My Coffee Stain

Friday, March 2, 2007

Everything and the kitchen sink

I can't believe how much our parenting style has changed in the past 18 months. When Jo Jo first arrived on the scene, I used to scour every parenting book (this book was like my bible) and followed every "rule" to a T. I remember us putting her to sleep in a sterile crib environment totally devoid of fluffy blankets, pillows, stuffed animals, toys, fun.

Now, every time we put her down for her nap she must have two blankets, two pacies (yeah, I know, we're trying to kick the habit), her electronic Po Teletubbie doll, her cat stuffed animal and her dog stuffed animal (or as she calls it, "puppees!"). How she came to need each of these items to sleep is beyond me--well, maybe not beyond me since we have a tendency to be overindulgent, especially where our sleep is concerned. Here goes the conversation...

Jo Jo: (screaming in her crib late at night) "Puppees!"
Me: (groggily to husband) "Give her whatever she wants so she'll shut up."
Husband: (turning over) "I'll give you a million dollars if you do it."
Me: (angrily) "Fine."
Jo Jo: "Puuuuuppppeees!"
Me: (lobbing stuffed animal into crib) "Are you happy now? Good. See you in the morning."

Repeat 5 minutes later with "Kee Kee" (kitty) if she still hasn't fallen asleep.

Eventually we just gave up and started giving her everything she wanted in the crib when we put her down, which sortof solved the problem, but now we run the risk of her drowning in all the crap. I wonder how we'll be when we have #2. Will we become awful, overindulgent parents and do whatever it takes to maintain our sanity? Will we let the television raise our kids? Will we let them play with knives and bleach because it is oh so much fun?

2 Comments:

Blogger Swistle said...

I LOVE the sample dialogue. So, so funny.

March 2, 2007 at 2:45 PM  
Blogger Sarah said...

Mm, we used to not use blankets either- it was the "sleep sack" all the way! Now there is three blankets, a stuffed bear, and two attached crib toys for her to play music and just generally be noisy with.

March 2, 2007 at 4:31 PM  

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