Sunday, July 17, 2011

Parent Fun

Hey Everyone,

So my daughter is 9 months now, and just on the verge of walking/talking and wanting to borrow my car keys. Being a stay at home mom might make for a tight bond between the two of us, but it's not really conducive for either of us to get out and socialize. The problem is that most parents I meet are just weird, or have too busy of schedules. It's a rarity in the US these days to find many stay at home moms, so that in itself makes socializing fairly hard.

The weird factor comes in with the fact that each parent has their own philosophy on parenting. I'm all for having your own way of doing things, but for some reason most (not all) parents feel that their way is the best and try and push that onto you. I'm a pretty laid back mom, and while I do want to challenge my girl, and get her brain working, I also want her to have fun and enjoy our time together.

Take this moment, my mom, daughter and I have been walking at a local park most mornings (trying to loose the baby weight - what can I say - food is my friend and enemy) and there was this mom and young girl (just a little older then mine) in the play area... so we stopped to chat and let my girl watch her play (she was walking, and climbing and whatnot) the mom quickly began to get her daughter to show off all the words she knew, almost like how you'd get your dog to do all her best tricks while in a show, it was cute but sort of awkward and the mom seemed very uptight. Then she asked me "Are you teaching your daughter sign language?" to which I replied, "Not a lot, but some key words" and she looked horrified "You really SHOULD teach her all that you can, it will really improve their vocabulary early on." She went on for a while about the benefits and what methods she used, and I nodded, and smiled and then of course we moved on everyone slightly uncomfortable. I know the success with baby sign, and I do teach my girl some of the key words, but she's 9 months old, and honestly thinks that "Mama" means food at this point, no matter how many times I tell her it's food, and how many time she says MAMA I respond... her little brain just doesn't quite get it yet... but it's working... and sometimes too much information isn't helpful either... plus - life's too short to drill my baby every minute of the day, I know she'll figure it out.

Why is it that people feel the need to tell you how to raise your children?
An even better question - Why do people feel the need to come up and touch your children???

I swear every single time I am out in public at least 2-3 people will come up and talk to us, and my baby being the fun loving, sweet girl she is, reaches out and waves and smiles at them, so of course to weird strangers that means "Oh please touch my hand, and my cute little baby cheeks" which of course is so wrong and gross.

TO ALL THE PEOPLE OF THE WORLD, IT IS NEVER OK TO TOUCH A STRANGERS BABY!

This goes especially to the cute old ladies of the world, because it's really hard to yell at them... "Ooooo I'm a grandmother of 6 grand-babies and I just think yours is the cutest thing in the whole world..." as she reaches out her withered old lady hand and touches my daughter - my brain flashes to "God I wonder what she's touched, wonder if she's sick, when was the last time she washed her hands...ew ew ew... " but how do you tell a great grandmother to please not touch your baby!?

I guess there are some sites where you can meet similar mom's and set up play dates, but the whole thing seems like a crap-shoot and weird, like internet dating, I know people who swear it works but I'm still skeptical. Something will have to give, or my other friends with babies and I will really need to get focused on dates... or my girl can just be a mama's girl (aka hermit) until I send her off to school (and she'll have total culture shock)! LOL.

Ok fine... I'll set up some play dates... but you are gonna hear about the shenanigans that ensues!

Hope you enjoyed my ramblings!

Thanks For Listening,
Kela

3 comments:

Daws said...

Couldn't agree more...or is it MOORE? And looking forward to your stories about play dates.

Yvette said...

I hear you Kela! I went the hermit route. There are very few people I like, then add in their parenting (or lack of parenting was also annoying) and their kids and that left me all alone. I did find that I tolerated structured things much better: Gymboree, Gymnastics Play Time, Kindermusic (although those kindermusic folks can be quite annoying). It does get better as they get older, hang in there and keep enjoying your lovely little girl! I enjoyed your blog, it took me back several years!

Anonymous said...

You crack me up!

People are so crazy and the ones you run into are so lucky that you're Kela. I think you have far more patience than the average person or mom.

Love,
Rachel