Worst Mom Ever

Holy Cow Moment ?:  Have you ever had the moment of ‘Oh God I just killed my child?’  Heavy breathing, massive amounts of chest pain, and rivers of tears later you realize that it was an overreaction… sort of.  Holy crap can our children make us feel like we are the worst parents ever.

Last night as I dipped pretzels into chocolate my daughter was being good although curious.  As I sprinkled orange onto each pretzel my daughter wanted to be a part of the action and somehow lost her balance and thunk, her head met the floor. I panicked over if she would have brain bleeding or might slip into a coma.  Oh and by the way, it is an old wives tail that allowing your child to sleep after a head injury will result in a coma.  So as I watched for signs of trauma she started to act normal and enjoyed the bribery Oreo that I willing handed her.  Anything to make you child feel better, right? 

Several hours later my daughter was quietly dreaming in her bed and my heart was starting to settle down.  That does not mean I didn’t wake every few hours to check on her.  Well morning came as all mornings do, abruptly and unexpected – or maybe that is just how I see the sinister daylight.  As I woke my angel ,she seemed just fine until I returned her to her bed.  From there all heck broke loose.  She wouldn’t stop crying.  Because I can’t stay home I eventually had to give up and hand her over to her father who works later then myself.  Poor man didn’t get any sleep as said child finally stopped crying, but still wouldn’t sleep. 

As I sit at work panicking that she is crying over a head injury I realize that she has me where she wants me.  Wrapped around her little tiny fingers. Every time she pulls my heart is wrenched back to her.  Oh the pain. 

Pray for our Children

I feel like I should do a short post for Jessica Ridgeway.  I think, that like most, I am heartsick for the family who lost their 10 year old daughter.  It makes me sick that there is yet another predator out there harming the Innocent children. 

Pray for the family who lost their daughter.  Pray that they find peace someday.  I don't know that anyone can ever truly recover from a loss such as this, but I hope they find a way to move forward someday.

This fear is a primary example of why we almost didn't have children.  How can we protect them from the evils of the world?  The answers never truly came.  Just the realizations that we can only prepare them to stand against bullies, avoid strange cars, run from dangerous people, and to grow a thick skin from harsh words.  The issue is though, that we also seem to create a paranoid society at the same time.  Where is the balance and how do we best protect those we love?

The truth is that only 2% of violent crimes are abductions. Of the children abducted only 1.4% of children will be abducted by strangers.  The odds are our children will be safe from strangers but how do you convince yourself of that when someone is abducted only miles from your home?

Taking Flight - Preperation for Close Spaces

Holy Cow Moment #:  And I thought I was a pack-rat before having a baby. T-Minus 2 weeks to vacation and a 2.5 hour flight.

What are we doing to prepare for flight with a toddler?  Well to start we are buying several new toys to give her something to distract her.  We are loading ALL of her favorite movies onto the i-pad.  We are trying to get her use to wearing minimouse earphones.  What we are not doing yet is potty training. I think this is obvious why.

We have been asking around to see what the best options are for flying with a wee one.  Some people swear a carseat is the best option, others say no, the empty seat is better.

Pro's to an empty seat -
Place to change diapers
Run around room
A place for all your toys
a place to sprawl incase sleep is a possiblity

Con's -
No good way to constrain the tiny tot
Well-no good way to keep her still

Pro's to a car seat -
One less item to check
A place to harness he tiny butt
It a a familar place, her space

Con's to a car seat -
It's big and bulky
I don't want to carry the thing
It might take up all the "play space" for her

I think in the end we are going to gate check the carseat.  It's free to check why not.

Current check list -
Copy of birth certificate for child - Done
Bags for her carry on items-done
carry on toys - done
Benadryl - done- oh wait it says not to use to make your child sleepy.  Sigh. 

Any tips to flying with kids under teh age of 2?

Crawling Helmet?

Holy Cow moment ?:  Did I just age 40 years?

I understand safety.. who doesn’t want their child to thrive and not have a million visits to the hospital or emergency room?  What normal parent isn’t striving for their child to make it to adulthood to become the next millionaire and save us all from our working class lives.  But isn’t it a little extreme to force our child into the crawling helmet?  I understand their our extreme sports, I even am starting to embrace the biking helmet for a jaunt through the part – sometimes; but a crawling helmet?  Gasp- How did we make it this far in life without one? 

Oh no -  I sound like an old timer.  “Seatbelts? who needs seatbelts?”, “Back in my day we didn’t have car seats or cribs.”  Okay thank you old people I get it, I truly do but in most cases these are life saving devices that have some sound research behind them.  Also 60 years ago high speeds were 45 mph not 75, cars were metal not fiberglass, cribs were new wood instead of aged drying out wood where the hardware is now loose.  But a crawling helmet? 

You can’t protect your child form everything – as much as I want to.  We can’t stop them from falling, we can’t stop them from shoving everything and I mean everything in their mouths.  We can’t protect them from heartbreak, or mistakes – or can we?  Padded rooms seem like an awesome idea?  Lock away our child and only let them watch the Leave it to Beaver reruns or  The Brady Bunch. But in the end kids have to learn somehow and some mistakes and ouches or owies are for a purpose – they are a part of growing up.  Besides if your toddler or baby are that far from you all the time that you think your best option is a crawling helmet maybe it’s time to re-evaluate.  Once in a while you will step away and they will fall, but most of the time we are around our children in order to lessen falls and bumps, but if they never fall they never can learn to get back up.  It’s scary out there, the world is a death trap but I can’t push my paranoia on my child.  It just isn’t healthy.

Holy Cow where is our world headed?

Tell me what you think?  Would you use the helmet or not?  Maybe you have a great example that might just change my mind?


An article on MSN was out today if you want to read more on the helmet and other mom's point of views. 

http://moms.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/04/13/11060105-does-your-high-speed-crawler-need-a-helmet?lite