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@FaithFertility: I do the same thing about telling her things are coffee! The other week I had a chocolate shake and I told her it was coffee, not because I didn't want her to eat sweets. I just wanted it all to myself and didn't want to share
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@thepicklemonster: I don't remember the last time I rinsed a paci. I've had strangers make comments and I just stare at them blankly and they shut up. My kids have rarely been sick. Yay germs!
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@snowjewelz: People have given us crap about DD sleeping with us since birth too (she's 3.5). Until our son was about 8 months old DH and I slept in separate bedrooms (one with each kid), then DH, DD and I slept in one room and DS in the other until just last week when DD finally started sleeping in her own bed. So much unsolicited advice and comments on our sex life, I couldn't believe it!
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@lilyofthewest: I make my three year old "lattes" a couple times a week (mostly milk with a little coffee) and my one year old LOVES all coffee. He eats coffee grinds out of the compost
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@AB810: Hahaha. My kid and yours would get on great!
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Mine isn't really a "little" secret just dirty. My kids typically get one bath per week unless they are really dirty. We used to do more but DD hates the bath and we just started skipping more and more. I justify it to myself because fewer baths is better for eczema, right?
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My four year old has lately been exceeding the 1 hr screen time limit and going to two hours. And she was sick last week and I let her watch tv almost all day one day... and I don't really feel guilty about it (the one day, not the two hours.. unfortunately I had some health issues occur last month that made me kind of miserable, hence the increase in tv time.)
I don't stay right next to my kids in the bath all the time. They are, however, right next to each other and within earshot. (ETA, maybe about 10-15 ft away.)
I let my kids outside in the backyard. They come and go. I didn't realize til this thread that it was a big deal. I went further than I would let my kids go but the yard.. whatever.
I let my son have a&a blankets at a very young age. It has turned out to be his comfort thing and I figured they were breathable. He was not a paci baby.
That's about it. We do what we can. Life happens and I haven't been able to do everything exactly as I would have liked but we keep at it and so far it's going ok. We'll see when our kids get bigger how we are really doing.
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@nana87: hahaha
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@Corduroy: we're on the weekly bath plan too, but for the opposite reason. LO loves the tub and it is somewhere between difficult and impossible to get him in and out quickly. We do weekend baths where we don't have to rush. If he gets filthy during the week, we do a shower ( which he hates).
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@PawPrints: thanks, I feel better for giving him multigrain waffles for breakfast, whole grain crackers at lunch, puffs for snack, and whole wheat penne for dinner. LO
carbs. @Corduroy: @lilyofthewest: my guy gets a bath once a week too. He loves bathtime, but hates putting on his diaper and clothes after. I just don't have the strength during middle of the week to deal with that part.
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This is so funny! I still spoon feed my three year old. I justify it to my husband by noting that he eats a ton of vegetables without question. Just opens his mouth and eats. I know he'd never eat those foods left to his own devices. HOWEVER, it is incredibly embarrassing at other people's homes or church potlucks or restaurants!
I haven't brushed my 11 month old's teeth yet!!
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Sometimes I bribe my 3 year old to get dressed for daycare by letting him have chocolate with his breakfast - I figure if he gets all hyped up and crazy it's daycare's problem. We also only brush teeth once a day.
All the people whose kids only get veggies through pouch form are making me feel a lot better about my pouch-based parenting.
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@FaithFertility: @petitenoisette: No AM teeth brushing here either. I didn't even think of it as as bad secret, haha. Oops!
@AB810: Seriously! I'm like, well obviously we conceived #2 while co-sleeping with #1, so please don't worry for us!
@Corduroy: Don't even feel bad! We routinely mostly bath the girls once a week. Maybe more in the summer, but mostly just wipe downs still. I never grew up needing to bathe everyday so to us it's not a big deal at all!
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@erinbaderin: T still eats a pouch about 1x a day they are so easy for an on the go snack.
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So.
My kid is lucky if she brushes her teeth three times a week, she watches TV a lot and I haven't gotten her to eat an actual vegetable at home in months. Her favorite meal is pancakes from "Old McDonalds," she still drinks milk out of a sippy at 3.5 (because I don't feel like dealing with the mess), and has so many toys that they are coming out of her ears. But she takes a vitamin daily and I feed her and she is growing, so I figure that it all balances out.
Oh, and I also don't dilute juice and never have.
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This thread is so refreshing and cathartic!
Here's mine: My kid doesn't go to bed until 9:30 some nights. He mostly eats snack foods and yogurt, never veggies or meat. I give him yogurt or mac and cheese every night cause he won't eat what I made for dinner. I bribe him with fruit snacks to get ready in the morning. He watches youtube on the iPad A LOT. He plays solo (with minimal supervision from DH) a lot while I cook and do chores). Sometimes I let him stay home with Daddy (who is physically disabled) when I run out to the store. I let him wander a bit in stores and restaurants because it makes him happy and I can't always chase him right away.
I do have a tip for toddler toothbrushing though, I saw a lot of people struggling with that. I recently started having DS (almost 2) brush in the bathroom and suddenly he loves it. He pulls out his little stool, grabs his Firefly toothbrush, I put the toothpaste on, and he sort of brushes while looking in the little mirror I installed that swivels down. Then I take over to finish brushing for a minute, which he doesn't like, but I get most of the teeth quickly and then it's over! He loves to "rinse" by drinking water out of the dixie cups with the animals on them.
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Can we do this more often?
It's refreshing! I rarely give my son water...like ever. He drinks milk all the time at home (granted, he goes to daycare m-f 7am-3 and she gives him water during the day.)
Our tv is on way too much after work and he gets ridiculously excited when I turn on Shaun the Sheep.
Most of the time, I love it when my MIL takes DS for a few hours each weekend even though I WOH.
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@nana87: @FaithFertility: so this totally backfired on me...I drink coffee on the sweet side, and my kids decided they like it.
Now they ask if things have chemicals (my excuse for why they can't try grandma's diet soda).
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@erinbaderin: DD is 21 months and if I ask her if she's hungry her answer is always "pouch."
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my kids get baths when they're sticky, or when the 4 yr old's butt stinks. (at least once a week though).
They both get waaay too much screen time.
With my son, i swore we wouldn't give him juice. Now my kids drink a bottle of apple juice every week (I dilute it).
I dress my kids in crappy clothes for daycare. My daughter picks out her own clothes and I don't care if they match or not. It drives my husband crazy but they get filthy there.
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McDonalds, anyone? Our kids love it. They are skinny. One of my 2 year olds first sentences was "I want Happ Meal." It's fine.
Teeth brushing in morning? My almost 5 year old had morning breath this morning and I pretended he didn't. No time for that shit on school days!
Dessert nearly every night.
The only veggie the 5 year old eats is raw carrots. And I've stopped trying.
28 month old still gets pacifier for nap and bed. And if he takes one during other times and I'm too lazy to fight him.
A video before bed if they follow the rules, listen, etc. For the 5 year old, that sometimes means 30 mins of video before bed. His bed is big and cozy and relaxing and...cuddles!
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@winniebee: We eat it once a week! And we must get her sweet & sour sauce!
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@winniebee: mcflurry shared with my 18 month old the other day! She's skinny too so any treat she would want I will probably give her...I bought the Reece's pieces smarties and she loves them.
Also, "paw patrol" one of her first phrases. It gets watched a fair amount now...
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oh god almost too many to name
~he is only 1 and we stick him in front of the TV far too often so we can get stuff done
~his only veggies come from pouches
~we don't wash his paci off when it drops
~he has 6 teeth and we haven't started getting him accustomed to the baby toothbrush yet
~i have reason to believe he has an ear infection (discovered a day or 2 ago) and we aren't able to get to the doctor until tomorrow
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@winniebee: lol to your 'no time for that shit' comment, so true.
My 2-1/2 yr old doesn't eat veggies ever and I don't push it, but thinking I need to buy pouches to try after reading through these.
He gets candy and sweets more than he should and I really don't care.
He drinks way too much milk yet, from a sippy, but 'milk does a body good'.
My poor dd is only gets baths twice a week. 2nd child syndrome.
I forget to brush ds teeth's every night, and this never happens in the morning unless he asks too.
DS does end up in our bed every night by midnight, I would rather sleep than deal with trying to get him to stay put, and he's so cute anyways all curled up next to DH with his blankies.
TV time... too much. He loves movies. -
Sometimes I think mine is that I am super strict. I just can't handle much nonsense being home with them all day.
Other than that- baths rarely happen (not even once a week), we just recently started to remember to brush teeth every night, and I let my 3 yr old play outside while I cook in the kitchen (and check out the window).
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@winniebee: DS1 will not eat anything when he is sick...except McDonald's French fries and white Gatorade. When we go through the drive through (even if it's just for coffee) he barks "Hrench hry. Cheekin nugget. HRENCH HRY!!!" When he sees the Golden Arches he points and says "hrench hry."
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None of mine are secret--I'm pretty open about my lax parenting choices. But things I do that freak other people out: I let my kids play by themselves on our balcony. People on the street sometimes stare in horror (I think? or because they are cute? Or because they can't see a parent?), but our balcony doors are floor-to-ceiling glass on one side of my kitchen, so when I'm cooking dinner I can see them. SO I stand in my kitchen cooking while they play with the water tower or bubble machine but people walking on the sidewalk can't see me, even though I can see my kids.
-Also, sometimes I move our car for street cleaning while my kids watch me from the balcony. Just earlier this week, my youngest was wailing while I did it, because she probably thought I was leaving to do something fun without her, and an older man stopped and just watched me the whole time-he probably thought I was driving off and leaving my kids unattended, but I just moved the car from one side of the street to the other while he stared at me, and up at my kids, and back at me...over and over. But dude, I'm not going to get daily parking tickets and I'm also not going to take the kids and get them buckled up...also, sometimes I have to move our second car which doesn't even have car seats in it. It takes me 1 minute to do it, and the kids can see me the whole time, so I just do my thing.
-I've also mentioned here that I go down and throw away trash or even check the mail or get something from my car during the girls' nap time. We live in a 6 story condo building, but on the 2nd floor. So I just lock the front door and run down and do those things and am gone for about 3 minutes. Everyone I know in this building does the same, but I've posted about it here on HB and people are
, haha.
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I let the 16-month-old wander around the house eating food. She often comes begging for bites when I am cooking, so I just give her a handful of whatever I've got on the counter. I figure that the dog will handle any drops and crumbs.
Also, I leave the same 16-month-old alone and unsecured in our only semi-baby-proofed home while I run downstairs to switch the laundry or take a pee break. She can't get onto the stairs, but she can get into the recycling or lots of other mischief.
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I didn't think we were overdoing the screen time, but then the 17 month old started asking for "tee-wee" and pointing. Oops.
I look at my phone way too much while the kids are playing together. I was better when we only had one but now that they sort of entertain each other it's easy to check out.
I feed them insane amounts of butter, carbs, oil, peanut butter, cheese, etc. because O was FTT. T, however, was NOT.AT.ALL. But I can't bring myself to cook two separate toddler meals. So he's a little chunky...
At the moment the only veggies they will consistently eat are frozen peas and corn. And they eat them frozen, straight from the freezer.
They have recently started playing in our goats' water buckets. O likes to dip rocks in and suck on them. T likes to dip his entire face/head in. I don't really try very hard to stop them. The goat pen is their playground.
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FRIES. My kids have a 6th sense for fries in the vicinity and then they want them immediately. I'm willing to detour and go through a drive through to get some fries so that I can get five minutes peace while driving to our destination. My eldest will feed her sister fries in the back of the car and then I have anxiety that she's going to choke on them while I'm driving.
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@Mrs. Turtle: zero shame in the goat pen being their playground! My sibs & I grew up on a small farm & spent all our time out with any number of different kinds of animals! We grew up pretty healthy & very happy!
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This is so great! My almost 2 year old still uses a paci for sleep and car and I have no plans to take it away - ever! She is the pickiest eater and I let her have Mac and cheese while watching tv almost daily cause that's what she eats best! We tried sleep training but that couldn't let her cry. We rocked her till 18 months when she naturally fell asleep on her own (w paci) if she wakes up my husband gives her milk or rocks her for a few minutes. It works for us and I am huge into whatever works for your family especially after I spent her first year of life always stressed about what it was supposed to be like
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I feed my kid way more McDonald's than I should (oh well) and the TV is on at our house pretty much 24/7. I try to console myself because, at 2, her vocabulary skills are about a year ahead of schedule so there.
Her current favorite show is Teen Titans Go, which is totally not appropriate but I'm 8 weeks pregnant with #2 and I just can't care. Also, Paw Patrol plays far too many reruns.
Also she still takes a binky and I have zero plans whatsoever to take it away from her. I figure she'll outgrow it eventually, and since her pedi/dentist aren't worried about it, neither am I.
I'd probably feel worse about the McDonald's if she wasn't such a skinny mini. Also, her favorite food really is broccoli, but again, 8 weeks pregnant and cruciferous vegetable aversion means my girl is getting chicky-bawk-bawk and fwies!!!
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@Mrs. Turtle: I would have called it a win that lo labeled "tv" and could say it!! Haha.
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@petitenoisette: I also get bored playing with my kid. I hate myself for that!
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@Elizabear: I am.huge too on what works for a family too!!!!!!
DD 28 months has a full bed and still if she ever asks or needs us earlier wake me or DH go sleep with her! It is less and less and now is maybe 1x a week, and I actually miss her!!!!! -
@Mrs. Turtle: My DD LOVES peas frozen!!!!!!
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Just remembered another one. This is so bad. I don't read to my DS. He's 6 months. I'll start... soon?
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@GoGoSnoGirl: I totally agree! Dirt is good for the immune system. I figure, it's fenced in, relatively safe, and has live stuffed animals for them to play with. Seems like a good playground to me!
@2littlepumpkins: Haha! Way to look at the positive.
@FaithFertility: I was pretty psyched when I figured out that they liked them. They are my go to pre dinner snack that keeps them occupied long enough to make something.
carbs. 
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