Has anyone else been following the blog since this thread?

Or is it just me AKA The Saddo...

I~ didn't actually read the bedroom thing until now but that is bloody weird? Has anyone seen 'Raising Caine'?

She sounds like a lovely friend that can drive you a bit crazy sometimes

I think their home is lovely but almost 'too perfect in a trying not to be perfect way' if that makes any sense...

But not having a telly is not that amazing in this day and age when you can get everything online no?

Oh and expat-she didn't just change a nappy-she sewed the thing first! On a slippery slope to Pampers methinks...

hackneybird what a gem cackles I hate those 'my perfect life' blogs. I can't believe I read the whole 'birthing story' but for those of you who have a life
I particularly liked:

"She also discovered that vocalizing helped her deal with each birthing wave. She began to vocalize the word “peace” as well as an “uh” sound."
piss off maybe ??

The poor child-imagine growing up and reading that about yourself??

Hmmm I found that birth story really cringey. Nice that he's proud of her and overwhelmed but a bit self absorbed. How much was baby actually mentioned?

A bit weird.

Message deleted

Interesting to see the views expressed here. Even as a current non-parent (am expecting 1st in October), I have been reading her blog with amazement. I thought I was hopelessly naive ut she takes the biscuit.

Although it has to be said, she is a teacher to toddlers, so surely she knew what havoc they were capapble of wreaking when she designed that room?

Actually I have to defend him on the whole control thing, part of hypnobirthing is having the partner involved and them being an advocate for what you want and what you have discussed. The whole point of breathing out the baby instead of pushing is that you are suppose to be less likely to tear.

That peacock blue ring sling looks like it's made from raw silk. How d'you get baby vomit out of that? It's hard enough when you boil wash cotton.

Was I the only one to read that and be really quite horrified at how much control he wanted to have on her labour? She, by that point, wanted an active second stage and to get the baby out and all her could say was that he was cross with the midwife for ignoring his trying to intervene and demand she be told not to push?

Sorry mate, at that point not your decision! And going on about how he felt she would not have torn if he had got his way? Well maybe but I would have floored him at that point...

if she's still doing that EC business why on earth did she boast about changing a nappy on the blog?

TEE HEE
I think I may have used a sock filled with rice to wollop him!

Lol - the baby bjorn potty is well-known in EC circles as being good for EC from birth as it's smaller than a normal potty

'low is BAD around here; my son's appetite for destruction is extraordinarily insatiable. (Books? Near a crawling paper-eater? We even have to confiscate the board ones around here - he can successfully destroy those, in under ten minutes. Mirrors... at hand height... oh my God.)'

snap in this household... i had to remove every single book from child reach and put them on the highest shelves i could find as ds1 simply cannot stop himself ripping them to shreds

i think it's quite sad that she's going to spend all the baby years willing him to grow up... she's going to miss the best bits wishing them away

expat - it's not to a 5 year old's taste, but she's surely less likely to trash the room, and herself in the process? I just looked at that space and blanched - low is BAD around here; my son's appetite for destruction is extraordinarily insatiable. (Books? Near a crawling paper-eater? We even have to confiscate the board ones around here - he can successfully destroy those, in under ten minutes. Mirrors... at hand height... oh my God.)

She's seemingly leapt past the mobile baby stage, and fantasised her perfect kindy child.

Ozziegirly, I was determined not to co-sleep and to have a set bedtime. My son sleeps with us and puts himself out at 8 - 9 pm. I had no real preconceptions about the birth - started off in a midwife-led unit, fully intending to go consultant-led if it hurt unpleasantly badly - and ended up with a waterbirth, with just gas and air. Was determined to bf and heartbroken when I couldn't - still am, truth be told. So I definitely agree that going with the flow is a lot less stressful all round. I think having kids is a bit like being married - you can't have it all mapped out in advance, because you've not met the other party in the relationship yet.

poor poor woman has no idea what is about to hit her. I wish I could be there in 6 months to see whether she is more or less insane than sheappears to be now.

bronze... i too wondered about that but had started skim reading at that point as i was laughing so hard and thought maybe it was something she'd rescued from a thrift shop so that baby dearest could rest his wee bum on a retro recycled potty while leafing through his tasteful picture books

Just noticed thie parenting philosophy says "I do have some strong opinions, (one being that plastic is gross and just plain ugly, and I don’t want any of it anywhere near my baby)"
and
"Be wary of any marketing to parents or children. That means boo-hiss to Graco and Fischer-Price and there’s-no-way-I’m-ever-shopping-at-Babies-R-Us. "

yet flick across to pics of the room and scroll down and there in front of me is a plastic potty with baby bjorn on it in big letters

I did think, irrespective of the tasteful staining and general décor, that there were far too many sharp corners and breakables for when soft toys and rolled up balls of socks start getting flung around and chased after, and for then the mattress on the floor becomes the mainstay and launching pad for all manner of physical mayhem (or is that just my DS )

How soothing can that room ever be if at the sound of a firework they assume people with guns are outside the window trying to kill them???

I know! I was like, 'Where the hell are you living?'

Mind you, one Sat. night I was in my apartment in the Cap Hill area of Denver, a great area, btw. When I heard cars screeching into the car park and then the tell-tale pop pop (these people obviously haven't been around firearms if they mistake a firework for the real thing [rolls eyes]).

My cat and I went flying for the windowless hallway as more shots rang out and then police sirens.

Turns out two chaps got into a scrap on the road, one chased the other into the car park and they both started firing at each other!

Thankfully, only the brickwork of the apartment building took a direct hit.

good point minko.

Um, just had a thought about this couple... How soothing can that room ever be if at the sound of a firework they assume people with guns are outside the window trying to kill them???

I'm actually weeping with laughter at the montessori room

Priceless... all i can see is a handy little mirror to swing from...
lots of lovely low things to climb on to reach the tubs of clothes arranged by size and throw them in the EC area...
lovely pale walls for drawing on...
books on a low self that will be ripped to shreds...
lots of pics hung low enough to be taken off walls and dropped smashing glass everywhere..
a glass lamp on a low table that will also be smashed...
a movement mat with morrors around it, that'll be convenient when finn is learning to sit and falls backward and smashes the glass with his head, babies first trip to a&e methinks

Well meaning but completely loopy

As for the birth... if dp had given me cues or told me how to calm down during labour or done anything other than be my personal slave during those days i would have ripped his eyes out. That guy was so busy telling her how to labour he didn't bother packing the car during all those hours so she had to wait for him to do it when she needed to go in.. i would have lost the plot at that point!

ozzigirly, i went into parenting thinking 'natural labour would be preferable but i'll take drugs if i need them, bf-ing would be great but i'll see how i go, baby will sleep in a cot from day one and baby will have a set bedtime'... I had a completely drug free birth, bf dd for 12 months but sleep was always a huge issue and dd was in our bed for 18 months.

With ds1 i had learned from my mistakes and said 'i'll see how i go' to almost everything, drug free birth, 2.5 years bf, blw, slept in our bed contentedly, etc., the only thing i'd put my foot down on was at 3 months i decided he should go up to bed at the same time as dd and the evenings were a nightmare for over a year as a result.

With ds2 i said 'go with the flow' and he's now 4 months, fully bf, sleeps through the night some nights but comes into snuggle us others, stays downstairs with us til we go to bed, usually asleep in his rocker but occasionally playing with us, and most importantly i'm enjoyig him so much more and he's a more contented baby as a result.

The point of all that was to illustrate that with my kids it was the things i had written in stone that caused misery and turned out not to be suitable for my kids and the things i was relaxed about fell into place to everyones benefit. I think setting out your parenting philosophy before you know your child is madness.. i have 3 and they have completely differant personalities, what works with one doesn't with another (although all three would reap havok on that room )

there's no harm in saying 'i'd like to do x,y,z' but saying 'we will do x,y,z' is just setting eveyone up for failure ime

Sorry Ozziegirly I meant to say, I think reading/educating yourself about anything is helpful, because even if you don't feel able to do it the whole way, you'll know what parts of it you felt were most important and be able to incorporate those.

So for example (in case that was hard to follow, it seems so to me!) I wanted to do EC (the no-nappies thing) with my baby, with cloth nappy backup, and was horrified at the idea of him ever wearing a non-eco disposable - so much so that when we ran out of eco-disposables when he was only about 12 days old, despite never having left the house with DS alone I got on a bus and went to Sainsbury's in search of some. I refused to ask anyone to get me some in case they got the dreaded Pampers (And in fact Pampers was what I ended up getting because it was all they had, being a small supermarket! )

And anyway, I never got the hang of EC, couldn't see the signs and DS hated being held over a potty, so I gave up on it, but I am open to the idea of potty training at around 12-18 months provided he's willing and I've definitely decided that when we get there I will be doing child-led potty training rather than picking a timeframe to get it done by.

I think breastfeeding is the most important thing to read up on by the way as it's pretty much instant and fairly full-on for the first weeks, so make sure you prepare yourself for that if you want to. Mumsnet's breast & bottlefeeding section is fab.

Ozziegirly - I think that's quite right - be adaptable and see the child as a separate person.

Of course it's a good idea to read about parenting and think about what would work for you before you're faced with a tiny bundle who is dependent on you! Having said that, I do worry when friends who are expecting have rigid and idealistic parenting 'philosophies' or very set ideas about how things are going to go. I've had friends at completely different ends of the ideology spectrum (earth mother to strict GF routine from day 1) who've been really demoralised and become quite unhappy because things haven't worked out as they imagined. The problem is that you can't predict the labour that goes wrong and ends in emergency CS, the baby who won't latch on or the child who simply won't nap at all, let alone at the scheduled time. None of these things are things you can ultimately control although your reading might help you to avoid risks or to try solutions. If you are an idealist and things don't go according to plan then there's a risk that you'll feel a failure and that will impact on the well-being and happiness of you and your family.

The other risk is that things do go according to plan and you (not you personally!) become insufferably smug and think your approach is the only 'proper' way to do things. I have a friend like this who is constantly sending group emails to all the mothers she knows with articles on research that backs up her parenting choices (natural birth, bf, no TV, slings etc) and informing people of what should be done. In fact we do have pretty similar approaches to how we parent but I doubt everyone on the list does and I think I will strangle her if DC2 (I'm pregnant) doesn't follow the script and she explains the solution to me.

That's a very long way of saying, yes do read and think about how you want to parent but never fall into the trap of thinking you know how things MUST be done.

Righto, ta, Only have two carpets in the house which will go if ever needs be. Will be watchful and ready to move upwards if needed. DS is pretty receptive to logic/explanations about things if it comes to it (the odd star chart with a shiny toy at the end helps too!)

Lenin: I think it was worse because it was a futon. Also we had a cat. And carpets. Have now got rid of all carpets. A proper bed and mattress really helped though.

I moved dd1 onto a mattress on the floor at 19 months. Because she climbed out of the cot and I didn't want to use a bed with cot sides because she's climb over them too.

She was fine on the mattress on the floor, on floor boards.

This couple sound so ernest, and they have huge expectations of themselves, of being parents, and of their child.

Ozziegirl, I think we all have some ideas before we have kids of how it's going to go (mine was something along the lines of no sugar, no tv, organic food, bf til 1 yr) but most of us find we are only human and at some point it gets hard and you may have to change your plans to fit in with your child, and for your own sanity. It doesn't mean you've failed.

But it is worth bearing in mind that once you've preached your nappyless co-sleeping organic slingtastic zen diatribe to everyone you know, it IS easy to feel a bit foolish when they come round one year on to find your baby clad in nothing but a disposable nappy, gawping at a barney dvd while shovelling cheerios into their slack mouths (while you are hiding in the kitchen being neglectful thankful for ten minutes peace) or is that just me...?

Plus if you're at all smug about it, it makes other people almost WANT you to fail. Sometimes it's best to keep our more idealistic notions to ourselves and just wait and see!

Really mp, shite, because of carpets/dust settling and the like? Have adult-onset asthma myself (prob from DP's cat which precedes me and the area I moved to) and both DS's Dad and I have hayfever. No signs from DS (3) though, thankfully.

Have to say DS's room is the coolest/freshest in the house due to being on the back and not getting any direct sun and the cat being verboten from going in there. Hope this mitigates any possible disadvantages because I'll need that space on the floor in the future once the new arrival is out of the side cot.

awww bless!

Actually I put my PFB on a mattress on the floor until she developed asthma at 9 months and the doctor said WHY THE FECK ARE YOU LETTING HER SLEEP ON THE FLOOR? so we bought a bed and she was much better

Thats the thing I think to be readt=y to adapt and change your ideas and actions, if you have it all set in stone or written in detail on the net, it might be a lot harder to accept when things don't happenthe way you wanted or expected.

I planned a lovely birth for my PFB in the midwifery suite with a few puffs of gas and air and a float in the pool, dimmed lights an all that instead I had a 48hr labour, every drug known to mankind and a c-section in an operating theatre, never even saw the inside of the midwifery suite. But I did breast feed and use terry nappies, had a structured sleep and feeding schedule, becuase it suited DS but had terrible PND andDS had a speach delay due to the fact I hardly spoke and sat with my head in my hands.

It never all goes to plan

It is an lovely room - shame they have to spoil it by putting a baby in it.

I couldn't be bothered reading the birth blog. Hell, i find my own birth story tedious.

Thanks, they're really interesting points. I think maybe the key is to be relatively adaptable, and also I guess to see your child as a small person with their own personality, rather than an extension of yourself?

I am really keen to start a family and am also the kind of person to throw myself into things as somewhat of a "project" so I will have to curb these desires and go with the flow a bit I think!

'but it's been created for a very tidy, sweet 5 year old.'

Oh, I have a sweet, relatively-tidy 5-year-old.

And she likes naffo, garishly pink and white, plastic tatt like My Little Pony and High School Musical and Barbie and Disney Princesses.

She's ever so forgetful when it comes to tidying up her many, many be-ribboned hair elastics and grips adorned with cheapy plastic bits.

And let's face it, you have to pick your battles with kids.

Are neutral tones really that important when, in the US especially, you'll soon be starring down the very long barrels of drunk drivers, driving at 16, emo, guns in schools and lots and lots of drugs?

I think she's planning on co-sleeping so the mattress won't be used for sleeping for a while yet.

They do sound quite sweet- but they are still at the stage where the birth of a child seems like an opportunity to express their personality. Over the years they will find that this is only half of the equation.

Ozzie, I think that depends on how resilient you are

a friend of mine was very earth mother at first (though not like this couple), but she has had the strenght to adapt as she has gone along

earth motherism is fine, but I would never let in interfere with safety (agree with Qually that that mattress is potentially dangerous for a small baby) or with common sense (a toddler will indeed have those pictures off the wall) or with the simple realisation that shit happens (my dd was born with a genetic condition we didn't know about and consequently struggled to breastfeed)

and they also need to remember that as your baby reaches the young child stage he needs to socialise with other children, which means finding out how the other 99% live:

what will they do if his friends can't afford to get him those expensive catalogue organic birthday present, but turn up with some well meant plastic tat?

or when little Finn himself decides he wants his wall decorated with garish crayon drawings of Spiderman- are they going to stifle his creativity () or sacrifice the soothing colour scheme?

Ozziegirly, interesting, perhaps a subject for a new thread! I really planned to be very lentil-weavery. Most of my decisions which I made before birth only half-materialised ie the home waterbirth turned into hospital birth (most of labour in pool) with only G&A, I loved my stretchy wrap sling but since he's grown out of it I haven't got anything as comfortable (and I do love my buggy as well) and although I have done BLW he was 21 weeks when I started and the food is certainly not all organic

At times I felt a bit like I'd failed, especially if I had read someone's blog where they'd managed to do everything I hadn't! But then I came to realise that, actually, DS is happy, I am doing the best I can and what somebody else does has no reference to that. You wouldn't start running and get upset because you weren't up to Linford Christie's standard! And I think the people who do best with the Earth Mother type things are fairly natural living/lentil-weavery people anyway, with supportive (ie equally hippyish) husbands. (And in fact the same for people who read Gina Ford et al religiously while pregnant and insist they will stick to the routine - it works better if you're an organised, routine-loving person anyway.)

"Little Finn has pulled off his dirty nappy & smeared the shit all over his bed, walls, chair, mirrors, other mattress....hmm! "

She'll be fine, brown tones nicely with the rest of the room and poo is antural and organic....

As much as I am laughing my head off I also think it's quite sweet (And organised!), he is there PFB after all.

Am also worried about baby falling off bed onto wooden floor, DS was a wiggler from quite early on.

As a non parent at the moment, I'm actually intrigued as to other mumsnet opinions. Do you think setting up yourself in advance of the baby's arrival to be an earth mother and doing up the room with quite specific ideas of how it will be used etc means that you will be more likely to be able to do things like breastfeed, or be more likely to be disapointed when/if things go awry?

For example, if you planned to be very organic/breastfeeding/sling wearing/natural birthing - and then things don't follow that plan, do you feel a bit let down by the whole business?

I say these things as somewhat of an earth mother wannabee!

One thing I have similar - double mattress on the floor which is a fantastic play, read and sleep area, especially now I'm 7 months pg and just want to lie down whenever I can.

Main other difference is DS's room is full of colour (mostly his own 'artwork'}. We had a potty in there for while because our bathroom is downstairs, but soon got rid of that when it got flung around the room for fun or had additional things put in it, just to see what they looked like mixed with wee!

What a lovely room...my 5yr would love it!

I wonder what mum will do when she sees that Little Finn has pulled off his dirty nappy & smeared the shit all over his bed, walls, chair, mirrors, other mattress....hmm!

Lets face it, at least in a cot you can contain the shit spreading!

Oh bless, she reminds me of a US friend, who is equally earnest and idealistic, and decided post-PhD that she had a vocation to teach maths to deprived kids in NYC. She lasted a term before the horror broke her and she went back into academia - but she was, and is, a complete darling. She's called Destiny - was actually named thus as a newborn, which explains much.

That room is beautiful, but it's been created for a very tidy, sweet 5 year old. Not a crawler who will want to chew and bash everything in his path. And surprisingly tiny babies can roll - pre-head supporting stage in this house - I'd not want my kid napping his way onto a polished wooden floor without pillows to break the landing, because that drop is not nothing to a very tiny baby.

Yeah I do wish them all the best despite the rather self-inflated blog (and maybe it's a cultural thing because they seem to have a lot of positive comments from other American's - maybe us Brits are just a bit less tolerant of all that airy fairy stuff?) but I do think they'll feel a bit silly looking back, because we all do a bit and they are the king and queen of pfb!

I'm surprised actually, in a good way - MN might be bitchy, but bitchy in a nice way! On another website ages ago someone posted about their friend who kept on and on about the baby she was expecting and how she was going to have a drug free labour and breastfeed and never use nappies and her baby would be the most perfect PFB ever, and the comments on the thread were mostly things like "It's ok, you can laugh at her when she comes to you saying she ended up having a c-section and bottle feeding, LOL!!!"

The bit that really gets me - as pain relief during labour she had her first glass of wine since they started trying for a child. Surely DH and I can't be the only people whose child was conceived with the aid of a glass of wine or two?

my poor boss was like this pre baby.... then he came- no pain relief, just 3 hrs labour and no problems...

and then he didn't wake up for 6 weeks and didn't feed and didn't grow and she was beside herself with stress and worry. He was in ICU twice.

she is alot less smug now- i'm hoping it'll make her realise us lesser mortals have problems.
I'd never ever wich the stress she has had on anyone btw - i'd hate that comment to be misconstrued.
I jst mena it is a learning process and sometimes the first casualty is idealism when you have kids.

I have actually puked reading that blog. Seriously.

there was a couple very like this in our antenatal class. DP, who is normally a very mild man who rarely dislikes anyone, was moved to say that he could cheerfully strangle the dad if he saw one more of his handknitted jumpers ever again.

As you said, ommmmmmmmm...

this guy probably speaks in chant.

i mean, these people are the definition of ernest.

did the chanting come in waves, do you think?

that they harvested whilst chanting.

ooommmm.

that they knitted out of their very own cotton, grown in their own garden (with no pesticides, obviously)?

their organic, fairtrade, hand-woven cotton socks, natch.

Bless their cotton socks. OK, everyone who has said they are pretentious nutters who really don't have a clue (and scaredycats - all that diving under the covers with your phone becaus of a firework, fgs) is right. But they will find that out all by themselves.

DD1 has the naffest, tackiest lack of taste going.

She likes COLOUR, bright, bold colour.

DS1 wants me to paint his walls bright blue with big (floor to ceiling) dinosaurs on each wall.

I'm still puzzling over how she could possibly consider the room to be 'aesthetically pleasing to a young child'. I thought it was adults who liked tasteful art prints and beige and brown furniture. All the children I know like garish orange and green lumps of plastic.

Joking aside, I do hope that reality doesn't bite too hard, they clearly want what's best for their child and are caring parents. They have put so much thought into every single decision that it could be rather painful when little Finn wrecks it all.

Awww, it made me feel really sad: all that idealism, I wonder if reality has already hit them?

With PFB DD I had some of those ideals, but once another kid arrives it's so hard to do anything other than get through the day.

Lovely room, just depends what kind of child you have: DD would respect it (and put the Barbies and My Little Ponys on the activity shelves), DS would wreck it.

never in the world will there be a bigger pfb than little Finn with the montessori mummy mommy

my 7-month-old son could easily wreck that room.

Oh wow. How I would love to give DD (25 months) 15 minutes of 'unrestrained exploration' in that room.

I just hope they've hidden the crayons. (montessori allows crayons, right? In tasteful colours only, natch...)

He'd be one of those who had to 'make love' and just couldn't let himself just give you a right seeing-to every now and again.

I'm with you expat. I couldn't bear anyone who was so interested in my cervix and being supported. He makes me think of the Joy of Sex man but even less sexy and joyful.

Actually to be fair a completely babyproof room with a little mattress for DS to sleep on would suit us perfectly - he currently sleeps in a sidecar cot (so can't leave him to get on with it in case he falls off the bed) and does not have any concept of bedtime, if I take him upstairs no matter how tired he was he immediately perks up! So it would be useful to have somewhere he could play until he went to sleep by himself or came up to ask for milk (which does happen eventually, it's just we have nowhere truly babyproof to let him roam ) - if I let him play downstairs until he fell asleep I'd be exhausted, so the poor thing gets shunted between his bouncer and reclining chair and the floor in the hope he'll exhaust himself eventually it's just too stimulating for him downstairs with the TV on and the cat to chase.

Boak!

Men like this are actually eunuchs.

They.named.their.son.FINNIAN.

Are there really people out there like this?

Imagine being married to a 'man' like this, or even shagging one.

Eeewww.

Ah, but when the little bugger delight starts behaving like that, the parents will merely breathe "Peeeeaaace" and order will be magically restored.

What? That's what it is like in my house.

Honest.

Oh, and all the pictures in DS1's room are 8 foot up because at 22 months he starting making piles of toys, climbing up them and having all the pictures down. That's fairly standard no? Would any child appreciate the artwork as opposed to tearing it down and eating it?

I like it - it reminds me of all the whimiscal ideas I had pre-children. DS1 has refused to conform bless him, and whilst DS2 was showing signs of being the next Dalai Lama he has recently at nearly 10 months started behaving like a total manic like DS1.

Part of me really hopes that they get a maniac too, but that's because I'm mean.

I do think the room's a bit beautiful though . My PIL gave us this - I don't think we can ever aspire to a similar level of interior decor now.

I don't get it. Did I miss the tantrum corner and the strewing lego area?

As much as I snured I read a bit of their blog and they seem lovely.

The woman need mumsnet in her life

ewwwwwwwwww.

framed pics at child height - he'll pull them off the wall and smash them - hazard

mirrors - smash hazard

teeny russian dolls - choking hazard

he's going to piss all over that lovely floor by, ooh, a week old.

In the PFB Olympics, they've got the gold medal. 'Yes, merely providing the appropriate toys and space, our baby will sleep all night, never scream for attention or intrude in our lives.'

All that time researching colours, shopping.......... it's the last time they'll have the head space to do it

Its a lovely room. In fact would happily have it for me. For a child.... give it til it can stand at the most.

DWP, I liked this bit: The walls of the room aren't gray - they're a very, very subtle sage green. So subtle that anyone with normal vision would call the color cream.

Obviously you need super vision to see that room in its full magnolia glory.

hahaha DWP, I must have missed that bit

Bless them.

Though we are not inclined to fear crime, the proximity of the gunfire really frightened us. I reached for my phone on my nightstand and called 911, going under the covers to mask the light of the phone’s LED from anyone outside.

hahahaaaaa

Oh gosh you realise they will notice an upsurge in traffic from their blog and will link it to here?

Be nice ladies.

What parallel universe are they living in ?

Nuts just nuts

I just don't think I have the words

<<TW wanders off muttering >>

Peace.

Oh I don't even know where to start with all of this hippy rubbish. Good Luck to them all.

I find this fascinating yet terrifying.

Though I didn't have the pram in the house before the birth for superstitious reasons so I'm a bit of a loon too...

Just all that planning for a baby that isn't yet born?

I reckon the day she cracks she'll head to Toys R Us and max out the credit cards

Oh to be a fly on THAT wall when he starts crawling and she finally cracks the earth mother facade and wails "AARGH! Just shut the fuck up and stay in your bed!"

....with Perfect Dad behind her reminding her of her chakras and how she should breathe in light and positivity, natch. heehee!

Aw, I think it's lovely Utterly unrealistic, but lovely nonetheless!

(From someone who planned to do EC from birth but, er, hasn't, and whose child is currently mashing tuna into his bouncy chair - but I'm just glad he's restrained and it's not the carpet!)

Ah but Wallace, don't forget, she won't be desperately trying to get him to nap, as he will sleep there only "if he desires"

I also reckon that cot-sized mattress on the floor is a mistake. They should have optedfor a full size one because she will end up desperately trying toget the baby to nap by lying on the mattress with him to bf him to sleep.

ArticLemming - I though it was an ashtray too The reality was even more worrying...

After reading about that I feel that Idon't take parenting nearly seriously enough

Actually I feel a bit sorry for them that reality will hit hard one day...

cerened, wonder if they'll let their baby explore the stairs, the drains and the loo too, y'know, in the interests of giving him his "freedom" and not stifling his natural curiosity.

It's the way these kind of parents think that they know better, their children will be different, and that they don't need the kind of equipment and safety precautions that the rest of us use that gets on my nerves. I bet that blog goes surprisingly quiet when they find their nappyless child happily eating his own poo and using his "freedom" to interrupt their every sex session.

"The room is designed to be aesthetically pleasing to a young child, not to an adult"

What bolleaux!

"Although I would have loved to have provided Finn with an organic mattress, we opted for a cheap mattress"

Aha, true colours!

I wish she would come and tidy my tip house.

Why has Finn got an ashtray in his room? Did he come out with a forty a day habit?
Agree completely with Notyummy

"In the Montessori educational philosophy, the child sleeps on a mattress directly on the floor in a child-safe room so that once he can crawl, he is free to get up and explore the room"

I give her until a week after he's really learnt to crawl, and she'll have bought a playpen

pmsl James

I always feel vaguely uncomfortable with these men who have to get SO involved, it just feels a bit like "look at me! pay attention to me! I'm The Father! I know what a cervix is!" yes, you are the father, and you play a very important role, but you aren't in pain, it isn't coming out of your vagina, you aren't the star of the show!

That room is both pretentious and dull as shit. I pity the baby who has to spend its days in a beige and white room with nothing colourful or beautiful to look at. Oh but wait, it's probably going to be flashcarded to fuck during the day so at night it'll be glad of a dull space where it doesn't have to be "unique" and "precious" and "gifted" and "different". Fuck me.

I can't wait to see their faces when it's in total disarray, the books ripped to shreds, the pictures pulled down, with the baby wearing the potty as a hat whilst licking the pissmat. And why do they even OWN a potty and a mini-dressing table etc when their baby wasn't even born yet? Odd.

They have faaaaaar too much time on their hands.

Flibbertygibbet, love the idea of a 'lying baby'.....

....no mum, it wasn't me who pulled the dishes off the table, I can't even crawl yet!

The mother says on the blog "For both of us, the experience was overwhelmingly positive - for my part, I literally felt no pain - just extreme pressure."

I'm surprised the dad can remember everything in so much detail. I suspect ny DH's birth log might just go "WWWWWWWWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH a baby!"

I adore the bedroom. I would love to have that level of imagination and commitment to the cause. Clearly if I achieved a room like that it would be to view from the door only and couldn't be contaminated by persons using it.

OMG.
That is scary. I feel sorry for little Finnian. He is his parent's project. How will they cope when they can't control everything?
It is quite disturbing tbh.

I love the tiny mat she's made for under the potty - do you think she'll start putting newspaper down after a few weeks of attempting EC?

Don't most boys have a great firing range?

"I thought Cher just might not recognize that we were different."

I can't speak for laughing.

Those dishes are for putting a hairbrush and tissues in when he is older then?
How lovely to plan for a baby that won't pull the dishes down or shred tissues all over the place.

thats where I went wrong, obviously.

And the pictures at child height. Will she raise them up a couple of inches each year? Why aren't they on the ceiling for a lying baby to look at them?

Nice birthing story. It's good that he wanted so much to be involved and be responsible for some of the process. I can't imagine how difficult it must be for partners going through this as it's TOTALLY out of their hands.

The diaper-free methods... reminds me of my mother getting all excited after hearing something about potty training children as soon as they can walk. Of course it's different, but my response was the same!

Oh dear gawd, thank goodness no-one is taking all that seriously... Beautiful room, not like any childs room I've ever seen, but then the litttle bugger hadn't even been born when the pics were taken!

Nice room!

But where is she going to put all the plastic brightly-coloured battery-powered musical tat?

Ah bless! let's hope she doesn't have a breakdown when the outer world starts intruding.

Here is the link

It's actually a craft blog I read regularly, but the owner recently gave birth and the father has written an amazing account.

For those of you that are inclined to alternative teaching methods, you may also find the child's Montessori room interesting, or be totally fascinated/laugh your head off at her intended parenting philosophy, which includes 'diaper free infant hygiene'. Yes, they are American.