Mother knows best

For any of my readers who have children, or spend a lot of time around children, you will know how much time and energy a child takes out of you on a daily basis. You know exactly how much attention you need to give to a child to make sure they stay safe and don't eat everything they can get their hands on. You would also know that sometimes that is more attention than one human being can give. Unless the only thing that person had to do all day is sit and stare at the child. If you're anything like me, you will rely on the kindness of friends and family to help be your eyes and ears whenever you need to take your eyes and ears away for a second. Unfortunately, I still have people around who despite the fact that they don't spend as much time around Miss K as I do, nor do they know her as well as I do, who think they know better about how to raise her than I do. (And just in case mum reads this, no I'm not talking about you mum.)

I get so tired of having to explain myself to people who do not deserve an explanation. If anyone wants to offer an opinion or advice to me about my daughter, then they are most welcome to do so. I always accept all advice given to me, but whether or not I choose to take your advice, or listen to your opinion is my right, and at the end of the day, it really is my decision how to raise my child, so if you don't like how I'm doing it, you're more than welcome to walk away. I can't promise that I'm doing the right thing absolutely every single time. As a parent, I'm going to make mistakes, a lot of mistakes, but we all do that. Just this evening I almost walked Miss K straight into a door while trying to take her to bed. If that was the first time I'd almost lost my balance while carrying my child I would have been scared, but it wasn't, so I was able to correct our course and shake it off before we'd even reached her cot.

Now when a mistake is mine, I'm more than happy to admit to it and deal with it. But when I get the blame for something that wasn't my fault, that's when I get mad. Today I got told off because I had taken my eyes of Miss K for two whole minutes, and while my back was turned, she managed to get into a box of chocolate chip cookies and polish one off. Firstly, I couldn't see what the big deal was. Somebody very stupidly left the box of cookies right where she could see them, so what did they expect her to do when she got her hands on them? Put them out of her own reach so she couldn't be tempted by their chocolatey goodness? What one year old has that amount of self control?? I'm 28 and I don't even have that much self control. I think I then made things worse because I refused to yell at my daughter for going after what she wanted. I was so impressed that she had managed to get through two layers of packaging just to get to the biscuits, I figured she'd earned one.

Now it sounds like I'm raising an absolute spoiled brat by this point in the story, and if I am, I don't have to explain myself to anyone. But I'd like to point out that if I had known that the biscuits were on the table they would have been removed before she'd even gotten a chance to get her chubby little fingers on them, but that was done also while my back was turned so my logic is there is no point crying over spilled milk. Let the baby have her cookie, and next time put them away before you enter her lounge room. I can't stop my daughter being tempted by food, which is why if I have any naughty foods I don't want her to have, they are hidden away before she gets a chance to see them, and then there are no problems.

Well that's my rant over for another night, I'm off to the land of nod. I'll be back next time something or someone grinds my gears.