New Parents Be Prepared!

Oh, how adorable newborn babies are! No matter what it looks like it can only be described as adorable. Children are the most wonderful and valuable things parents will ever own. All 18 glorious years of being around these blessings is surely enough to keep any parent on their toes.

I am sure you have heard it all, but for you new and upcoming parents; there is just no way to help prepare you for the things you will see and have to do for your children. I could start by going on and on about the first year or so about a child’s life but its common knowledge and anyone can tell you that it’s tough. I will let you in on a little secret, after the first year of your child’s life is when things really start to get crazy. The more things your children are able to do, the crazier things they will do.

Of course, you can expect them to not listen, get into things they are not supposed to and no matter how good their vocabulary becomes they just can’t seem to understand what the word NO means. Say it to them however you like, yell, scream, holler, and drop down to their level and put on a serious face….it doesn’t really matter.

You may wake up one day to find your hallway flooded with water. Your children decided to plug up your sink faucet with toilet paper and leave it running. You won’t notice until they start running through the house naked. Even that won’t get your attention until you notice they are wet. So you will spend the next hour trying to soak up the water in the hallway with all the towels you own, which will lead to more laundry when you finish with this. But wait, you can’t do laundry yet because it’s time to start dinner. Surely after you finish cleaning this mess you will be able to dry the kids off and start dinner. Nothing goes as planned. You walk down the hallway half listening to the squish, squish sound of your floor still being wet and notice you dog jumping around in the living room. It’s meant to be an outside dog, he has left you a stinky surprise in your favorite seat and your children are nowhere to be found. A quick look out the back window and you see your kids, once again, playing with the water hose. It’ wouldn’t have been so bad if they didn’t decide to spay all the clean cloths on the cloths line.

Keep a tight leash on your kids and make sure you know what they are doing and where they are doing it at all times. You can’t ever let your guard down because they are always looking for something to do. The best way to prevent events like the one mention above (which would probably be considered a good day) is to spend most of your time with them. If your home and don’t have anything going on, don’t sit down on the couch and watch TV all day. Either watch TV with your kids or do something, anything with your kids. Spending most of your time with your kids when they are this young will help you build a better relationship with your kids for when it really matters, the teen-age years.