Mistakes We Made As New Parents

Family/ Parenting - Parenting Skills/Advice

By: lifeisahighway 08-Jan-2011

Introduction:

Every new parent is destined to make a few mistakes. Here are the top five mistakes that my husband and I made in our first year of being parents.

Put the Prefold Diaper on the Baby Without a Cover

When we first started using cloth diapers on our little boy we would sometimes put the prefold diaper on and forget to put a cover on over the prefold. So we put his clothes on over the diaper and then an hour later his clothes were soaked and so were we because we were holding him. We made that mistake a few times.

Got Our Son Dressed Without Putting any Diaper on Him

Another mistake that we made as parents is getting our son dressed and putting NO diaper on him at all! I really don't know how that one happened, but it did! Again, everything got wet.

Bought Him Too Many Presents

We bought our baby so many presents for his first Christmas and birthday. When they are little they really don't care if they get a ton of gifts or not. But we got him so many and then, of course, he got so much more from the rest of the family. So looking back, we should have bought him a few things and then just saved our money.

Disposable Swim Diapers Are Not Meant to Be Used As a Regular Diaper

One day I didn't have any more diapers and couldn't get to the store to get more (this was before we started using cloth diapers). So I found a disposable swim diaper and used that as an alternative. That was a big mistake. Disposable swim diapers were designed to NOT hold liquid, but to keep in solids. So his clothes and all of his bedding got soaked with urine. So guys, if you run out of diapers, please don't use swim diapers instead.

We Put the Baby In the Car Seat But Forgot to Buckle Him Up!

This one is by far the biggest mistake we have made and I'm pretty ashamed to admit that it happened. But maybe someone else can learn from this mistake we made. We were taking our son on a walk at the park and he was in his carrier in the stroller. We unbuckled him and picked him up to hold him for a bit and then set him back in the carrier and covered him with a blanket. Then we got back to our car and lifted the carrier and snapped it back into the base in the car. He was covered with the blanket so we couldn't see that we had never buckled him back up. We just didn't even remember. So we drove home and then when we went to unbuckle him we realized what had happened. We felt so terrible. Thankfully the drive was only two minutes but accidents can happen in just a split second. We have never made that mistake ever again. So, please remember to make sure your baby is strapped in the right way before you drive!

Final Thoughts

Lots of our mistakes that we made as parents happened when we were diapering our son. Thankfully I really don't know of any diapering mistakes you could make that could be life threatening to your child. But the car seat mistake we made was a serious one. You will make mistakes as a parent and hopefully you will mostly make the mistakes that you can look back and laugh at later, not the ones that are dangerous.

Give this list a high five!

Comments

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tracyann 4/4/2011
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I can relate, great list! H5!
Snakesmom 4/3/2011
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Don't feel bad, all of us parents make mistakes! :)
snowfence 3/1/2011
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Great list on mistakes made as a new parent. H5
Traqqer 2/2/2011
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My goodness...brings back a lot memories I don't want to think about. But it also makes me cherish my kids all the more.
Ginger 1/8/2011
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So funny! It seems every parent makes mistakes and then looks back on them wondering how in the world they could ever do it! Good post!
goodselfme 1/8/2011
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I think your list is one most parents can relate to. I have done some of these in my parenting years. Thanks for the memories. h5