What bad parenting habits have you got into that you don't like admitting to?

[luckiestgirlintheworld]

Get it off your chest! No judgement here.

I let DS (18 months) watch/play with the iPad during most meals as it makes mealtimes so much easier.

...

DS (20 months) still has milk in a bottle before bed.

Major faux pas apparently, but do I care? No. Does he sleep through the night? Yes.

Oh yes, I'm crap at tooth brushing too. After milk etc I can't be arsed playing the toothbrush game!

And DS probably has way too many biscuits and not enough lentil casserole.

I'm far too inclined to use food as a reward. Am really trying to knock that one on the head before they end up fat. Eldest is as skinny as skinny can be and is going to be fine, but I'm convinced the youngest is going to need watching more closely - he's takes after my (fat/easily gain weight) side of the family. He's only just turned 4 but, still.

They probably have more screen time than strictly needed. But I do insist it gets turned off for a good proportion of their time. It goes back on when I cannot stand the arguing and whining for one.more.second.

I work full time (and can get back late) and I miss my boys a lot. Have been know to let them stay up till 9 because I want to see them. Not often, but it's not really to their benefit is it?!

I let him eat chocolate cake and have totally lost the battle at mealtimes and use the iPad to keep him at the table. I hate myself for it but I rationalise it by thinking at least he is eating and that feels more important.

I also let him nap in the day so he can spend the evening with his Dad and we all go to bed at 9pm. I know this can't happen once he goes to Primary but for the moment I love the fact that he sees his Daddy every night instead of just the weekends.

My back up plan if dd is crying and I can't get her to stop is the big balloon episode from Peppa pig (she's 20 weeks ) works every time! As soon as the music starts she has a big smile! Wee monkey

All of them. If there is a bad parenting habit, then I'm into it. Really not sure how my DS has reached 9 to be honest. Definitely don't know how he got to be so kind and caring!

Putting tomato sauce on food that really shouldn't have it on in order for it to get eaten. Too much telly or telly on in bedroom (actually it was Disney videos when I comitted this crime) until they fell asleep.

Sippy cups for far too long (got fed up of spillages), not bathing them sometimes as I thought another night wouldn't hurt, or even changing their jammies every night, sometimes in the winter I just couldn't get everything dry and sometimes they had the same ones for three nights (they were older by this time so no wet nappies or anything).

I am going back a few years but I can imagine iPads would have been used if they had existed.

Hair washing. DS (3) hates it so much that I only bother to fight him to do it every 2 weeks

TV is on lots. Toddler watches iPad in bed in morning while I feed baby and laze around if able

More apple juice than I'd like...

The whole family only brushes their teeth once a day. I'm a dentist.
DS2 2.10 has a bottle of milk before bed. See above.
I only change poo nappies (apart from DS3, 5 weeks).
DS2 does not eat veg unless hidden. Does not eat fruit except bananas. I am doing nothing about this.
I didn't breast feed because it seemed like hard work.
Both the older boys' diet mostly consists of orange bread crumbs.
All the tv / iPad stuff. But not while eating, one of the few lines I drew. DS2's first intelligible phrase was "bang and the dirt is gone" !

Allowing a large dose of TV (Peppa or a film) every day.
Using processed food a couple of times a week just because it's easier- not because of fussy eating
Bribery just so I can get out the house on time

I tend to spoil ds quite a lot (expecting baby number 2 and experiencing guilt that he won't be centre of attention anymore). I vowed my children wouldn't be spoilt but I just love seeing his little face light up.

I feel guilty about not seeing fish fingers and oven chips as fast food - that counts as cooking in my house. Ready meals. Pizza once a week usually.

Constant swearing under my breath (or out loud if only the baby is in the room) eg forfuckssakejustfuckingshutthefuckingfuckupforficefuckingminutesyouredoingmyheadinnnnnn!!! Muttered probably not quietly enough.

Liberal use of ice cream, chocolate, biscuits etc (daily if not twice daily)

Several hours of CBeebies and/or iPad a day instead of the educational craft type activities I imagine everyone else is doing all the time.

This was not how I thought it would be!

Bribery. All day every day. DD is 2.3 and it's the only way to get her to do anything. This afternoon, I had to wave a pack of rice cakes in front of her to lure her away from nursery so I could get her home!

Up until preschool my eldest ate his lunch in front of the TV. He ate more that way. I have tried to ban screens at dinner, but sometimes it isn't worth the fight.
Ketchup is always on stand by. It's amazing how many foods suddenly become edible with red dippy sauce.
I let ds2 oversleep at nap time if I can. He's a pain in the evening and over night anyway. Heck, an extra half an hour wont make a difference. Except it does.
I bribe ds1 with skittles and I have percy pig sweets on standby for ds2.
They both had squash from early on. Neither of the little sods would drink water, no matter what I tried. Ds2 wouldn't even drink milk until quite recently, he's 18 months now.
I have to regularly co-sleep with ds2 to keep the peace and I absolutely unequivocally HATE it. He's such a terrible sleeper, so noisy and twitchy. I just can't make myself sleep train him, he's too darned cute.
I have given up on punishments sometimes if they've been cute.
Oh and Ds1 has taken the same banana into school every day this week. They insist he has to have fruit, but wont make him eat it. I'm not going to spend money on bananas to throw them away. That reminds me... Ripe!

I copied an idea from my friend that's ingenious ( well it is to me) she used to have battles getting her dd to bed as she always wanted one more cuddle, one more drink, one more episode of peppa pig etc. Any time limits were met with tantrums. Her dd was always desperate to go on her iPad but she restricted her to a vtech thingy. One evening in frustration she gave in and yelled at her to just take it and go to bed. She went up twenty minutes later and she was sound asleep with the iPad lying next to her. So now that's what I let my 6 yo dd do occasionally. she'll play on my iPhone or iPad in bed and I don't give her a time limit. I don't do it all the time but when I do It gives me some peace and quiet and she falls asleep within 20 minutes. If I gave her a limit she'd be trying to negotiate with me and getting het up. This way works. Don't knock it. Try it. :o

Too much screen time here and also accidentally co-sleeping because bed times were a giant pain in the arse and I was in the early stages of a pregnancy and dog-tired in the evenings. Truth be told, seeing as the DS doesn't snore like DH, it's not too much of a problem!!

Ah yes - all the screen time/sleeping type confessions remind me of something super 'unMN' I did once. DS was around 22 months, still in a cot and we had a massive grown up dinner party. He was generally a reliable sleeper from 7pm, but guess who wouldn't settle on this random one off occasion? So, to save our dinner party we set up the iPad in his room, out of reach but so he could see it from the cot playing 200 episodes of Peppa Pig one after the other. I kept checking on him and it wasn't until 10.45 that he finally went to sleep after a massive PP marathon.

I'm sure this would prompt a flaming on here, but you know what, it did no harm whatsoever. (He's 3.7 now).

I often tell DS it's time for bed and claim it's 8pm when the clock actually says 6.30 it means an early morning but it's worth it for a child free evening

And have sometimes frightened him out of tantrumming eg "quick be quiet your teddy is looking really mad"

Oh so many! Both 21 month old DD and 10 week old DS are watching Timmy time right now.
I give them sweets pretty much every day (not the 10 week old!)
My nearly 7 year old is allowed fizzy pop sometimes.
They run round half naked most of the day because we can't be arsed getting dressed.
I leave bedrooms a tip until I can't get them to bed because I'm tripping up over toys.
If I'm running late on a school morning I will just chuck them a cereal bar for breakfast.
We playfight. Fists and feet flying.
They watch films that arent for their age range. (Jurassic park, Godzilla, superheroes)
I'm sure there's more.

DS still has 2 naps even though he doesn't really need the afternoon one any more. I just need the time to myself!

And I still rock him to sleep for his naps. (He's 15 months)

And still give him milk in a bottle.

Oh and I let him watch telly too (that's the one I feel most guilty about)

I don't actually feel guilty about any of this stuff but I know Mumsnet disapproves of loads of it:

Lots of TV, even as babies
Greggs sausage rolls and fruit shoots all the time
most food is from the freezer
5 year old plays out unsupervised
all three (1, 3, 5) play in the back garden unsupervised
sometimes I nap with the youngest
leave them all locked in the car when I go into the shop
bribery
drinking while in sole charge of them

I'm sure there's more

Hairbrush, I sometimes when dd is having a screaming fit or being particularly perverse ring the house phone from my mobile and answer it going "I'm so sorry officer I'll tell her. No! No! Please don't come round. She'll be good I swear!" Try it. It works. :o