Friday 11 April 2008

Natural parenting... stuff that!

I always thought the worst type of mum you could meet at a toddler group was one who claimed their tot “slept through the night from two weeks.”Yes, yes. Course he did love.But recently, I’ve come across an even more annoying breed of bragging mother.One who claims their child STILL never sleeps the whole way through - even at age one, two... 15 years...And worse still, they seem to think that every mother should "enjoy" being woken up regularly during the night for several years as a “natural” part of parenthood.Stuff that.Soon as both my DDs reached about seven months, I put them on a strict training regime. It wasn’t rocket science. I just stopped feeding them at night. By this age, I knew they weren’t hungry if they cried, so they got nowt.Within about two nights, they both realised it wasn’t worth the effort, so they started sleeping through.End result? Happy baby. Happy parents. Happy home.But try and suggest this solution to some Martyr Mums and they think you’re worse than Hitler.“But little Tarquin NEEDS his nighttime feeds - all 12 of them,” they insist proudly.No he doesn’t.I don’t really NEED a cup of tea every time I wake up momentarily in the night. But if I knew someone would bring me one when I howled loud enough, I’d probably end up doing it quite often.And I’d be a right grump the next day because of not getting a proper night’s sleep.Or am I just being naive?

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