Pre-Parenting Ideas. Image courtesy of Latina Moms.
Before you were parents, do you ever remember sitting at a restaurant and feeling some type of way about the table with the screaming child? You had so many opinions about this situation. You would try your best to hide your inner thoughts and not “judge in Spanish” like your favorite telenovela antagonist, but this proved too difficult.
After all, that is a part of human nature. It is only natural to form opinions about what you see and hear.
It is easy to have ideas about the “right” way to parent children when you do not have your own children or a crying toddler stressing you out because their mac and cheese is not ready.
Regardless, we all had parenting ideas before planning to have children throughout our pregnancy. After childbirth, however, the reality is much different than expected.
Here are some pre-parenting ideas that simply make us laugh after birth.
Not Letting Them Watch TV
Many soon-to-be parents explicitly state that they will never let their children watch TV before a certain age and do not even consider handing over an iPad as a form of entertainment.
While it is essential to stimulate your children and boost their creativity, sometimes you feel so overwhelmed you see no other alternative.
Look, if you have tried absolutely everything and nothing seems to be calming your child down, then there is nothing wrong with turning on the TV to an episode of Cocomelon to divert their attention elsewhere.
It makes us laugh now that we think we would be doing arts and crafts and stacking blocks peacefully every day.
Making Baby Food From Scratch
Once upon a time, we had a preconceived notion that we would make all of our baby’s food from scratch.
Think of making a puree out of carrots, broccoli, fruits — you name it.
Of course, you want your baby to eat healthy foods, but what happens when one day you do not have time to finely mince all of these fruits and veggies (to eliminate choking hazards)?
As parents, you simply do not have the opportunity to spend every single moment of your day in the kitchen inserting food into a baby food maker to create a less-than-appetizing mush.
It’s laughable just how quickly some of us moved on to buying pre-packaged baby food, especially after realizing there are some natural, organic varieties in the market.
Taking Them on All Our Travels
Many of us loved to travel in our pre-parenting days. We would spend our free time searching for the next destination. It was so easy just to get up and go.
During those moments, we would say that when we became parents, we would simply take our children traveling everywhere with us. There are so many videos on social media of parents traveling with their babies and toddlers, making it seem like such a calm and relaxing experience.
However, we quickly realized that a 30-second clip does not account for much of reality. While we do want to share precious memories with our children, it is not always realistic to go on all our adventures with them.
Besides, parents need to have fun, too. Our identities cannot solely be centered on our parent persona.
It is so easy to have “foolish” pre-parenting ideas in our minds, so it is always fun to look back and see just how wrong we were.