One of the
best parenting books I’ve bought is the Mum’s net guide to Toddlers. Now, having read intensively in this area I
feel it is fair of me to say that the majority of parenting books follow a
similar pattern: down trodden mother receives a dose of self-imposed tough love
and comes up with a number of random tools and tricks which turned their
troublesome baby into an angel overnight.
Now, on a mission to save all other new mums from the horrors of
parenthood they have chosen to publish their very sound, advice. The main skill I find with a number of
authors is not so much in their parenting but how they manage to balance a tone
which managed to be simultaneously self-deprecating and patronizing.
Anyway, the
Mum’s net guide is a totally different kettle of fish. As with all books it covers the same main
problem areas -sleeping, eating, discipline, health… but rather than giving a
ten-step programme or to do list, it just shares the random stories and
experiences of all those who use the message boards. And the genius in that is that it makes you
feel normal. In fact, I’d go as far to
say that on many occasion I’ve felt like a pretty good mum after reading some
of the entries.
Today
however, and this is where the mummy fail comes in, I’m afraid I was one of the
bad mothers. In the past when Alby has
scoffed at his dinner or only eaten half a yoghurt pot, I take comfort in the fact
that at least that’s more than the lady whose child ate two dry ice cream cones
for breakfast. Or the lady whose daughter
had half a kit kat for dinner and nothing else.
To my
shame, today I join these ladies as this evening my son’s dinner consisted of…
…a stick of
cheese and four cocktail sausages.
Wow – I didn’t
think it could happen, but writing it down makes it all the worse. And what’s
worse (yes it does get worse) is that this wasn’t the result of me offering him
a range of other delicious treats.
Nope. We were in town doing
errands, I lost track of time and just grabbed from Marks and Spencer's a few
things I thought he’d eat.
Yes yes, I
hang my head in shame. I’d like to
pretend tomorrow will be better but you know what, who can say?!
Sounds like what any child would choose from the bestest Birthday party tea, great treat he will remember that tea but all the others will be forgotten. xx
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