First Rule of Parent Club…

From the moment you’re handed your newborn baby, your life is full of talk about said newborn baby.

How are they sleeping?”, “How’s the feeding?”, “Are they a good baby?” are but a few of the questions you’ll hear. Likewise (certainly as a new parent) you’re full of questions. You’re a sponge wanting to soak up tips and advice in the hope that things will be ‘easy’ for you.

Surely if it works for one parent it’ll work for another? Surely all babies are the same?

No.

You know what works? What the one piece of advice I’d give most parents?

It’s something I’ve recently started doing. Something I’ve finally learnt to do after making the same mistake over and over again…

DO NOT TALK ABOUT PARENTING.

It sounds harsh, but hear me out. Have you ever gushed at how much your baby has eaten at dinner and then had the opposite play out the very next day? How about when they’ve said something for you, but refuse to repeat it for anyone else? How about when they’ve slept through? Did it happen again the next night?

Here are my tips…

  1. Don’t talk about the foods they like: The next day they’ll stop eating the foods you say they like. In fact, they’ll hate it so much they’ll throw it over the floor.
  2. Don’t talk about their favourite toy/book: As soon as you take said item out with you they’ll not play with it or even acknowledge it even exists.
  3. Don’t talk about thing they like to do: As soon as you have company they’ll stop making that noise you said they did when you made a particular face. They’ll stop doing everything you ever said they did – making you look like a fool.
  4. And for the love of hot coffee and cake… DON’T. TALK. ABOUT. SLEEP! As soon as the words ‘they slept through’ leave your mouth you will regret it for an eternity, or at least until the current leap has passed. It’s guaranteed that their pattern will immediately change/they’ll refuse to nap/they’ll wake in the night/all of the above. You name it, it’ll happen as soon as you talk about how your baby sleeps.

By all means, continue talking about the rubbish night’s sleep you had, how your baby refuses to swallow anything you give them, and how they like to chew everything but the teething toy you bought them – that’s fine. Babies love that kind of conversation. But trust me when I say, if you don’t want to find yourself jinxed…

Don’t talk about the good stuff. Ever.

K

2 comments
  1. Hahahaha this is such a good post and it’s SO true!!! They always stop doing it as soon as you start feeling just a little bit smug don’t they?? We’ve got parents evening in a bit and we’ve been telling everyone she’s doing well at school. Eeeeek what have we done?

    Nat.x

  2. Haha such an awesome post, you are so right kids really do know when we are talking about them and instantly stop whatever it is that they are doing/ was going well!

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