I would have never let my first child…

June 23, 2010 by Filed Under: daily life, motherhood

The fourth child gets away with everything!

Eat sweets before her first birthday.

Have a sip of mom’s Coke.

Walk around with a snotty nose.

Sleep in regular clothes and not pajamas.

Play in the mud.

mud

I would never let my first child…

Lick the floor.

Eat off the floor.

Skip a bath.

Do you remember what kind of mom you were with that first child? Were you a lot more careful? A little more uptight?

muddy hands

Did you keep them away from other kids who were sick? Not let them get their hands dirty?

muddy

Is that why my first child was a little bit horrified to find her baby sister rolling around in the mud today? Is that why my first child is so responsible? What does that say about the future of my last child?

Come on, confession time, what did you not let your first child do that seems a little ridiculous now?

____________

I have a giveaway for a homeschool book from Egghead Academics up over here. It ends Friday so go leave a comment.

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25 Comments
  • http://www.othersuchhappenings.com marsha@othersuchhappenings

    I'm A LOT more easygoing about the whole mud thing now. It took moving out of the burbs to do the trick. That and driving up to the house to see that David let Austin and Noah play in the mud… which was a humongous tire rut in our driveway that had filled with water. Can you say redneck?! I learned that day that kids are washable.

  • Kristi Temple

    I love these pictures!!! She looks like she is having a blast. I have 3 boys. The oldest is 13 and the youngest is 5. I would say I was much more rigid about schedules and feedings and all that with my oldest. He never went outside alone at 5, whereas my youngest practically lives out in the yard. Of course his older brothers are usually with him. Their personalities are all different. I think our little man is just more daring and fearless.

  • mamaduso

    My first child hardly went outside! And she did not get dirty. My third child played in the sandbox naked.

  • http://littlewhiteschoolhouse.blogspot.com amy

    I think I got things backwards- I never stressed about the paci falling on the floor, or getting dirty, but I did let my oldest do some things that I will not let my others do, like go to public school for kindergarten (and when she was not yet 5!) I am also more rigid now about being around other sick kids b/c we have so many kids (5) for it to run through!

  • http://www.eclecticwhatnot.com Eclectic Whatnot

    I'm just going to go ahead and make myself look bad. *snort*

    Since I was still a teenager when my firstborn was born, I was not hyper about the typical things moms are hyper about. I was *very* laid back and went with the flow.

    I got more hyper as I had more children. And then I chilled out again before the fifth came around. I figured I would age early with all that worrying. :D

  • http://Toliverstotexas.blogspot.com Gwen T

    Eating a bug – the first child, mom freaks and cleans out child's mouth with diaper wipe; the seventh child, mom gives child a drink to wash it down.

    Outside – first child, stroller is covered with baby-safe mosquito netting, child wears hat and sunglasses; seventh child (this literally happened yesterday) is sitting in stroller outside and endures mosquito bites and a fairly strong rain before one of her siblings brings her inside.

    Learning colors, numbers, etc – First child- Mom diligently goes through ABeka preschool book and spends hours trying to teach child these important things; Seventh child – Mom realizes children tend to figure out a lot of things just by being in a large family and no longer uses preschool workbooks. And guess what? Child #7 learns colors and numbers earlier than first child ever did!

  • http://buffaloesandbutterflywings.blogspot.com Amy

    Even though I thought I was relaxed, I was an extremely by-the-book mom with my first.
    I would never have let his first bite of solids be a bite of squash from my plate! (unlike our 5 month old). :)

  • http://hikingtowardhome.blogspot.com/ Sharon

    Oh. my. goodness. YES!!! and i do worry about how the last one is going to turn out. I have become very slack in many areas like the pj/ real clothes thing. My first wasn't allowed any caffinated sodas but now my youngest drinks them all the time. ugh. don't know if I am going backwards or forwards with this one. and I let the youngest get dirtier too…but, like Marsha said… kids are washable.

  • http://hikingtowardhome.blogspot.com/ Sharon

    This is funny. I agree but I did just buy the preschool books for the littlest because she is begging to “do school” of her own and they will keep her busy… hopefully…

  • Molly

    Ugh, I was the stereotypical obsessive 1st time mom with my oldest. Let's see, I used to make everyone within a 5 mile radius wash their hands if they wanted to touch my daughter. I cut her food into almost invisible pieces. I even used to peel her grapes and then cut them. She didn't have a sip of soda till she was 3, no french fries either, lol! If her passy fell on the floor I immediately boiled it in water and gave her a spare one while she waited. Fast forward to my youngest daughter and I didn't do any of those crazy things with her. She had soda at about 18 months (or however long it took for her to learn to suck a straw) and fries from the moment she could mash them with her new teeth. It's a miracle she's survived! She definitley gets away with more than my older 2 daughters. There, now do you feel better about letting your sweet baby play in the mud?

  • http://afamiliarpath.com/ Melissa Stover

    i love it! these comments made me laugh.

  • http://afamiliarpath.com/ Melissa Stover

    your comment is hysterical! poor baby out in the rain. LOL.

  • Molly

    Glad I could be of service, lol! I thought of another one…I used to wash all of my 1st daughters clothes and blankets with Dreft. I was like, what if she gets a rash from our regular Tide detergent? The horror! Now, my youngest daughter, well, everything just got lumped in together with our regular laundry. Poor baby! I do think I was much more relaxed with my youngest though and really enjoyed her as a baby. I was much too tightly wound to do so with my 1st. Luckily she doesn't remember!

  • http://afamiliarpath.com/ Melissa Stover

    i remember washing my first baby's clothes separately!! but only the first
    few times. then i got lazy.

  • Talysa

    Love this…fabulous shots!

    Me obsess over things? Worried first time mom? Never.

  • Talysa

    Just remembered my favorite “I would never let my first child” moment.

    When my firstborn would drop his pacifier, I would not let him have it until I could sniff out the nearest source of cleansing.

    With my third I remember the day he dropped his on the floor in the line at grocery store (and proceeded to flip out) and I said to firstborn, “Just pick it up and give it to him for the love if Pete!”

  • Talysa

    *of

  • http://www.perfectbydesign.blogspot.com inHistiming

    Well, one thing I didn't do with my first two…and I learned to work on with the others sooner….is feeding them a large variety of foods EARLY, have them eat what we are eating right off the bat, and give them a spoon to practice with so I wouldn't still be feeding them myself at 2 years of age! I didn't let them touch bugs and frogs as a 1-yr-old and that's definitely something that my current toddler LOVES to do. We used a LOT of TV for the first two and not so much for the latter 2. Too much going on with the other siblings to need it now, I guess. I was very nervous about people holding my baby (he was a preemie at 34 weeks) and with the later kids I've been fine when others want to hold them. We were VERY strict with our 'schedule' (Babywise) for the first one and now, though we use the scheduling, we are much more able to 'go with the flow' when needed. We're much more seasoned now….after 4 kids we're FINALLY ready to be parents! ;)

  • http://www.Sonbeams.com Candace

    too funny! I'm laughing at myself because I feel that I'm just now starting to loosen up – with my 4th! I still wipe them down with Germ-X after being in the doctors office, but usually try not to think about it when they grab something off the floor, or from someone else. (It does cross my mind, but I'm trying to relax.) LOL

    Candace

  • Farmingfam

    These comments are so fun to read through. What a great post!!: )
    I'm trying to remember some ones of my own…

  • http://abundantlife-lora.blogspot.com/ Lora

    HA! this is awesome.
    I have just one child. He is almost five. When he was a baby I was half psycho about him and fully psycho in two areas. One, all natural and organic material which I've loosened up on lightly as he's gotten older and would do all over again for a new baby. And two, what he is exposed to (tv, violent pretend play, guns, swords, etc) TOO early, which I would also do ALL with another child.
    But he licked the floor at walmart at 16 months and my halfway-germ control went out the window. :) And I love to let him get dirty, make a mess, skip a bath, stay up late for a bon-fire, eat ice cream for lunch, wear a miss-matched outfit he came downstairs in to a play date… I think it's about time in the mama ring more than head count for me. :)

  • E_sintim

    I have just one child, and I don't know whether it is because I am from England or what but I seem to horrify a few US mums now I live over here because I have let my child do most of the things on the list. How know what that means when I get round to having another.

  • http://twitter.com/greengraciehome Beverly Pennington

    I am laughing so hard that my Coke is about to come through my nose! I have 3 boys (9,7,5) and a Princess Fiona 17 months. I let her do everything! My oldest could have sorted his lincoln logs by wood grain I was so uptight! Love the post…

  • http://afamiliarpath.com/ Melissa Stover

    LOL!!

  • Kerry

    Melissa,
    I would have let her use a spoon more, i hate dirty toddler faces with food everywhere, but it’s worse when there 5 and still can eat well with a spoon, so I would definitely do that different.
    I lived on such a different planet as a first time mom. High School Volleyball and Basketball coach, teaching all day, practice til 5, not home from games until 10;30 or 11:00 pm 2 nights a week and all day tournaments twice a month. My baby with me at them all. I took Sydney to Wal-Mart at about 3 days old because I just had to get out of the house. And I didn’t have those cool cover the buggy things then, thought those were so cool when i saw them, but I probably never would have bothered using one of them anyways. Because I was a High School Coach she spent most of her evenings from about 2 weeks old being passed around a gym to her huge community that was more like family than friends. some teenager would bring her our way if she had a dirty diaper or close to when the game was over. Between being a coach and my husband being a youth pastor she never had a chance with sodas and sweets, you’d be surprised how many teenage boys think it’s cute to let a 9 month old drink out of his mountain dew can. (you would think he thought that was gross). I remember Tom’s mom yelling at me, “maybe she’s crying because of the caffeine”, as I had let her drink half of my coke from McDonalds on a 10 hour trip home from Dallas. I swiftly told her my kids would have caffeine from birth until they chose to stop drinking it and that we didn’t need to have that conversation again. I feel certain it was the 5 hours she had been cooped up in the car traveling from Texas to Harrison after seeing the Neurosurgeons and having some traumatic test done, with something shoved up her nose or down her throat to view something. I guess we had way to many things going on in our lives to worry about what she was sipping out of our Mcdonalds cup. I think it was a blessing.