I postponed this moment for as long as I could, but couldn’t do it forever. The sad truth is that I need to work more than 1.5 hours a day - and that’s all I could manage so far because that’s how long Eric is sleeping throughout the day, and that’s all the quiet time that I get.

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1. Good luck with your search. It took me a year to get my oldest into a place where I really comfortable with. And I am very picky aside from being an involved parent I used to work in child care so I know what to look for and have very high standards.

   I’m not sure if things are different where you are but here in the US #2,6,7,8,9 are virtually unheard of.

   Have you thought about maybe finding another SAHM that would be willing to watch your son for you???

   Comment by LaToya — April 27, 2009 @ 9:40 pm

2. Thanks LaToya. I tried hiring a nanny and she was great, they got along really well until she quit because of a tragedy in her own family which caused her such a trauma she couldn’t work anymore. I couldn’t possibly replace her because I couldn’t find anybody even close to those standards. But even with her I found this option to be unreliable because she’d get sick and miss work at least once a week every week, and I need to work every day.

   I am also thinking about another aspects of this - at least child care centers are getting inspected, while SAHM is firstly alone in the house with the children, so if anything happens there are no other adults around and second, it is quite difficult to find a home that is made child-proof and safe according to the same standards the child care centers are.

   Comment by Emma — April 27, 2009 @ 10:14 pm

3. [...] You may want to subscribe to Baby-Log via RSS feed or via email. Thanks for visiting!When I started to look for the right child care center, it looked like mission impossible. But then something unexpected happened. Have you ever [...]

   Pingback by Choosing the right child care (if there is such a thing!), part 2 @ Baby-Log| Learning to be a Mother, raise a Baby and live as a Family — May 4, 2009 @ 9:45 pm
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You might have noticed an unusually long pause between my posts. This week I found out that when Eric gets really sick, I stop being a blogger and become just a mom with a primary goal to make it better for my little boy. Nothing else matters.

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1. I fully trust my instints, have ever since I was preggers. I think that strong bond and emotion are more nurtured through natural birthing or an environment where you can be 100% in tuned with your body and baby.

   But it has failed me before. Before my second son was born my oldest was sick with what I thought was a cold that just kept coming and going for about 6 weeks. When I finally took him to the doctor he had pnuemonia and the baby had RSV. 2 weeks later he had a sinus infection and 2 weeks after that an inner ear infection. The Dr. assured me that some of the sickness could be due to depression over the new baby. But I beat myself up a bit nonetheless.

   We’re not perfect and neither are our instincts.

   Comment by LaToya — April 20, 2009 @ 7:17 pm

2. Interesting to know.

   Comment by Lucy — April 22, 2009 @ 9:13 am

3. LaToya, I beat myself up too for not taking Eric to the doctor’s a day before. It’s so hard to admit that we’re not perfect mothers, personally I hate making mistakes and get so angry with myself.

   Comment by Emma — May 7, 2009 @ 9:02 pm

4. Yes Emma, I have felt the same way you did. My eirich seemed so weak and just lying on the bed almost half day. He’s not that cheer like he used to be and I became worried about him. he had a fever the day before, and I thought it’s going to be okay the nxt day. but I was wrong. Cuz his condition was worse than before. He’s getting diarrhea and pup -fully liquid- almost every 15minutes. My husbend just told me to calm down because he said that diarrhea is a nature sign that you are getting better. And my fool that i was believe on that.
   But the night, I was very worried and decided to visited the doctor whatever happen. I couldn’t stay and just saw my son suffred.
   and thanks God I was not too late because the doctor helped me cured my erich by his medicines.

   Comment by Rissa — March 1, 2010 @ 1:14 am

5. Yes, Rissa, that’s exactly what I’m talking about - other people will tell you not to worry, but the only thing that matters is what YOU feel. No matter who they are, a husband, a mother in law, whoever.

   Comment by Emma — March 1, 2010 @ 4:32 am
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Dear moms, if you are already irritated by the heading, please stop reading now, you are not going to like the rest of this post. This time I decided to shift the focus and put new dads in the spot light.
Sometimes new dads feel a little bit pushed aside by the gatekeeper moms. Sometimes new [...]

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1. WOW!! Your hubby sounds awesome!

   Comment by LaToya — April 13, 2009 @ 9:59 pm

2. He is. I would be lost without him. You seem to have the strength to do much more on your own - I am so much weaker than you, I wouldn’t survive without his support.

   Comment by Emma — April 14, 2009 @ 6:59 am

3. This post has made it to the homestead carnival #97 - head there for some interesting reads.

   Comment by Emma — May 25, 2009 @ 8:04 am

4. [...] presents 7 things new dads do better than moms posted at [...]

   Pingback by Discovering Dad Blog Carnival - June 2009 | Discovering Dad — June 14, 2009 @ 8:44 am

5. Wow, I think I have to disagree with ya on a few of these things. Sorry I wish I could say I rock at some of these but….

   My wife does take equally as good photos and often will get better shots than me.

   I do change a mean diaper, but I spend too much time cleaning up and not enough just being.

   And I don’t, I repeat don’t and won’t clip nails. I suck at my own.

   Comment by DCUrbanDad — June 22, 2009 @ 10:11 am

6. Hey DCUrbanDad, fair enough, point taken. But still, I have a great deal of appreciation for the new dads and think that there must be something else that YOU do better than your wife. So what is it?

   Comment by Emma — June 24, 2009 @ 12:00 am

7. [...] presents 7 things new dads do better than moms posted at [...]

   Pingback by Discovering Dad Blog Carnival – September 2009 : Discovering Dad — September 7, 2009 @ 8:56 am

8. boy, I beg to differ.

   #1 - i’m decent but my wife may even be better.
   #2 - no difference.
   #3 - i refuse to trim fingernails because i’m afraid i’ll hurt my girls.
   #4 - wife is better at this for sure.
   #5 - i want to put housework before baby too but don’t always because in the end, baby is more important : )
   #6 and #7 - you’re correct on these two

   i’ll have to think hard about my own post on this one.

   Comment by John Duke — October 13, 2009 @ 1:23 pm
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Normally I don’t give it much thought: Eric is not allowed to have candy or chocolate until he’s at least 3 years old, period. All the Chupa-Chups that storekeepers are trying to bribe him with end up in the bin. We don’t buy candy and don’t eat chocolate in front of Eric - no curiosity, [...]

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1. I have a no candy policy as well, my mother broke that when my first was around 15 months, she gave him a peppermint and has been giving them to him ever since. I don’t keep candy in the house and generally my rule is that they can’t have any. With my oldest in school during the mornings he got a ton of candy for Valentine’s Day and I let him have one peice that day and one the next day and then threw the rest in the trash. Just because he gets it doesn’t mean that he can have it. And I only allow hard candy at that. I usually tell the family no candy, and I make sure to check gifts before it even gets to him so I can take out what he can’t have.

   I’ve learned that you can’t always control what people are going to give your children but you can control what YOU give your kids. My mom knows that she can give my son 1 peppermint when she sees him at church and (so far) hasn’t tried to cross the line. Everyone else either gets their feelings hurt or I just take the candy away before my son sees it.

   Comment by LaToya — April 7, 2009 @ 7:46 pm

2. I agree, you can’t affect everybody else but you can teach your child self control, you can set the rules. It seems like the only way.

   Comment by Emma — April 8, 2009 @ 8:45 am
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