From iPads to junk food, parents reveal the ‘bad habits’ they swore they’d avoid before they had children
IT’S so easy to make promises about raising children… until you have some of your own
EVERY parent has big ideas about how their child will be raised, with the perfect manners, healthy diet and barely looking at the TV.
However we all know that the reality is very different from the ideal.
In a refreshingly honest Mumsnet thread, parents have shared the things they thought they would never do with their children, before they had them.
From giving them a dummy to letting them watch hours of TV, there are plenty of confession these mums and dads needed to get off their chests.
The frank discussion was started by user Thurlow who asked parents how they thought they'd raise their children versus how they actually do.
Hundreds of people responded with their own confessions with dummies ranking highly in the list of things parents thought they would never allow.
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User KitKats28 said, despite never wanting to use dummies: “After 12 hours, I was wondering if I could fashion something from superglue elastic bands over his ears to hold it in permanently!”
Another “parenting sin” which ranked highly was the use of iPads and other devices to distract their kids.
“Give an ipad for a lie in,” added Switswoo81. “Basically I was a perfect parent until I became one.”
Another issue which got honorary mention was sleeping with your child in the bed.
Kel1234 said: “The thing I said I wouldn't do is put lo in the bed with us, but sometimes after standing at the cot trying to settle him for hours, when a clean nappy, a bottle, medicine and gel hasn't worked, putting him in our bed was the only way, especially in the middle of the night when I was exhausted.”
300barsrest added that they thought: “No child of mine would sleep in my bed, rod for your own back, blah, blah blah.
“Two years in to 5am starts and I abandoned my principles completely. And it was fine - she does now sleep in her own bed with no problems.”
Plenty of parents also had pangs of guilt about the food they fed their little ones.
Many parents had thought they would be rustling up fresh and healthy meals for their children on a daily basis but in reality have restored to tinned baby food and even fast food for their children when they’re a little older.