesame Street has made my daughter a genius... well, not really, but she learns so much from watching it (just not the elmo part, but he's her bff so I let it slide).

[Joanne]

Your experience is exactly why I never give my kid juice. I have a friend that has to push milk into her kid and I do not want to have that fight. As far as my boy knows, there is only water and milk in the world. But boy does he watch TV. Mostly it's Signing Time but still. I used to never allow too much but after almost two years, I'm breaking down.

[nonsoccermom]

Check, check, and check. Plus, I let mine play video games more than I probably should (hey, he's learning valuable hand-eye coordination skills). And, this week I forgot to go to his scheduled parent-teacher conference. Again. Oops.

[Ashley]

Good grief you are a terrible parent...tsktsktsk

Ok not really ;)

I let Owen watch TV ALL day sometimes..it's like a mini vacation for me. Ahhhh to feel that TV glow on my toes while immersed in a good book. Ok it's not that bad, but once in awhile that TV is his best friend. And I don't care about all the judgy-mc-judgersons out there, I was practically raised with an antenna glued to my head, I think I turned out alright.

[Annie]

I burst out laughing when I read "Capri Sun Blue Ocean Blast-o-Rama with "10% REAL JUICE"". My husband was denied these drinks as a child and so now he drinks them ALL the time. He calls it "juice" and yesterday when I read the label to him (happened to be the exact drink listed above)just to prove that it is in NO way "Juice", his response was, "what's your point?". So in short... deny him now - he'll gorge himself on the forbidden fruit later... for years on end.

[Carrie]

i love you. thank you. you have no idea how much i needed this post after a tv-indulging, sweet-eating afternoon, followed more than likely with mac-n-cheez for dinner.

[Mary Mahaney]

I have 4 busy little bees, ages 5-10. All can make a sandwich. I buy kid-size, ready to eat snacks like yogurt, small apples, bagged mixed salad and the ever-popular Ranch dressing, lots of bread and lunchmeat, Ramen cup of soups. My kids would never starve! And no, we don't do daily baths either. Are you kidding? Our large family would singlehandedly deplete the county's water supply in a month! So I guess I am doing my civic duty? LOL.

[Melanie]

You gotta do what you gotta do. It's funny how lofty our goals are, how holier-than-thou, when we're childless or pregnant, and then once reality sets in it's "well, an hour of TV and a glass of OJ won't kill him". I wonder if it moves on to "If I superglue him to the tube and stick a beer in his hand, he'll be okay" when they get older. Kind of like my dad, actually....

[cherubmarie]

Chicken nuggets. Yep. Juice. Yep. Finger nails dirty? Time to cut. Can't see past your bangs? Maybe it's time for a haircut. Well - maybe next week. Oooh. Missed that appointment.

Yes. I've been there. There are only 24 hours in a day.

[cherubmarie]

Oh, yeah. And totally into the mocking thing!!! What do they say, "If you can't beat them..."

I get so little entertainment. :)

[Marie]

My kids are 12 and 15. Both were raised with once-a-week there-about baths, "too much TV", and (gasp!) undiluted juice (this was back in the old days, after all), and more junk food than the law allows. My son is gifted, makes honor roll every nine weeks. My daughter is gifted, but prefers studying the fashion pages. Crapshoot? Maybe. But you can all rest assured they'll turn out okay-ish. Keep up the good work!

[Jeni]

I just stumbled across you, and I've decided you're my new best friend for making me feel like a normal parent. My youngest is almost 2 with a huge fear of getting her nails clipped ( not sure why) so she chew her fingernails ( isn't that FREAKY?? She's not even 2!!!!) and I just let her toenails go. Unless I can get her to fall asleep in a place where I can have enough light to trim them. And she has dry skin, so our dr freaked out when I told him I give her a bath every day and DEMANDED that I stop bathing my girls every day, no more than every other day, he prefers every third day, unless they are filthy. So not only has he made my night time a little easier, but he's kinda cute, and is an Elmo advocate.

[Erica]

You have to check out truemomconfessions.com. We are all so less than perect and have this idea that we are the ONLY ONES. When will we stop judging each other and ourselves and realize how much more we could all do with one anothers' support?