Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To ask what you naively swore you wouldn't do when raising your child - but ended up doing?

129 replies

m4rdybum · 27/01/2019 13:47

Lighthearted really, but curious Grin

When pregnant, we bought a new born bottle set which had a dummy included. Silly old me said "oh well we'll have it for emergencies but I really don't think we'll use it - they're awful don't you know".

DD is now 13 days old and has had her dummy from the first night Grin Because it settles her and gives mummy and daddy a bit of quiet.

OP posts:
sobeyondthehills · 27/01/2019 14:33

I think the only thing was I wanted to homeschool.

Then I actually did the research into it.

HalfBloodPrincess · 27/01/2019 14:34

Yep, no screens here too.

Ds is 18 months and knows the password to my phone and how to put YouTube/games on by himself.

Fantababy · 27/01/2019 14:34

TV. I swore she wouldn't see a screen till she was 2. Now my 20 month old's best friend is Peppa Pig.

SaturdayNext · 27/01/2019 14:36

CalMeVito, did you seriously think I meant real ones? How many children do you know who play with real swords and guns?

Casschops · 27/01/2019 14:40

Cloth nappies liners and bucket were bought. Two weeks and several changes of clothes in a day due to leaking the child was in Aldi nappies. He now at age two still drinks from a bottle at bed time, sleeps with a dummy and watches Peppa pig on his own lap top. Cracking!

m4rdybum · 27/01/2019 14:42
Grin

I started off as one of the breastapo when I was 4 months pregnant, adamant we'd be EBF until 6 months. By 8 months pregnant I had decided combi feeding with formula would work best for my sanity.

By 4 days in I'd stopped breastfeeding completely and gone full formula. Bit disappointed but that's for another thread Confused

OP posts:
fleshmarketclose · 27/01/2019 14:43

I thought I'd be strict and my word would be law but I didn't realise how much I would love them and how easy it was to overlook stuff and so I've been a pushover. That said they have turned out pretty well despite my being a softie which is probably down to luck and them being really easygoing.

SummerStrong · 27/01/2019 14:44

Oh god I’d be a brilliant mother of my kids weren’t around

Grin yes this!

Vixxxy · 27/01/2019 14:45

Screens. My kids were never to have screens til at least teenage years and using screens was just lazy parenting.

They were also only going to have 1 chocolate bar a week, and never eat anything that was not homecooked Hmm

I was the perfect parent, until I had kids.

Vixxxy · 27/01/2019 14:47

Also yeah, dummies as mentioned. Took 4 years to get it off her too..however we turned to dummies to see us through colic tbh. Dummy, and sitting with the hoover on for 3 hours per night..between the hours of 7.05 and 9.15. Which I still find bizarre, she was more accurate than our clock!

pictish · 27/01/2019 14:48

Of course he won’t be, Susan. Of course he won’t be.

(Courtesy of Sanctimommy)

To ask what you naively swore you wouldn't do when raising your child - but ended up doing?
oopslateagain · 27/01/2019 14:49

I said my DD would never have millions of Christmas presents, just one big one and a couple for the stockings.

FF to her second Christmas, spent at my parents as we are a military family and had been overseas for the first one. I'm an only child and DD is the only grandchild so they went a bit mad (admittedly, I was so thrilled to be back in the UK and have access to 'normal' shops that I went overboard too).

You literally could not see the living room floor for presents. Literally. I have photos.

m4rdybum · 27/01/2019 14:49

Dummy, and sitting with the hoover on for 3 hours per night..between the hours of 7.05 and 9.15. Which I still find bizarre, she was more accurate than our clock!

Wow! Thankfully we have a Ewan the Dream Sheep which makes a hoover noise!

OP posts:
FranklinTheCat · 27/01/2019 14:51

I was never going to bribe my child with food. Then I had a child.

God, is a packet of chocolate buttons an incentive sometimes!

Whatififall · 27/01/2019 14:55

My child would never sleep in my bed. I remember rolling my eyes at a colleague when I was pregnant as he had had to buy a super king size bed to ensure there was room for his children to get in with them.

DD is 8. She has been in with me every single night since she was 2.

Sparklingbrook · 27/01/2019 14:56

Co sleeping. Adamant about that. Until I was almost hallucinating with lack of sleep.

Bottle feed. No HCP had told me breastfeeding would be anything but a bed of roses and a beautiful bonding experience. Ha!

No dummies was one of the only thngs I managed to keep to.

UpTree · 27/01/2019 14:56

saturday I don’t know any child who plays with knitting needles either Shock

Juells · 27/01/2019 14:57

Ah, how would we survive without dummies, no matter what we claim before we have babies? Grin I got to the stage where I fell asleep with my hand in the cot keeping the dummy jammed in her mouth - she'd let it fall out then bawl for it. Ex and I were living with PiL, and MiL - who was very anti-dummy - couldn't understand why the baby started crying every time she entered the room (as we ripped the dummy out of the baby's mouth). MiL took it personally.

AnnDerry · 27/01/2019 14:58

Dummies.
Both DC bf until almost 3 years old - never interfered with it, luckily.
We were careful with their use, but not that careful (there are photos of DC2 with one at Disney which make me cringe a bit as DC is very tall and looked at least 3 in photo, when not yet 2)
It hasn't done DC1 any harm though - is very articulate talker doing an Arts subject at Oxbridge in spite of my appalling parenting.

Intohellbutstayingstrong · 27/01/2019 14:58

I genuinely don’t find the post about their child’s American accent from You Tube videos funny

Oh chill out.

For me:
Dummies
Bottle feeding
Jars of baby food
TV
Sugar

Sparklingbrook · 27/01/2019 15:02

DS2 didn't watch proper TV. Oh no. He watched this on video. Grin Blush

To ask what you naively swore you wouldn't do when raising your child - but ended up doing?
CallMeVito · 27/01/2019 15:02

SaturdayNext
my kids (not toddler obviously) learn sword fighting in their martial arts club. They have also gone hunting very young with their grand-fathers.

So playing with weapons, of course not, but not being in contact with them? not the same thing.

It's just the way you described it was funny.

brizzledrizzle · 27/01/2019 15:04

I had a list as long as my arm of things I wasn't going to do. Only one remains kept to.

Juells · 27/01/2019 15:04

fleshmarketclose
I thought I'd be strict and my word would be law but I didn't realise how much I would love them and how easy it was to overlook stuff and so I've been a pushover.

I was the other way around - fondly imagined I'd be a wonderful earthmother type, like some friends were. Then when DD1 came along we had a total clash of personalities - she's very precise, and would want to spend hours tying her shoelaces properly when I couldn't see that it mattered. We butted heads all through her childhood - she'd say things to me like "It only takes a second to fold a towel" Confused

Racecardriver · 27/01/2019 15:04

They would never ever eat McDonalds or watch football