To ask what you've done in the past as a parent and now cringe about

[CherryChasingDotMuncher]

We've just celebrated our son's first birthday, he's our 2nd baby. We had a lovely chocolate cake made for him and of course plated him up a little slice. DH reminded me of our PFB DD's first birthday. We did the same - had a chocolate cake made for her 'party' (parents and siblings came round) which we dished out to everyone, except DD. Then we produced a sugar free disgusting muffin for the birthday girl herself as we didn't want her having any chocolate until she was much older what a pair of wankers. She's 4 now and today she had 3 Freddo's.

We also took her to the doctors when she was eight months old - because she shivered. It was January in northern England, and we'd just returned from living abroad, in the desert. Idiots

[Snowysky20009]

shivered that made me laugh

[fessmess]

Didn't like my three year old saying "fart". Got to 15 and called me a fucking cunt.

[NoIdeaWhatToSay]

Probably too many to mention, including taking half of our house with us to my DSis house when she was babysitting for the day. Honestly, I'm talking travel cot, high chair, frozen food, Perfect Prep machine, and a hugely detailed schedule. DH had to travel in his car behind us because I couldn't fit it all in the car with me and DS. I'm so embarrassed and DSis clearly thinks I'm mad because it has never been mentioned. I'd die if she ever brought it up.

[Woollylane]

Your post made me smile, however, I've got two dc and I don't think I ever really did pfb.

These threads always make me feel like a bit of a shit parent that doesn't care because I can't think of anything!!

[MaisieDuke]

When I took my PFB to sainsburys in the pram.
Sainsburys was literally 2 minutes down the road.
I packed a full changing bag with extra nappy and vest and babygro incase they has an accident.
It WAS LITERALLY 2 MINS FROM MY HOUSE.
I could have gone home to change a nappy.

[RagamuffinAndFidget]

I made a sugar free cake (sweetened with apple sauce - not envy!) with cream cheese frosting for PFB DS1’s 1st birthday. It was not good. He was not allowed sweets or chocolate until he was well past 2yo.

DS2 (third child) was pretty much weaned on Kinder Eggs and biscuits!

The thing that makes me cringe the most though is reading back over old Facebook posts from the early days of parenting. My God, I thought I knew it all. It has taken 8.5 years and three kids for me to realise that I actually know fuck all and probably never will

[Woollylane]

Tell a lie, with my youngest I would get super mad if anyone held him and left perfume smell on him. I never said anything but I was fuming inside. I'm not actually cringing about that though I'm still a bit annoyed.

[IShouldntPostBut]

Didn't like my three year old saying "fart". Got to 15 and called me a fucking cunt.

I would have told her that she just used up one of life's freebies. And that from now on if she used either of those words when speaking to me she was going to get slapped. How hard would depend...

[Woollylane]

I thought I knew it all ragamuffin they sent me my youngest to show me I definitely didn't!

[LastOneDancing]

The other day I found a word document on my computer entitled 'DS1 routine' and it goes into minute detail what my PFB 5 month old liked and how to do it.

I wrote it for my parents - I think I was going to the hair dressers for 3h or something.

Morto. I closed the document quickly before I died of shame.

[dancinfeet]

Gave my baby (at approx 16 months) fruit shoots and mcdonalds, because that's what little kids eat and drink, right? (or so I thought, because that's what everyone I knew fed their kids as a treat). Not every day, but still. It was our treat, usually once or twice a week. Now I am mortified at the thought of 22 year old me feeding my baby a load of salty / sugary crap. Despite that, I tried very hard not to let her have sweets or chocolate or fizzy drinks. She thought that raisins were sweets until she went to school, which was rather counter productive as they still contain sugar and I let her drink fruit shoots anyway! Surprisingly, at 18 she has fantastic teeth and only one small filling (from where she fell and chipped a tooth).
I cringe though at a lot of my parenting decisions from when my children were small, some days I wonder how they have made it into their teens! I hope that somewhere along the way, I learned to be a better parent than I was back then, young naive thing that I was.

[Kittenshoes]

What's wrong with not wanting her to eat sugar? I wasn't allowed it 'til I was about 9 and never developed a sweet tooth because of it. I'll probably get flamed for this but I don't see why toddlers need sugar which is bad for their health and teeth and they wouldn't even know it existed if they weren't given it.

Not trying to start a debate though! I don't judge either way and am a believer of everything in moderation! I just don't get why you would cringe at doing something lovely for your DD!

[bedtimestories]

I wouldn't let my first watched tv until they were 2yo, had to relax that a bit with my second!

[KERALA1]

An nct friend wrote instructions for her in laws when they looked after her pfb which included instructions on how to cross the road. The in laws were recently retired doctors.

Dh made all visitors to newborn wash hands thoroughly no exceptions because they came on the tube. I sort of see his point but I cringed at the time

[Timemachinetoast]

When my mum babysat my DD for the first 10 time I gave her a notepad to write down what times DS had been fed, how many ounces of milk, times nappy changed, times asleep etc.... She did it as well!
I also left full written instructions... Ya know because I'm sure my mother's experience raising 4 children wasn't sufficient enough..

[NotEnoughCushions]

I cringe about so many things...

The sugar-free carrot cake for the 1st birthday party - everyone politely nodded and said how lovely it was - it was truly bogging

Banishing visitors at 4:55pm because DC had to be settled quietly and without distractions for tea at 5pm

Watching endless 'Baby Mozart/Beethoven" DVDs to instill a love of classical music in DC (so far there's no sign that it's had any effect)

Turning down invitations because they didn't work with DC's naps

Writing an instruction manual for DH when I went out for the day (just for the record he managed perfectly well and has done ever since)

There must be more. To the outside world I must have come across as being batshit but at the time I genuinely thought I was doing the right thing.

[Cockmagic]

I was 18 and took my MPF out in the (mild) winter in a vest, t shirt, jumper, cardigan, snowsuit and jacket...

She was sweating and stripped her down 5 mins later!

[Greensleeves]

spent 40 minutes gently and patiently reasoning with 2.5yo ds1 until he agreed to accept a packet of nuts and raisins instead of the bright red lolly a lady in a charity shop had given him while I wasn't looking

[RagamuffinAndFidget]

bedtime I had a ban on TV too! And then when DS1 was finally allowed to watch it I spent a long time making sure he only watched documentaries and educational programmes DD watched it from a much younger age, and I am pretty sure that most of DS2’s first words were the names of programmes that are available on Netflix...

[Greensleeves]

Oh, and I used to drive dh nuts singing endless nursery rhymes and folk songs to my bump. I wanted him to know my voice. When I was in hospital with pre-eclampsia and diabetes and mahoosive, I was singing "One, Two, Buckle My Shoe" to my bump, and I got to "Nine, Ten, A Good Fat Hen" and dh muttered "You're a good fat hen". It was the rudest thing he had ever said to me and I had a proper meltdown, tears and everything

[MrsMaxwell]

Stopped anyone giving DS1 toy guns, took a gun off a toy action man he was given.

He made a gun for himself out of Lego.

He’s now 20 and loves COD but very gentle in RL

[Dinosaursdontgrowontrees]

I once slightly warmed a slice of melon in the microwave for my pfb.

[clarinsgirl]

When PFB DS started nursery he was only 7 months old so too young for their menu so I sent in his food (organic of course!). The food was accompanied with a menu sheet. I cringe.

[ProudAunty2nine]

One of ours was having a fourth birthday party, her first since starting school so .. hall booked cake made invitations sent party food all full of sugar, plans going well, just time to get the birthday girl dressed in her party dress and I can recall vividly 21 years after the event her sobbing and crying not to wear the party dress and I just couldnt get it and kept insisting about this damn dress .... shes the party girl right party dress etc ... NO eventually and I do mean eventually through the tears the penny dropped ... she wanted to wear leggings and t shirt like her school friend would be doing, We still laugh about now shes 25 and lives in jeans, was a lesson learnt for me though.

[KNain]

Hahaha Ragamuffin - one of my DS's first words was 'Netflix'