I shouldn't complain as he does sleep well at the moment (We are in a good cycle of sleep for now). But my oh my, it's incredible just how our little toddler's engagement in occupations affects the rest of the family's ability to engage in any different activities. Good sleep cycles feel like winning the lottery - or at least what I imagine winning the lottery would feel like; initial euphoria, followed by counting your blessings, followed by complacency of a new normal. Am I truly appreciating the opportunity to sleep through most of the night? (The fact that I am writing this post at 10:34pm on a Friday night suggests not). That's exactly it, I have become complacent in the idea that teh opportunity to have a semi-decent night's sleep will be there for a while - but that is unlikely to be the case.
So instead I am filling my 'opportune sleep moments' with other occupations (writing articles / blog posts/ catching up on football matches etc etc....).
DAY CARE TALES & TIPS:
Whilst attending daycare is not a fully new experience for us and our little one, enrolling our child as a permanent recruit to a day care centre has been a new experience. I've certainly have had a few funny thoughts about the day care process for parents and figured other parents must have had similar experiences or thoughts, surely? So lets examine the day care process as a new parent.
1) Administration: How much paperwork do you think is required to obtain a day care placement? More than you might think. Ok, there is the standard personal details form, a medical form and payment form - all pretty standard stuff right?!
Then you have the 'child preference form' written in the first person.... I (insert child name) like (list as appropriate), dislike (list as appropriate). My favorite things to do are (list as appropriate), and my favorite people are (list as appropriate)... I soon discovered that joking or being humorous on this form might not be as funny as it first seemed - as it turns out there are good reasons for this information being requested.
I learned that the following humorous response was not likely to be well received:
I (*****) like crying, peeing & crapping when its least convenient for you, dislike wearing nappies and strongly dislike gin with lemon instead of lime.
My favorite things to do are skydiving at weekends and going for long country walks, and
my
favorite people are usually multi-colored alien-esk creatures that sing and dance and make inaudiable sounds.
Competing the EXTENDED medical form was like writing a complex medication care plan! What medication was used, when , how much, how many times a day could it be used, who could issue it, was extra permission required? All these questions have their merits and uses however it was still a shock to be confronted with all this. On a more positive note, day care does provide lots of very positive messages.
2) Unspoken Protocol (habits & hazards) Every day care center has their own unique habits and hazards. Our current center has lovely staff, great outdoor facilities and nice little games and toys for the children. I have learned through some push & pull games with the staff that they are not trying to wrestle my child away from me in a malicious or selfish fit of rage, but merely trying to ensure each child receives a physical and welcoming contact when they each walk through the door each morning. I don't recall this protocol ever be spoken out loud.
On the hazard front, to enter the car park for the day care center you have to turn directly across the path of a busy cycle lane - in rush hour! I'm not sure if anyone has considered the risks of having parents driving car with little kids inside, through a path that needs the utmost levels of concentration. I am yet to cause any major pile up, but oh dear lord I'd be making cyclists slow down if I could.
3) Sharing information with known strangers. Maybe it was just me, but it seemed that parents of kids of a similar age will start to tell you the most personal details about their little ones that they might not ever think about telling a stranger in an other context. Yet it seems that if your children happen to be sharing a space for any length of time beyond 30 minutes, some parents will feel as though mere fact grants you access to each others circle of trust. This extends to the day care staff, who I have witnessed being told all manner of personal information about a child's issues and even issues between the parents / carers - which I am not sure was really relevant to the day care staff's duties.
And finally... Baby songs - I have quite a few questions about these:
1) Why are they exclusively sung by people with really annoying US accents on youtube??
2) One monkey (child/ other animal etc) falling off a bed and banging it's head is unfortunate, 2 is bad luck, 3 perhaps is coincidence but 4, 5 & 6...? At what point does the doctor who is taking calls from the distraught mother after each head injury going to change his statement from "no more monkies jumping on the bed!!!" to something more appropriate like "Mrs Monkey, I will making a referral to social services to assess the safety and well-being of children within your care & p.s. if you call me one more time today about monkies jumping on a bed, I will have your number blocked..."
3) Why did the mother duck keep letting her ducklings swim 'over the hill and far away" if they kept going missing every day! - Doesn't this just smack of irresponsible parenting?
4) Yes the wheels on the bus go round and round, but should the horn on the bus be going beep beep beep all day long? there's a road rage issue there I'm sure!
I'm simply not sure that these are the messages we should be peddling to such young and impressionable kids!
THE OCCUPATION BIT... The role of parenting a very young child exposes us to participate in tasks and activities that we may have little understanding of, very little past experience of and perhaps little confidence in our ability to complete successfully. However there are strong influences from societal expectations, self-perceptions and innate emotional drivers that compel us to at least attempt these tasks or enter environments we may feel ill prepared for. How many other roles in out life can we say that about?
How do we choose to view or interpret our success in this parenting role and what basis do we use to validate that success? Do we have some kind of 'personal development plan', with SMART goals that determine what we are going to learn / achieve within a certain time frame in preparation for our next challenge? Are we being guided far more by our own instincts, which may have developed through our own lived experiences, rather than a logical and objective set of parenting guidelines?
How do we know when we've got it right? As I'm sure we are quick to be told when have made a mistake in a child-raising issue - either by an unhappy, child / partner of relative. All these questions may help us to develop a better understanding of how we learn to parent.
As for me, well, I'm happy to be feeling confident enough to navigate through these new experiences with the help of my partner, family and friends and approach 'the unknown' with equal amounts of humor and fear.
Regards from Parent Land
