Bethany's Baby Babblings

You know, I'm not reet sure that I mean unsolicited. Basically I'm giving out advice that no one asked for ha. So here it is; take the batteries out of the remote before giving it to your sprog to play with 👍 (I learnt this the hard way and she nearly deafened me by blasting up the volume on Mr Tumble) Why do babies insist on chewing everything they're not supposed to? We have got gazillions of teething toys yet she ignores them and beelines for remotes, plates, knees, etc. Weirdo.

When I went for my psychological assessment to determine whether I needed counselling (spoiler alert: I do), the counsellor (let's call her Barbara) was so lovely, sympathetic and understanding. The main thing that Barbara said that really stuck with me was that "babies cry" To you it may seem obvious but to me it was a bloody revelation. The penny dropped. Babies cry! And that's OK! It's not my job to prevent crying (that would require being able to read my child's mind) but more to try to stop the crying and/or comfort her through the crying. Because, you know, sometimes babies cry for no damn reason. They cry for one reason, you sort it out, then they change their mind and want the opposite and cry again. Eventually they'll stop crying...until they start crying again. Those two words have helped me so much. I mean obviously the post natal depression is still there but it's the second tool in my arsenal to help me combat it. (the first too...

Parenting is bloody hard and I've been told that I need to give myself a break. My new mantra is (not that I am qualified to dish out advice at all) to take short-cuts, sack off unecessary tasks, cheat the system and ignore societal pressures of what good parents should do. Be lazy.  For example, it's my daughter's first Christmas. Father Christmas was at our local garden centre. Me and Dale couldn't be arsed to queue up for a what would only be something to post on social media rather than a genuine experience for our kid. So we compromised and took a photo of her by the plastic display in the entrance. Win win.