Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Raising a healthy, safe, well adjusted baby. Where do you make your stand?

So, yes it's been a while. Work and school have kept me super busy, and really I haven't wanted to spend any of my additional free time writing. I've been doing a lot of that for my Writing and Research class. So please forgive the lack of updates lately.

So, what's new you ask? Not a ton actually. Things are going well on the baby front. She is kicking a lot more now my wife says, but she's not big enough to feel it yet. Soon hopefully. I'm actually pretty excited to feel her kick. As the pregnancy progresses, we have been wondering more and more what she's going to be like. It's almost an intangible thought that she is actually going to be a real live person. Someone with her own thoughts, feelings, ideas, likes, dislikes, etc. I'm very excited for it, but I also get a little worried. Am I going to be a good role model? Can I suppress the qualities that I dislike about myself when I'm around her so she turns out better than me? How do I even do that?

Aside from worrying about if we'll be good parents, we did finally manage to go do our baby registry. I think I stress out about shopping for the baby more than other things though. I want to make sure we're getting quality products, that are both safe, and what's best for her. Trying to balance out making sure as many things as possible are organic, natural, BPA, PVC, and Pthalate free and so on. However, trying to then balance that with the best products otherwise, in terms of development for the baby, ease of use for us as busy parents, etc. It's not always easy to have to give in one way or the other. How and where do you draw those lines? I know that we can only do so much, but as a parent it's my job to make those decisions, and it's not easy. I realize that people in my generation grew up in houses that may have still had lead paint, we didn't have to wear helmets or pads when we rode a bike, and smoking was still prevalent. I'm sure the plastics I chewed on as a kid possibly had BPA and god knows what else in them. I look at the health issues I had growing up too. Asthma, allergies, chronic ear infections. If I can ensure that the products our child is exposed to doesn't play a part in those or other issues, than I know I'm doing my job. There are other things I'm worried about too as she gets older. Even though since I've been back in school I've relied on the occasional Taco Bell trip or a stop at Wendy's for dinner, and my wife could only eat Arby's roast beef for the first trimester, I really want to avoid fast food completely once she's born. How does that even jive with all the advertising and peer pressure to go to McDonald's that she's going to have to deal with? I mean, I had a birthday party at McDonald's when I was kid. How will I explain to my child that her father hasn't eating there in years( I did break my McDonald's ban for a Shamrock shake with my wife a few weeks back) and has no plans on ever going there.

Are there answers to these questions? How does everyone else deal with stuff like this?

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