Let's hear your "why didn't I think of this before" parenting moments

[geekymommy]

DD (will be 3 in August) was home sick yesterday. She kept asking us to give her medicine, as she does not yet understand why taking too much paracetamol is bad. We had been trying to explain to her that too much medicine is bad. Then yesterday evening, DH used the mouth syringe we were using to give her medicine to give her a little paracetamol mixed with water. (She can drink medicine from a cup, but didn't want to this time) After she finished that, she asked for more. He gave her plain water in the syringe, which she happily took. I thought "why didn't we think of this before?" It would have worked a lot better than trying to explain to a sick toddler at 2am why taking too much medicine is bad.

Let's hear some of your parenting moments like this.

Bathing babies in the sink was a revelation.

Bananas-
if you are doling them out to more than one child,write the child's name on each in biro. Then everyone knows which lazy little beggar has dropped their skin behind the sofa.....

cheap creamy type bathroom cleaner can get wax crayon off walls, use a dry cloth

if your child has a comfort blanket, cut it in half and keep the spare bit at home if you take it on holiday

keep baby nail scissors in your handbag. We have had great fun cutting things out of magazines and making up our own stories when stuck in traffic jams, waiting rooms etc

don't worry too much about your teenagers- they actually do want to do things right most of the time. Concentrate more on making them feel loved as it's normal to make mistakes

When your dc are driving you bonkers, think are they really being very naughty, or just incredibly inconvenient. It's often the later and I find it helps me keep things in perspective.

Have a large odds box to fill with random toys, art work, odd socks, hairbrush, or whatever else has accumulated in your living room. That way you can tidy with minimum effort and just sort the box when you actually get some time (or it fills up).

Always prepare as much as possible for the following day when your DC have gone to bed. You'll thank yourself in the morning.

playing doctors, hairdressers and teachers (you are the pupil) are brilliant games when you're tired and hungover

And for cradle cap type rashes in older children - 2 weeks of head and shoulders.

realising that any important skill i wanted them to learn had to be done at a quiet time and not the moment of crisis. eg getting dressed - not good to practise this when rushing to leave in morning frenzy! rather spend time on it on a free afternoon (which usefully also helps to fill a time slot there... )

My neighbour said this to me once and it was a real revelation/lightbulb moment. She was a pretty miserable and unpleasant woman all round and a dire neighbour but for this one gem I will be forever grateful...

'Sometimes they cry because they are just cross'

I had always assumed that if dd (pfb) cried it was because there was something wrong. Never occured to me that she might just be a bit annoyed, I was desperately trying to get dd into a daytime nap at the time and I would put her in her cot and she would howl. After neighbour said this I left her a couple of times and she settled into a nap beautifully.

Every now and again when they are small one of them will invariably get hold of a pack of wet wipes and empty them out all over the room.

I used to try and stuff them back in the packet, now I throw them on the kitchen floor, put on a pair of flip flops and give the floor a clean (this only works if you are a bit of a slattern who never gets the chance to actually mop the floor very often!).

Method Bathroom Cleaner gets wax crayon off flat TV screens.

Another good one.

If you have to get up really early to catch a flight, put the kids to bed in their clothes the night before.

I'm not sure why baby medicines that are not dye-free exist. I used to buy them, figuring I'm not worried about my baby getting artificial colours (I lived on a diet of artificially coloured food as a kid, and I'm pretty sure the problems I have don't have anything to do with that). One day, I was in a shop that only had a dye-free version of the medicine I needed for DD. I realized that giving her dye-free medicine was much less fraught than giving her medicine with dyes- I didn't have to care nearly as much if she spit some out on her clothes (which she did, all the time). I'm still not worried about her getting artificial colours, but I only buy dye-free medicine now. I'm really not sure why there is cherry-flavoured baby medicine with red dye in it- that stuff can really stain clothes.

I'm almost going to have another baby just so's I can try the vest thing! Am gutted that I never realised.

My eureka moments:
ALWAYS have a plastic pot of raisins/cheerios and a pencil sharpener in your handbag. Those lazy sods at pizza express/harvester/insert preferred eating establishment never take time to sharpen the colouring pencils. You'd think they have real work to do.
NEVER assume that if you can't smell anything then they haven't pooed. I attempted a stand-up nappy change earlier today and paid dearly.

Brilliant post definitely.

My eureka moment came early on in parenting from this board.

No need to sterilise. Anything. Ever.

Revolutionary. I bet I can find the original thread too.

here

10 years old!

That they will only ever be that small once. And perhaps that dependent on you too. I try to remember this when I just want a bit of me time and realise it will soon pass and I would miss that moment if Im not careful.

That housework can wait til DC is in bed. They dont see the mess although I do and it drives me nuts! and it can be tidied in a matter of minutes but the minutes you lose with hem cant be got back

Controlled crying

I agree with you minipie

And that at the end of the day, as long as they're alive, you've done a good job.

Hmmm, rethinking my last comment. That only applies to small babies and the attitude we adopted when we had DS1. We didn't put any pressure on ourselves to parent a certain way, but if he was alive at the end of the day we were golden.

Slightly harder to apply that to a 3 1/2 year old and a 13 month old though. Now I think it's - "as long as they're alive at the end of the day, and you can make them giggle before bed, then we're golden"

That thinking 'I can't wait for this stage to pass' is ok.

Trying to treasure and hold every moment is exhausting.

Mine came when I had DC2 and I realised that I wasn't a perfect mother, DC1 was just a really easy baby

I always made my formula in the morning to store for the whole day, for months I would level and count 20 scoops, one day I realized I should just weigh the stuff. Much quicker to make the jug of formula when I found out what 20 scoops of formula should weigh.
I agree with kiwi on the nipping it in the bud thing, the seemingly harder way for a while is often the easiest in the long run, eg not pacifying and distracting whining leads to less attention seeking whining and not occupying too much in boring situations leads to dc with an ability to cope with these.

The spare spoon trick - gives a 6mo something to concentrate and play with while you get the puree into their mouth rather than literally everywhere but!

That ds doesnt have to be awake to change his nappy! he doesnt have dirty nappies at night anymore but would often wake up soaked, change, then be awake for an hour delighted with himself. Even if changing him wakes him a wee bit, he'll stay sleepy enough that its not a big deal (in the course of his night of waking uncountable times to feed and go back to sleep... )

Buy a roll of Velcro. Comes in handy for attaching items to buggies that have a bar rather than handles. It can also be used to keep trouser legs tucked in to wellies or boots and also stops the footwear falling off.

Baby led weaning. Realizing I could just give the baby regular food was like a miracle.

I gave up on matching socks long ago. :o

Not a parenting one, but my husband and I are really messy cooks and are always sloshing things in the burner pans. (Is that what they're called? The things under the burners.) Anyway I'd scrub them out hatefully until I realized that they could go in the dishwasher. THAT was a eureka moment for sure.