If I Only Knew Then...

I've been doing this Stay At Home Mom job for a little over 9 years now. Every once in awhile I think... if I could go back I would do this differently. Here's a few of the ones I can remember now. 1. Don't sweat the small years. What ever it may be. Sitting around and nursing constantly... I wish! Always wants to be held... again... I miss that! I just saw on a mom's support group someone asking for a sleep therapist recommendation for their 20 month old. It seems said 20 month old is having trouble staying in their bed and settling themselves to sleep. My advice? Don't sweat it. This kid is only... (fill in the blank) months old! Time is going to zoom by so fast you won't even remember that you had difficulty getting them to stay in their big kid bed Really, trust me! And so what if they want to crawl back in bed with you. Enjoy it. Pretty soon they will be ginormous and a wee bit stinky and for the most part want very little to do with you. This will all happen in the blink of an eye. You don't believe me, I can tell... but it will. Trust me. 2. Play rooms are great but they should all come with a wall to wall, floor to ceiling lockable cabinet. You need this to store all the toys, so that you can get a few out at a time. If you only have three things out at any given time, they will: like it more because it's novel and it will be easier for you to pick it all up... all the damn time. One thing I didn't know when I had kids is that I would spend literally hours of my life picking up and organizing a damn play room. It's truly amazing how a couple of kids can turn a nice, organized play space into a swirling pile of chaos in minutes. I don't look at toys the same any longer. I look at how many pieces it has and the likelihood these pieces will stay together for more than a minute. Also the durability to withstand being on the floor with all the other pieces of things in the playroom and getting stepped on a regular basis because on the floor in the swirling abyss of chaos is where they will be a lot. Unless you enjoy staying up late every night after you've finally gotten all the kids to sleep, cleaned the kitchen for the tenth time, picked up all the stuff they've left lying on the floor in the rest of the house and folded all the laundry and you really just haven't had enough so you go and clean the play room for the fun of it. 3. Small sinks and potties. Okay, a weird one yes. But I've often thought if I had to do it all over again and I owned my own home and there was a separate kid bathroom I would have a special little potty and sink plumbed right in. Why not? Especially if you plan to have more than one, it will go to good use and they are darn cute. (Disclaimer, I have not actually priced this out, so it may well be ridiculously expensive and cost prohibitive). 4. Along the same lines as the first one but a completely different bent: Nursery smersery. Don't bother. Unless you really get off on that kind of thing. They will be a baby for ONE lousy year. ONE. It will zoom by. Again unless you plan to have more than one and you keep the same room as a nursery for all of your kids, then it might make sense. But I know I'm in the minority here and other women get off on decorating a nursery. I'm not one of them. My kids didn't want anything to do with any sinkin' cribs any way and they certainly weren't interested in sleeping in a completely different room! A changing table for a newborn/baby is rather handy but it's really better placed in the living room. 5. When you're pregnant with your third and exhausted and at the end of the pregnancy and you consider hiring a "Mother's Helper" for two afternoons a week to give you a break but you don't because you're too proud and cheap... well ... yea, that's just stupid. Do it. Don't be proud and cheap, get the help. You're not super woman. Making a baby is exhausting, especially if you have a few other kids to take care of at the same time. 6. If you can figure out a way to afford it, just buy the one you want. What ever it is. Explanation: I went through so many Craigslist strollers before I bought the big, expensive jogging stroller. First we had the Graco Citi Lite. It cost around $80. Not a bad purchase really, it was a handy stroller but really not up to the job of the every day long city walk. I'm a walker, I walk every where I can. If I can walk there and not get in my car, I do. I find it much more enjoyable. The next purchase was the used Sit and Stand. I thought this would be great for two kids. It was AWFUL. Awful for me. It does not go over curbs well. Neither did the Citi Lite once my kid got over a certain weight. Then I broke down and bought a used Schwinn jogging stroller. I fell in love with blow up tire jogging strollers! Oh the curbs, you go over them with ease! The joy of walking long distances! Only this one had a major design flaw. The arched metal bar seat support. Once your kid reached a certain height their head started to hit a big metal bar. FAIL. I checked to see if the newer models had improved on this horrible design. They had not. I finally broke down and bought a brand new "BOB". Such a cliche now. They are every where! Every other YUPPY mama is walking around with one. And they are ridiculously expensive! BUT... I use that sucker every day. I use it more than my car. It has saved my sanity more than once. It was worth it. I would have saved myself a lot of trouble and money if I would have just bought one in the first place. Of course they didn't have them when my first was a baby... but you know what I mean. So it's something you plan to use for a long time, nearly every day... just go for the nice one. You'll be glad you did : )