Made-Up Parenting

A pregnancy tracker through emails. What a novel concept. And more than one place has learned their run of prenatal baby facts to bombard an expectee's account with useless rantings and spam. So of course I had to sign up!

Today's 18 week update (sent 2 days late) showed picture of little "alien baby" (Matt's words) with much detail of development. And then came the "have to" s and "gotta have"s that every pregnant woman apparently is completely insufficient in raising a prenatal baby without. "Just what in the world did we ever do before it all," Matt commonly comments in overwhelmed sarcasm. =)

Babysit for a day. Came the suggestion for those freaking out about childcare. Ask you best friend to babysit their child for a day and make it up as you go along was the meat and potatoes of the text. The title should have been "mess you friend's kid up for a day." But I did find it interesting of a concept. You know, a little experimentation upon close relationships... such a great idea. Hehe. Burn those that love you the most. j/k

But then I thought.. see the funny different in raising a child and raising someone else's child is you call the shots. You are the authority. It's not asking friend what their rules are and the baby's eating times are and nap times, etc. It's shoot from the hip, make it up and figure it out. Being one who has babysat MANY a time, this new concept of parenting sounds like fun. And I am fully confident that we're gonna mess this kid up good! Yeah buddy!!!! =)

I tease. But I was thinking after reading the article that this parenting thing is going to be quite funny. See, initially Ellen spoke about feeling so in shock that the baby crying down the hallway was hers. And that realization that the fussy and poopy one was being handed back to her to change, not anyone else. She was the default. But then life became so normal as the default that she had a hard time imagining life without the baby's toothless gurgling.

A soon-to-be second mom speaks with confidence in raising two children. But the fact is... she'll be making it up as well as Matt and I will be. Yes, she has more experience in raising one child, but she has no experience in raising two.

I guess it just makes me feel a lot better to see each parent with one child on the same playing field... shooting from the hip and trying not to break their kid too much. And while another friend's report of 3rd and 4th children just falling into the mix of regular life with ease makes sense, it's nice to know that when it is all boiled down... we parents are just making parenting up; one rule at a time.