Category Archives: kids

Crying It Out At Bedtime

It is one in the morning. My daughter is in bed. She is not asleep. She is screaming her little head off, and we are letting her. My husband and I tried everything. She does not want to sleep. She wants to come out and hang out with us. We want to go to sleep. My husband has work in the morning, and I have a two week old who will be waking up in a matter of minutes for his nightly feedings. Our daughter needs to go back to sleep.
We are letting her cry it out. We have never done it to this extent. We have let her cry for a few minutes in the past, testing to see if maybe she will calm herself down, but usually we give in and go back in her room. Not this time. There is no consoling her, not after this many hours. We have no choice.
I am sitting up in bed nursing my son, listening to my daughter’s shrieks and screams coming from the other room, and it is hard. I feel inadequate, and hearing her saddens me. I know it is for her own good in the long run, but what is a mother to do?
She has been acting up at bedtime ever since her baby brother arrived a few weeks ago, and it is getting worse and worse every night. She needs to learn that bedtime is bedtime. She cannot continue to get away with prolonging it to all hours. Thankfully after about fifteen minutes the crying subsides. She finally falls asleep. But is she asleep? Or is she just lying there quietly because she feels abandoned? I know better than to go into her room as that would ensure another round of screaming. I hope she is asleep.
Did you ever have to let your child cry it out? What did you do?

Can I Discipline My Neighbor’s Children?

9 p.m. is not that late. I know this. But I also know that when you are trying to get small children to sleep, and you will be up at around 5:30 the next morning to get these children ready and then go to work, 9 p.m. might as well be midnight.
Children play, run around, scream, shriek, etc. I know this. But I don’t know why our neighbors allow their small children to do this in their back yard at 9 p.m. on a regular basis. These children are screaming at the top of their lungs as if they were playing poolside on a Saturday afternoon. It is Tuesday night on a small cul-de-sac where we are not the only people who have to be at work the next day (I am currently on maternity leave, so I don’t technically qualify as one of these people, but maternity leave is not forever, and our new neighbors are wearing out their welcome, along with my nerves).
My husband has gone over and spoken with them about it, but that was a temporary solution. They are not violating any noise ordinance laws, just the laws of common decency. Is it okay to continuously go over there to ask them to monitor their children’s noise levels? And why aren’t these small children in bed by now?

What would you do?

Moms Make The Best Employees

In the few days since my son’s birth I have learned to multitask in ways I did not even know existed. I can do things one handed, often left handed (I was unaware I could be ambidextrous). I thought my daughter was a handful. I was very wrong. Two children, sixteen months apart, is the challenge of a lifetime. A challenge I am very ecstatic to take on.
Aside from multitasking, and functioning without proper limbs most of the time, I have also learned how to prioritize, act calmly under pressure, and field multiple calls while attempting to complete a third task in the background.
I realize I am the perfect candidate for most jobs. Now, I don’t mean me personally, but mothers like me. You do not need multiple children. Just one will suffice to teach you most of the above. However, multiples turn you into a pro overnight.
I know nowadays most mothers are in fact members of the work force. But for those returning to work after an extended period of time there is some stigma attached to having had that work gap. Honestly, just the aforementioned skills alone make these women more than capable to maintain offices, and pursue most other desk jobs. And what they don’t know, they can easily learn. In fact, most stay at home moms I know have more office skills than some executive secretaries.
So what is the big deal? Why are these women shunned in the work force so often? Have you experienced this?