# I pit new parents! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 26, 2009, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-new-parents/482991 "2009-01-26T00:54:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Elza\_B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Elza\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elza_B)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2009, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-new-parents/482991/41 "2009-01-29T03:04:16Z")
> [@Aspidistra](#): > > I figure - if it’s not cold enough for gloves on their hands, why bother with socks on the feet? > > But then, I hate baby socks, and the babies all seem to hate them too, and yank 'em off first chance they get. They never fit right either. I was a lazy first-time parent in the winter with my son. Most of the time, I’d take him to daycare in the same sleeper he had already been in ALL NIGHT :eek: . I much preferred letting him be in sleepers in our sub-zero weather, and then bundling him up in the carseat (wrapped blankets around him, and used one of those removable infant seat covers) to avoid the whole sock issue. Had I needed socks on him, I probably would have used tape. And yeah. Hi, I’m **Elza B** and I’m a paranoid parent. 😃 I am working on it, but I’m a natural worrier and my anxiety manifests worst when it involves my son. I’m not a germophobe, nor do I hover, but if something’s going on (like the hand tremors we saw in the fall that turned out to be a genetic, harmless tremor), I immediately hit the Google and start imagining worst-case scenarios. But I also do that if I have a headache, so that’s really not limited to my parenting skills. I HATE going to the worst-case scenario thing, but I do it with things other than parenting, so I can’t claim that to be just a new parent thing. So far, I have a happy and healthy kid who automatically wears a helmet on his trike now because ‘it’s a rule, Mommy’ - not because I think he necessarily needs it on his tricycle, but because I’d much rather he just learn to wear it now and associate it with a bike for when he’s older and riding a two-wheeler. As someone who cracked her head open at the age of 7 after losing control on a hill, I’m all over the helmets. I think it’s totally fine to be a little more stringent on the safety stuff as long as you’re not wrapping them in bubble-wrap and they still get a chance to be a kid. I don’t mind admitting that I’m kind of crazy about carseat safety and bike helmet safety, but I also hang him upside down by his feet and swing him around by his hands at top speed. He has fun ;). The next kid will probably have the same kind of carseat safety and bike helmet safety imposed on them from the beginning, but like my son, allowed to be a kid. And yes, I will send them to daycare in the pajamas they wore all night again 😛 . And I don’t think this is a case of ‘if you aren’t a parent, you don’t understand’ because some of the best people who’ve talked me down from my mini-freakouts, are non-parents. If you’re overreacting, you’re overreacting, and I don’t think it requires a parent to identify that most of the time. OTOH, it’s a hell of a challenge to suddenly go from just having to take care of yourself to having something that depends on you on a constant basis, and just having to remember so many new things in a usually sleep-deprived state. (I still have sleep deprivation 95% of the time, and my kid’s 2 1/2.) One of the reasons we’re so hesitant to make the leap from 1 to 2 kids is that we know what we’re in for next time :D. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-new-parents/482991.md?page=2)