If You Had A Parenting Do-Over

I love “what if” questions – much to my husband’s chagrin. So I decided I wouldn’t discuss the recent Wall Street Journal piece about parenting do-overs with him. I’d just share it with all of you!

Aren’t you lucky? Oh, come on!

Rachel Emma Silverman over at The Juggle says she finds herself thinking “about all the things I’d do differently if I eventually have more children.”

So now it’s time for the big confession: I do to. And I KNOW I’m not having any more children. But since hindsight’s twenty/twenty and all that jazz, I can’t help looking back at the early days of my daughter’s life and wanting to smack myself a bit.

A taste:

So you were told never to wake a sleeping baby? Someone please tell the nurses at the hospital where I delivered. Because I was waking that kid every two hours to attempt breastfeeding… even at 2 a.m. No wonder I never slept. Worried less that I was going to drop her. Carrying my friend’s baby in a football hold recently, I realised I NEVER would have been that carefree with my daughter, and why not? Throw out the pre-treatment laundry formulas. She was a spit-up queen, and most of the onesies got chucked in the garbage anyway. Or made really good rags. Not let my in-laws stay at my house that first week. Sorry guys – but I was stressed enough without visitors living in my house, hiding away from the father-in-law trying to breastfeed, etc.I have plenty more, but I want to hear from you all – what would you “do over?”

Image: WSJ