to think there is a motherly instinct that kicks in?

[wheresthepopcorn]

Long story short. A little while ago outside Sainsburys my friend was waiting with my 1 year old (in pushchair) outside the Sainsburys while I was finishing up in the queue. When I met up with her outside I noticed a very angry looking (snarling) medium sized dog who was flailing with owner (quite a big muscular guy so not sure why he was having any trouble) struggling to control this dog with his leash tied to a pole. I knew he would break loose and when he did I leapt to push the stroller away from his path, unfortunately colliding my friend's foot in the process (not very hard, although apologised profusely as I felt silly). The dog went off and did not land up where my child was. I think my friend thought I was being paranoid. I think it was motherly instinct kicking in as this dog looked pretty agressive to me and was straining on the lead towards us. Was I being paranoid or is there such a thing as motherly instinct? If so, have you experienced it?

There is something weird that happens when you are looking after a small baby. I should think it is probably parental. I noticed two aspects - that if ds woke up and cried i would be violently and completely awake, despite being extremely tired; and as I was moving around the house with ds, my head would fill with horrible images of e.g. him falling and his head being cracked on the floor tiles, causing me to hold him as if he were made of glass. These things both faded as he grew and were pretty much gone by the time he was talking. IMO that's parental instinct.

Takingiteasy at saving your wine.

Yep, can definitely relate to all of this. I remember as soon as DD1 was born, I KNEW I would put myself between her and danger (which is my case involves swatting wasps away from her instead of running around and squealing which is what my wasp-phobic pre-dcs self would do).

For a while after she was born, I couldn't watch anything on tv where children or animals came to any harm. DCs are now 11, 9 and 6 and I'm pretty much "normal" again, so it must be a baby/toddler thing. I guess with older dcs it changes into loving them deep down and wanting the best for them even though they're horrid a lot of the time.

I've started looking after my friend's 3yo DS one afternoon a week and I've had to get used to watching him more than I would my own now they're older. Also I tend to be even more vigilent with other people's dcs, as you don't know them as well and don't know what they might do (like jump into a swimming pool a second after I gave him a chocolate biscuit, then crying because it's all soggy and he doesn't want to eat it ). Mine did many things, but never that.