My Mothering Style

..I really enjoy reading and talking about parenting.
I think it's interesting to see what other parents beliefs are for their own families. Obviously what works for one child may not work for another, or a family for that matter. However I do believe parents learn the most from each other.

Over the 5 years of motherhood I have been asked a lot of questions regarding topics from breastfeeding to potty training to sleep overs. Not that I am a "know it all" when it comes to parenting because I am far far from it but I would like to share some things that I as a mother believe for my children. This is just going to be totally random and out of order but I will give you a just of the things we do and don't do!

Medicine: This is a really iffy/tough subject for me. I've been doing a lot of researching over the pro's and con's of my children's vaccines. With the info. I have gathered I really believe the majority of the vaccines that are required are NOT needed and are actually more harmful then anything BUT my kids need to go to school and daycare therefore they need the shots, well that's not the only reason..but I've just really started to feel this way about the vaccines.. now that my babies are already full of the toxins...:(
Another thing with medicine..ever since I had my first child, Taylor I never gave her any pain relief medication UNLESS she absolutely needed it, and I still stand true to that to this day..my babies don't get Tylenol or whatever else, unless they are in extreme pain.
When it comes to teething, I don't use orajel..I think that's harsh. Instead..I came across these magical and natural teething tablets that just worked wonders!!! Hyland's Teething Tablets..you can find them at Walmart.
I'm not telling other parent's that it's bad to give your child Tylenol, or teething gel but I do believe were are injecting ourselves and children with a lot of unneeded chemicals.
I've never been one to take medication..heck, I gave birth to two children all natural..I didn't want any drugs in their little systems, nor mine. Not that I am putting a mother down for receiving pain medication..but you have to realize women have been birthing babies for thousands of years, many of those years they didn't have pain relief, if they did it..why, you def. can! I won't get into that subject in this particular blog..that's a whole new chapter!


Discipline: I'm not going to go into a whole lot of detail on this subject but I will tell you that I will never lay a hand on my child, well I may give an occassional slap on the hand or a litle tap on the butt BUT nothing like bending over and beating them with a belt, I just don't get how some parents can do that...that's only teaching your child it's okay to hit and be abusive.
Some examples and things we do with our children, well more so with Taylor since Miss Piper is too young for the same type of discipline Taylor is.
Mind you, we've still got a ways to go in finding the best tactics when it comes to discipling our children..believe it or not but I am the disciplinarian! However, we do not let our children talk back or walk all over us. I've always used the time out rule of putting them in a room with no activity such as other people, or Television and they're in there a minute for every year old they are..so Taylor's time out is 5 minutes..I usually send her out to the kitchen and set the timer, so she doesn't even have to speak/ask when it's time to get down.
Another thing that has worked soooo well, especially just recently is taking away her prize posessions..Ipod, TV, not joining the family for an activity.
Which leads us to Taylor's bedroom..she has a very hard time cleaning, or picking up after she's done playing with her toys..then it just becomes such a mess and she gets soooo overwhelmed and doesn't know where to start..so JJ usually is the one to clean her bedroom...which he is now starting to throw away toys she leaves out and he actually really does it! :/ Sure get's her going though!
Now with Piper, obviously she is old enough to start knowing feelings..so we've really been expressing to her if she hits sissy, that makes sissy sad, and we'll give her the pouty face, and tell her let's be nice to sissy and then we'll "pet" Taylor and say this is nice..ya know, almost like a dog I guess..but I want her to know that it's not acceptable to throw a fit, or to hit, and to be loving..seems to be working well. There's sooo many other things that I am probably leaving out...but we're working on it..we better start soon..our girls will be pre teen's before we know it! :(





Pop/Sugar: Big NO! NO! around here. It astonishes me seeing a 2 year old walking around with a can of pop, I mean seriously..I have to admit that is bad parenting and just pure laziness on the parents part. For one, if your kid needs sugar or you need something conveient..give him a juicebox so at least he's getting nutritional value and is not rotting his teeth. Taylor does not get pop, she will occassionally if we're out to eat but even most of the time if we go to fastfood I still get her milk, and to "spice" it up sometimes I'll get her chocolate milk and that's seriously a HUGE treat for her.
There's also no candy for her, unless she has earned it as a treat or it's a special occassion.
In Piper's 17 mos. of life she's barely had any juice and if she does I dilute with water..I just feel it's not neccassary to give her juice yet, even the "healthiest" of juices is still full of sugar.
I don't need my kids having 5 cavities before they even start kindergarten! I do relize some kids just have "bad" teeth because they inheriented it but most cases it's the poor choices their parents have made.



Co-sleeping: I'm going to guess the majority of parents are against this but there are quite a few we believe in this and I am one of those parents. I mean, I have nothing against a baby sleeping a crib BUT I do believe there's more benefits for a baby to sleep with parents then alone in a crib. I've done TONS of researching on this over the years and came across a couple highly respected doctors who strongly believe in this as well. Some benefits include: babies who share a bed with their parents are more independent then others, reduces the risk of SIDS, babies who sleep alone have a greater risk to develop stress disorders, babies sleep longer throughout the night without waking..this as all proven to be sooo true with us.
People often ask the "big" question.."How do you and JJ have intimacy time?" Well I will be completely honest with you..I guarentee our sex life is much better then most parents out there..because of the fact we have a child in our bed we have to find other love making places! It's what keeps the fire going! haha! I can't believe I just wrote that but I want to be completely honest! :o)
Obviously co sleeping isn't for everyone but before you judge..do your research!



Potty training: I can only hope that Piper will be as easy as Taylor was..we did not have one issue when it came to potty training Taylor(she was potty trained fully by 22 mos.)..I guess it's because she did it at her own willingness. We never once forced her to sit on the potty. I truly belive that's key. The one major sign for readiness is when they're interested in sitting on the toilet themselves. Every child is going to be completely different when it comes to this, it's basically trial and error to see what works best for your child..a potty chair, a smaller seat to put on the toilet, or just the toilet itself. Another thing to do to help excite your child about becoming a big girl is to buy her underwear and let her wear them over her diaper. Ummm..I can't think of anything else to write about this..it's been almost 4 yrs since I've done and now it's time to start it all over again!


Alright, there's sooooooo much more that I could talk about and sit here and debate about but this is well enough for now. I look forward to reading your comments, questions, disagreements, anything you want to add!
Enjoy!