Discussions

Ok, we are all out there, the first (and second)time moms who swear they will not do certain things when they have children.  
 
Like, "I'll never let my child eat candy', or 'I'll never yell at my child in public", or "I'll won't let my baby cry", or just plain ol' having to do things by the book.  
 
That's the way I was when I was pregnant with my son. I read every pregnancy book ever published, swore early on that brestfeeding was the ONLY way my child would be fed (and in actuality he was breastfed for 11 months), and absolutely NO solid foods until he was exactly 6 months old!!!  
 
But by the time the #2 (a girl) came in the picture, things had changed dramatically. I wasn't so anal about everything! ( I still however didn't waiver on the breatfeeding issue, sorry personal opinion).  
 
Take this evening for example, as I'm sitting with my 3, almost 4 year old son while he's having his bedtime snack, my 4 month old daughter starts to throw a fit. Instead of walking around with her to calm her down, I glanced over to what my son was having for a snack. And I did something that I know for a fact I never would have done with him , I gave her a piece of an orange to suck on. Keep in mind that I didn't just let her chow down on it, I held it in her mouth and she gummed and licked it for a few minutes.  
 
Now for anyone who knows me and knows how anal I am about these things, this is a huge step in me "cooling it" with the straight egde parenting.  
 
So why is it that we are so hard on ourselves in making sure our kids get raised right, when in the long run being the loosened up sort of parent may be the way to go?