The ‘Mom Code’

Surely there’s a ‘Mom Code’ that we’re all supposed to be following? Kind of like the ‘Girl Code’. The unwritten rule of ethics that exists between moms. The ‘We’re all in this together’ mentality.

I’ll be the first to admit I was a little judgey before I had experienced motherhood myself. I naively thought that boisterous kids were actually just undisciplined – but karma has soon set me straight on that one ha ha. However, now I’m a mom (of a boisterous child) and I totally understand the stresses and strains of having this little whirlwind attached to you at all times…

So my question is ‘Should us moms be judging other moms?’ I’m not talking about the childless women…I get that they have no idea what it’s like and therefore will have their opinion, albeit an ignorant one. I’m talking about the other moms. The women who have had to endure the public tantrums. The women who have had their child throw up on them in the middle of a queue and had to abandon their shopping. The women whose kid will hit or push just because the other child is standing too close or they don’t want them to play with them. Or the ones whos’ kids just won’t share. We all know what it’s like.

My boy is fantastic at sharing. He makes me so proud how he will offer round his snacks or take another child a toy to play with and take turns. But then he’s also a hitter. He will smack you right in the face totally unexpected. He gets told no. He gets put on the naughty step. He gets made to say sorry by a kiss or a cuddle (or a casual lean on the other child if they’re not well known) as he can’t say the word sorry yet. I will ask him if he is ready to say sorry and he will sometimes say no and it will take a few minutes for him to say yes and then go over…what more can I do?

It’s doesn’t happen all the time, but today as I was paying for my shopping another mom and her child (looked to be around 5 maybe) came up behind us. I had my boy on his reins so he was standing quite close to me when suddenly I heard the other mom say ‘that’s not very nice’. I turned around and asked what had happened? She said he had hit her daughter. I straight away told him off and that he was to say sorry. He looked at me and then leaned towards the girl and I understood he was saying sorry. I tried to explain to the other mom that he was saying sorry in his own way as he isn’t talking yet but she just pursed her lips and looked at me with this displeased expression.

It made me so angry but I also just wanted to sit down and cry. Why the judgment. Why look at me like I’m a piece of sh*t mother and make me feel that way. Surely she’s been through the toddler phase? Surely she knows what’s it’s like? Just because her child is now old enough to know better does that give her the right to cast judgement on me? I expected to share a sympathetic look of understanding and be on our way. ? He’s not even two yet and he had said sorry so what else did she want from us?

So I suppose I’m wondering where is the solidarity of moms? Where’s is the support and the kind words? Where is the understanding? Is this ‘Mom Code’ a myth? You never know how fragile another person may be feeling. You don’t know what kind of day they’re having. So unless you can honestly say you’re child has never ever messed up or done something wrong, then keep your judgemental looks to yourself.

A time for reflection

So today is exactly one year since two things happened. Firstly I went back to work…and secondly my little one started nursery. Naturally it’s made me feel a little nostalgic – thinking back to simpler times – as I’ve found the last few months incredibly hard. I realise now that the things that came easily and that I thought I had nailed, such as my boy loving every bit of food you put in front of him, or travelling longer distances with no problem, could change without a moments notice.

He was…is…a happy baby. He absolutely ADORES nursery. From that very first day he’s loved being there and I feel proud that we have raised a confident and independent little boy. He will happily kiss me goodbye and wave me off without a moments hesitation. If anything it’s me who is left feeling a bit lost and missing him. Almost 2, going on 22!

In the baby room he played nicely with others or on his own. He would lie down happily to let the staff change his nappy and he would eat practically everything put in front of him. A few months in he got Hand Foot and Mouth and he refused to eat anything. He didn’t even want his milk. We regressed and started feeding him purée pouches as it was all he would have. Then after a couple of weeks he finally started to eat solids again.

However it seemed that the damage was done, as when a short time later he moved up to the toddler room he would eat literally nothing. We would pick him up in an evening with the same report every day of ‘he’s not eaten anything today’ and it started to worry me. When we got home he’d eat a jar of cauliflower cheese and a couple of pouches or maybe a bowl of cereal. I took him to be weighed and his weight was spot on. I was told not to worry, which is easier said than done! It’s true his weight was fine, but when your child is refusing to eat anything except puréed fruit pouches or cauliflower cheese it can get very stressful. Too much fruit and he got the runs and too much cauliflower cheese he would end up with stomach cramps and windy as hell! Throw in a bit of lactose intolerance and you have a difficult combination.

Then came the car sickness. At first we thought it was possibly because he was now facing forward, but even when we turned him back around he was still sick. Anything from 10 minutes into the journey to going a full 2 hours without being sick. There was no rhyme or reason to it – you just had to hope for the best! After about 6 months of it we finally had it down to a fine art of catching the sick in his blanket. This definitely makes for more stressful car journeys…take driving to Scotland for instance. He was sick 7 times on the way up. Seven!! I was ready to give up except short of camping on the side of the road there was nothing we could do but keep going. But then we had the trip back to consider as well and I can’t say I was looking forward to it. The brave little guy seldom complains and just sits there with his little face all scrunched up and waits for mommy or daddy to help him. It’s heartbreaking.

So I resigned myself to the fact I have a child who won’t eat…although again there is no rhyme or reason as today he may love beans, but tomorrow he will cry and push you away if you even so much as show him a bean. Same goes for blueberries, and bananas, and yoghurts…and pretty much anything. Even the cauliflower cheese was getting refused! Also I was resigned to having a child who gets car sick. But at least he plays nicely with others…

I honestly was one of those moms who think to themselves that kids who hit or push or bite (mine does all three!) are not disciplined and allowed to run riot and that is why they do it. It’s not. I mean there are kids out there who are left to their own devices for sure, but I have rules. I have the naughty step. My child will say sorry and give you a cuddle after his time on the naughty step. But he still does it. It makes play dates super stressful. You feel judged. You want to shout out but he’s not even two he doesn’t know any better! Or sometimes it’s their child who pushed first and because yours stands his ground he looks to be the bad guy as no one saw the first push! But you can’t say anything without looking petty so you just have to pull your child aside and tell them off and pray to God they don’t do it again within the next five minutes.

Luckily the biting seems to only coincide with teething spells and usually the hitting or pushing is only once or twice and then he seems to settle into what’s going on and play happily alongside his friends. Still the tension is there and you are on constant high alert. It’s almost enough to make you want to bypass play dates altogether!

So today my child ate a handful of snacks at nursery, and once he got home he proceeded to cry and roll around on the floor saying no to anything I suggested. He asked for juice…I made him juice…I handed it to him and he threw it down crying noooo juuuice. He then asked for a nana…I peeled a banana for him…and again he cried saying no nana noooo and threw it into the sink! I can’t seem to please him no matter what I do. I’d give up…but you can’t. You can’t quit. You can’t take a day off. You’re it for the next however many years it takes until they can look after themselves!

Sometimes I long for the days of a simple baby who only drank milk and slept through car journeys. Who woke like clockwork every three hours for a feed, but you knew it was coming and you were meant to be giving them a feed so you didn’t have to have that internal battle of whether your almost two year old should be having night feeds or not and if you could just find the energy to get through one night it may break the routine and he’ll stop wanting milk.

I thought I had it sussed! And maybe for a split second I did, but then everything changed and tomorrow it will probably change again. On one hand the first year is the hardest because you have no idea what you are doing. But the second year feels just as hard…yet by now you should know what you’re doing right? So for now I’m just trying desperately to cherish every moment. Every tantrum. Everything about this precious soul who is growing up just too damn fast…

Brotherly Love

One of my biggest worries when we found out we were expecting was how to break it to my step-son. He was five, and had been the only child in the family for the first 4 years of his life (and didn’t particularly relish having a younger cousin) so we had our work cut out.

We wanted to wait until we were over the 12 week mark, as although we had told close friends and family already, we felt that should anything go wrong we didn’t want a child to have to try to comprehend it – so by the time we broke the news I was 14 weeks along.

We sat him down between us and said we had something very exciting to tell him. This laid the foundation for him to anticipate exciting news, so he was already in the mindset that something good was coming! We told him that he was going to be a big brother! He was quiet for a moment and then suddenly a small smile appeared and it slowly grew wider and wider.

I explained that I had a baby growing in my tummy and that this baby would be his little sibling. He seemed excited at the prospect of being a big brother, and seemed to grow with the anticipation of the responsibility that entailed. Once we found out we were having a boy he started telling us how he will be able to show him how to play with cars and dinosaurs and teach him footy. As far as he was concerned this baby was relying on him to teach him the ways of a little boy.

Because we had gone about telling him the way we had, I think he felt he was gaining something important in his life and so he was excited about it. I definitely feel that if we had said we were having a baby instead of the fact that he was becoming a big brother, it would have made him feel like his life as it was was being intruded upon by this un-asked-for baby, but instead he was becoming something special – a big brother.

We would look at baby books together and he would rub my belly and say good morning and goodnight to his baby brother. He got to feel him kick and he would talk to him and tell him about his day and his toys and what we were going to have for supper. The bond between them was growing right from the start.

You can see the love between them – the air of protection that the eldest has over his younger brother. It’s a very special bond and one that will be with them for life. It’s so very important to lay down good foundations, to avoid jealously and resentment towards the new baby. Because of this great start my step-son is so very proud to tell people that that’s his little brother.

Fake it ‘till you make it.

The following day I woke up with a different mindset. I knew that no matter what I had to ‘fake it ‘till I make it’ and I did just that. My baby didn’t know that I was winging it, or that I didn’t have a clue what I was doing. I trusted my instincts, and so far they haven’t led me wrong.

I grew more and more confident until I could change a nappy with my eyes closed. My boy had mastered the boob and I had mastered my mind. I made a conscious effort in the morning – my new routine was to have a shower whilst my baby lay in his bouncer on the bathroom floor (also getting him used to the idea that mommy needed time to do things for herself) and get myself dressed…although I kept my boy in sleep-suits even when we went out as he just looked so darn cute!

I had decided the best thing to do was to fill up my time. Sitting at home with a newborn was exhausting – and even though I was so tired, spending my days sleeping when baby sleeps was driving me crazy. In less than two weeks I had suddenly limited my life to sleeping, feeding and changing nappies. I could feel the isolation creeping in and I had to fight it. Almost every day, once I got myself ready (granted it was probably already 10 o’ clock), we went out.

Now sometimes we had a specific outing planned, like going to Rhyme Time at the library or meeting a fellow Mom-friend for coffee, but a lot of the time I would just go into town. Pushing the buggy all the way into town and back was a great workout, and combined with breastfeeding I was slowly losing my pouch! But more importantly, getting out in the fresh air and making myself leave the house was so good for my mind. Even when the weather was a bit rubbish and I decided to drive, just making myself go out was doing wonders for me.

Don’t get me wrong, there were days when just the thought of leaving the bed was horrifying….and so I didn’t. I would feed my boy, change his nappy and curl back into bed. Because I had managed to get myself to a place where going out was not scary or stressful or intimidating, I could indulge in the odd day where the most I did was wander through to the kitchen for a drink and a bite to eat.

One of the hardest things to do as a new Mom is to brave the outside world. Nothing is the same as it used to be. For one you have a gigantic nappy bag stuffed with every possible thing you may need attached to you at all times, but also because you can no longer just nip anywhere. Everything requires a certain level of planning. You also have that subconscious worry that your baby is going to start crying. And cry and cry and cry and everyone will look at you and be thinking you’re a bad mom and can’t console your own child.

In reality you have to put on a brave face and get yourself back out there. I’ve come to realise that if you can find the strength to do that, to go out and face the world, then you’re doing great!