Babywise Success Story

Here is a very honest story from a mom who adjusts Babywise to work for her family.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I do babywise, at least some version of it. Today I linked to the tulip girl’s blog. I followed some other links to read about people complaining about babywise. What I read made me feel these were people who didn’t understand babywise at all. They read the suggested routines and made them the law instead of remembering they, the parents, know best. For me the schedules were a guide. They helped me know if, in general, we were on the right path. I did not set a timer. There was always leeway. I tried to examine all angles to determine what was best for my baby. I now have two boys that don’t fight me to go to bed. My 3 1/2 year old might put up a slight fuss that he’s not tired, but overall he goes down when it’s time. Don’t get me wrong. We went through our share of struggles with him and had to find what worked for us (locking his door for a while). My 1 1/2 year old just goes to bed. If he’s not tired enough he plays around in his crib, jabbers, maybe reads a book, then goes to sleep. There are things I wish I’d done and things I wish I hadn’t done. For me Babywise is not the bible… I already have one of those. It is a guide, just like all the other parenting books out there. And just like all other books and theories I study I take it in, think about it, and implement it the way that works best for us. Sleeping is not a problem for

I, however, am far from the perfect mom. I am not nearly consistent enough or calm enough. I struggle with behavior issues, especially with my 3 1/2 year old. He can be quite defiant. When I read the success stories I often feel bad about myself. I have to be very careful how seriously I take things. When we share our success stories we aren’t outlining every detail and we’re certainly not advertising what hasn’t worked. I often read things like this, “we are told constantly that he is a happy, intelligent, well-behaved child.” The book tells you that you’ll get comments like that. I don’t. My oldest has problems hitting. We are really struggling with this. We have a neighbor that won’t allow him to play at their house because of it. I get ill every time he hits someone. I am not good at doing all I should though, so I guess I need to step it up. Anyway, I’m not sure where I’m going with this. I guess to say that not all successes produce perfect (you know what I mean) children. But I still feel like we are a success, at least for where we do follow babywise. Lack of success has come where I didn’t follow it or wasn’t consistent. But I’m still working on it and hopefully my children won’t suffer too much because of it.
Kristin

Leave a Comment