People I know had a kid last year, he is a sweet little boy. Dad was the youngest, mom was an only child. Me who was the eldest not only in my family, but who has also seen cousins! Cue the parents and their worries. Look guys you don’t need to make him wear a million layers and a jacket that looks like it would be too warm in Siberia’; he’ll be fine really. And when he iwas uncontrollably crying, for gods sake he was not autistic , or has ADHD, HE IS TEETHING. 3 months and 16 new teeth later they though "hmm maybe AK84 had a point there. And by the way let him walk. Yes even in the park. Keep an eye out, but for god sakes don’t worry if he falls, never seen him fuss on that.
I remember freaking out when my daughters speech therapist started blowing bubbles. She told me 3 times they were “Non-Toxic” before I actually understood that they were, ya know, not toxic. Now of course, my daughter likes to EAT the bubbles.
Last summer I saw my neighbor’s kid (I think he’s five or six) on a little bike. The bike had training wheels. The kid was wearing a helmet (good idea) but he also wore pads on his knees and elbows. (I suppose he could have hemophilia, but I don’t think so.)
Would you mind telling Mrs. Cheesesteak that the little CheeseStick (6mo old) isn’t going to starve himself to death, he will actually eat when he’s hungry.
When my kid was a baby I had to take him to a meeting. I put him on the carpeted floor so he would have a bit of freedom. The receptionist was horrified and got up from behind her desk so she could cradle his head to keep it off the floor. She probably felt as daft as she looked - I just let her get on with it.
…and when you’re done with the Family Cheesesteak, convince my missus that just because the littl’un has a sniffle it does not mean that we need to check on her twelve times during the night to make sure she’s still breathing. Or at least that she doesn’t have to wake ME up twelve times during the night to check.
Tell you what AK, since you don’t have kids try to imagine putting your heart lungs brain kidneys liver all your money everything you hold precious into a a tiny fragile wobbly machine. Then imagine the machine only has one warning light and all it says is “POSSIBLE CATASTROPHIC FAILURE OR POSSIBLY NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT” now imagine that light starts flashing. Just how do you think you would feel?
My daughter wore the knee and elbow pads at first. Not because we made her but because they came with the helmet and god forbid we didn’t put on the whole shebang.
Really askeptic, I hope this isn’t an accurate indication as to your approach to child rearing.
And dusting off and again trotting out the old line of: “You don’t have any kids so you don’t have a fucking clue as to what you’re talking about,” is neither insightful nor original as it wasn’t the 634 million times it has been used in the past.
I thought AK’s OP was on the money.
And by the way, no offense –pit rules be damned.
Wow - this board rocks. Not befitting a pitting, I suppose, and way off topic, but I felt the twinge of “ouch” when I read that it was questionable in someone’s opinion for a 5-year old to wear the whole shebang. I mean, the helmet’s got the Disney princesses, so, obviously, the likewise decorated elbow and knee pads MUST GO ON. I was going to post this defense, but scrolled a bit. How effing likely is it, that on any other board, someone had already posted it?!?!?!
It sure was tricky with my second - it was my husband’s first…
When the baby would whimper, I’d take 4.2 seconds to put down my my book or move the pan back so it wouldn’t burn before I’d go check it out. My husband would have already sprinted over to baby, to find out what was wrong…
And when he was crying - good luck with that. I think my husband thought I was a monster from hell for a while.
Thing is, everyone pits new parents, in real life, for everything. Which is likewise not particularly insightful or original.
“New parents can’t do anything right, are over protective” has to be one of the most shopworn memes there is. Sure it is partly true (but then, so is the “if you haven’t been one, you have no fucking clue”).
I do this with mine when they start riding a bike, and my kids are hardly fragile little snowflakes. If they are likely to fall (and mine do, even with training wheels), then I try to minimize the damage. If someone else thinks I’m being overprotective, they are welcome to clean my kid up when they scrape their knees and elbows.
Being worried about the kids is good, healthy and parent like. Being paranoid is not. Do you really think the little guy will die of the cold if he wears one layer less? Or that somehow running about is bad for him. And when your sister who has had 4 children (the sister of the father of the boy in the OP) and your GP tell you its teething, there is no need to worry about it being a brain tumor.
he is an adorable little guy, I mean the other day in the park he started running after every pretty woman he saw (he has good taste), but I really think insisting that he sit in the stroller, WHEN you ur self are sitting down or making him eat when he is in no mood to do so, and the docs have told you its fine is pushing it a bit.
