Rules are made to be broken

I am a well-known rules follower. When we did personality testing at school (Myers-Briggs), my profile (ISTJ) highlighted this trait clearly, saying something to the effect of "ISTJs are not comfortable with breaking laws or going against the rules...they are uneasy when things are not done by the book."

So of course when we were preparing to have Sonia, I dutifully read all of the books and imagined that we would follow all of the "rules" as to what you are supposed to do. Well, 10+ months later, reality has set in. Just a few highlights of the rules we are breaking...

• Rule: only feed a baby in her highchair, never anywhere else. Reality: based on the amount of cereal covering a good percentage of our living room (not to mention the stroller and car seat) it is clear that, a) Sonia has figured out how to shake the Snack Trap such that it sprays cereal everywhere, and b) we are certainly not limiting her eating to the high chair.

• Rule: no television for kids until they are at least 2 years old, and really not even then. Reality: one of Sonia's latest tricks is picking up the remote and pointing it at the television like she is changing the channels. I wonder how she picked up that behavior? Apparently our plan that we would only let her watch the television during major sporting events on the weekend is not being adhered to religiously. Thankfully the nanny actually does follow this rule, so at least her television exposure is significantly limited by that.

• Rule: try to avoid the pacifier in the first place, and definitely take it away before the baby becomes too attached. Reality: while we have largely limited the pacifier to when she is in the crib (and occasionally when we are in a restaurant or at someone else's house and she is fussing), Sonia is definitely hooked on the thing. There is no way she is going to sleep without it. Krista made me feel better the other day when she told me her pediatrician said it was fine for her daughter to keep using it because in a lot of ways it's really hard to be a baby and do you really need to take away the one thing that makes them happy / calm? Of course, this will seem like a bad call when she's 3 and we're negotiating about whether to get rid of it. At the least I've decided to wait until her 1st birthday and ask the pediatrician at her check-up.

• Rule: baby-proof your house before your child gets too mobile. Reality: our house is more like an infant obstacle course than a baby-proofed environment. Our stereo is covered in little baby fingerprints and one of Sonia's recent tricks is touching the wine glasses on the wine rack so they clink together like a very expensive, very breakable wind chime. Literally every weekend we talk about how we have to put everything away, but the issue is a) there is no where to put it, and b) we are lazy. You know it's a bad sign when you're discussing how maybe you shouldn't have your 1-year-old's birthday party at your condo because it's not a good environment for children.

• Rule: establish a routine and stick to it, but don't let your child become overly dependent on it. Reality: if any of you reading this can get our child to sleep in a Pack N' Play at somebody else's house (instead of her crib at home, or at least her car seat / stroller) I will give you $100.

So, as we often say, we will not be winning the "Parents of the Year" award anytime soon. (Can you imagine if there was some sort of parenting rating system and how all of us Type A's would react to that?) I figured I would post about it so that all the other parents who read this blog could feel a bit better about their own parenting style. :-)