Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Reference Collection

Anyone would think we don't trust ourselves at this parenting game.
Or I don't anyway.
(Lo and behold- those sticky notes are tabbing the paragraphs headed 'Dealing With Tantrums')

Judging by this growing genre,
someone esle must be buying into this (lucrative) crap too though!

I don't even want to think about the volume of searches I've instigated in Mummy meltdown mode, Mummy needs help now mode or Mummy wants to throw a doctor/health professional through a window mode.

So, where is the section titled -
 What Do You Think?
You Are, After All, The Parent.


Do you trust yourself?
Really trust yourself?

Shar :-)

4 comments:

MultipleMum said...

Gosh I have had a LOT of books over time too. I got rid of them a couple of years ago (gave them away to unsuspecting new Mums!) because I reckon we need to trust our own instincts more. Sometimes I wish I still had a few (like when Dew Drop won't sleep) but I figure "this too shall pass" and I plod on. I reckon you are right when you say 'you are, after all the parent!' You should collect a tidy sum on eBay when you are ready to let them go x

Mum on the Run said...

Hee hee.
As the sticky notes show, I'm not quite ready to cash em in yet!
I must say I didn't get too far into Tizzie Hall's 'Save Our Sleep' before ditching that one though. At every page turn I felt even more like a failure!
:-)

All For Love said...

You know something funny, when my mother's group were all pulling their hair out in those first dizzying months... well I was pulling my hair out too... but anyway, they would quote verbatim from all kinds of books on sleep, feeding, solid foods, toilet training. I had one book, Up the Duff by Kaz Cooke. That was it. I read that for a laugh and because my babe was on the inside, I had no idea what was happening with him. Then a friend of mine leant me Save Our Sleep when my 2nd son was born, because he wasn't sleeping through by the 8 week mark and she was sure I needed some advice on how to handle it. I read 2 pages and never opened that book again. I just went with my instincts and at the 10 week mark, he slept through.
I do however, google at times, but that ends up just making me crazy. I don't trust myself entirely, lord no, but I don't know if can necessarily rely on advice from a book/website/chat forum either.
It's too easy for us to get ourselves into a pickle these days... TOO MUCH INFORMATION!
Trust your instincts Shar :o)

Being Me said...

G'day Shar, awesome short post and love the photos LOL! Hmmm.... I started to head down that path, but realised very quickly it was taking me away from staying tuned in to my child. If I could make time to read a book, I could make time to be more present in any moment with her. Once I began doing that (she was around 2 at the time... we never had 'terrible two's' but we really did have a threenager, oh my heavens!), I noticed something amazing: I felt confident enough to stand my ground - calmly, without losing it at her losing it! - even in public. EVEN around other mums! It used to make me panic sometimes inside, but I knew that in the end, she and I really *knew* (know) each other well enough that me being firm on something, for eg., did not mean I didn't love her. And she also learned really fast that those antics, whether behind closed doors or out and about, would attract the same thing from me. So being consistent, PERSISTENT and firm, fair and loving has gotten us through to 5.

I pray my patience is still around when she's 15... ;) Good luck. The books: biggest con, if you ask me. Yes of course they are fully of great info, accurate info for sure... But none of them have ever met your child (or you!) so how can they be more expert than your child's own mother?

There IS one book on my bookshelf, called Intuitive Mother. It's the only one I recommend, by an author called Lyn McPherson. Now to that one I'd say, Check it out!