It's my baby I'll do what I want

Since having Alice I have come to realise that the world and his wife are suddenly all parenting experts. Everyone has an opinion on what I should be doing for my child and it really irritates me. People who don't even have children will pass on comments and I personally feel that it is my child so I will do what I like. Granted most people are just trying to help but sometimes people do not understand that when they poke their noses in sometimes it can hurt.

When you are a mum you are constantly worrying that you are never doing a good enough job for your child and when people judge you and pass on comments about the way you are parenting your child it makes you feel inferior and like you are failing as a mother and nobody should be made to feel like that. I understand that most people do not realise how hurtful their comments can be but especially when you are a first time mum it really knocks your confidence and it makes you question everything you are doing for your baby. Something I have come to realise recently is that no matter what you do people will always have an opinion on what you do, so I do what I feel is best for my child.

In addition I generally find that the people who seem to pass on these comments are people who are older than me and it normally sounds like something like this 'Don't you think you ought to put a blanket on them they'll be cold' or 'Don't leave them on the sofa they'll fall off'. Firstly are you trying to imply that I would let my child freeze to death? Because if so I deserve the worst mother of the year award and secondly they are 2 months old they can't move very far and if they were to somehow magically move to the edge of the sofa and fall off quite frankly i'd be impressed! I think another thing people fail to realise is that a lot of things have changed since they had children so below I have compiled a list of things that you should and shouldn't do in this day an age:

1. Do not let them sleep anyway but on their back because if you force your child to sleep on their back then it reduces the risks of cot death however some babies hate sleeping on back so have fun with months of sleepless nights.
2. Do not share your bed with your baby because you may roll over and squish them also apparently you will have a very clingy toddler but when your baby gets up at 5am for the past week and you are so tired beyond functioning at this point you are willing to try anything,
3. Do not stop sterilising until your baby is at least 1 year old despite the fact from 6 months onwards they sit on the floor and put everything and anything they find on the floor which is probably way worse than not sterilising their bottles. 
4. Do not feed your child food before 6 months because well I am not really sure why? Its just one of those things, don't feed the gremlins after midnight, don't feed the ducks bread and don't feed your child before 6 months. 
5. Do support your babies head for the first year or it will in fact fall off. 
6. Lastly do whatever the hell you like because its your baby.

There are so many rules nowadays when it comes to babies and I struggle to keep up to be honest. Every week their is always something new to be worrying about; like recently someone (who may I add does not even have children) is arguing that we should be asking children's consent to change their nappies. Fuck off. You cannot ask a 1 month old baby 'can I change your nappy' because what are they going to do turn around and 'okay mum sure I consent' they are a baby, I am sure they are just grateful that we are not leaving them sat their in their shit for hours, also I can guarantee if you ask a 2 year old if you can change their nappy it will be firm no so what do you do then? Leave them sitting in shit forever? 

Furthermore this is what I mean by everyone has opinion on how you should do things but everyone else's opinion shouldn't affect the way you bring up your child, you should do what want not what society wants. As Alice gets older I have started to realise that no matter what I do in life someone somewhere who doesn't have children is going to tell me I am doing it all wrong and you know what I am okay with that because its my child and I will do what I want. 

The honest Mum xox 

Lastly I have decided at the end of every blog I am going to add a quote from the week that reflects how my week has gone and this is this weeks quote which I am sure my friend who is most likely reading this will appreciate it so here goes:

'Alice sometimes in life you are going to have to have a dummy that has been stuck to your mums arse because she can't bothered going next door and getting another from the steriliser' 

and thus concludes this week.