I have one for you... my son is over 2 years old and I still rock him to sleep every night. Can't help it, I love the sleepy little boy time.

One day it's mensa tests in the high-chair, and the next it's "Why oh why did my baby shoot up the quickie-mart??"

He'll have plenty of time to be a responsible, intelligent, contributing member of society. Right now, it's his job to drink his bottle, watch Little Einsteins and swing 'till he's out cold...and it's your job to soak it in. Rock-on with your negligent parenting, mama!

PS: Connor had a happy-meal today! OH THE HUMANITY!!!!

Sarah took her milk in a bottle until she was 27 months. We went away on vacation where she didn't really drink any milk, even though we brought some bottles with us. I didn't care. She never had a bottle out in public and never drank water in anything but a cup. Do what works for you!

I love you! Thank you for putting my mind at ease at worrying about not being able to be a stellar mommy. Thank you!

I don't know how you live with yourself. I can't believe that you don't give him anything but organic snacks, while he sits quietly for an unlimited amount of time doing a developmentally appropriate puzzle.

I'm sad to admit it, but everytime I hear Elmo sing his song, I have to poop. It's the only free time I get during the day.

Somehow I don't think that the deranged adults of this world, are a direct result from being fed, nurtured and raised by mom's who gave a shite. you do what you need to to get the job done, whilst retaining your sanity and preserving the well being of your kids.
( i keep rereading the beginning of my post hoping that i made sense)

Hee, hee! Whatever works for you and whatever works so you can get some work done. :) Marcus drank from his bottle until about 18 or 19 months, too. I was just glad he was getting the milk in his body!

Don't put too much stock into what others say. Everyone has a snot-nosed kid running around at some point in their lives. Reciting the alphabet or not! LOL!~

Love ya,
Shari (blessed and tired mom to 3 boys!)

My kids have watched "Big Brother". They've gone to bed without benefit of a bath TWO NIGHTS IN A ROW, and, on more than one occassion, they have eaten room temperature, straight from the package, Pop Tarts for breakfast--in the van on the way to school. I don't know how I live with myself.

I've got you beat. Sara (6 months on Sept. 15) has already watched TV -- she'll crane her neck to watch Star Trek or whatever we're watching, and only recently did we realize that cute look I thought she was giving herself in the mirror above her swing? Busted...she was looking at the reflection of the TV in it! Oh, the humanity!

There's lots more I'm still too new of a mommy to be able to admit without feeling like a negligent parent...give me 10 months or so. (Ha! Like the momma guilt ever really goes away, it just changes focus/shape, right?)

We do our best for our kiddos, and let the "experts" keep coming up with new findings/justifications for their research grants. ;-)

I can't chime in here, really, since I'm not a mom. However, the good news here is that Sammy drinks milk from a bottle. I have a friend who recieves WIC, and one of the questions she had to answer was what her son drinks out of a bottle. One of the available responses was soda. SODA. I am all for parents doing what they feel is right, but... SODA?

Sammy's a lucky little boy. His mamma has a terrific sense of humor! :)

rofl!! You fail @ parenting. You can pick up your last paycheck when you return your uniform.

;)
All we can ask of ourselves is to do our best.

I'm shocked! *My* two-month-old has already completed his application for Doctor-Lawyer school (we didn't help! honest!) and next month he starts as a script writer for 24. So there.

Had to chime in on this one.....I am Mommy to a 3 year old a 17 month old and am 23 weeks into #3. My 17 month old loves his "ba ba" with milk. And, SO WHAT. My daughter had one the day he was born...she was 27 months old.....and, soon after he came home and she saw him drinking formula from a bottle, she stopped cold turkey!! It will work iself out....it always does.
BLESS YOU FOR BEING HONEST!!!!!

I'm glad I'm not the only one. My little man drink milk from his bottle until he was 2 and then continued to have water in a bottle at bedtime for sometime after that. Everyone thought I was horrible - I was just glad he was there. Kinda puts things into perspective, doesn't it?

So this isn't a good time to say my 13 month old eats trix and hasn't said one word yet? Hmmm...

It's worse than the knot out there, isn't it? Whatever happened to helping people? When did women become so competitive and so obsessed with being more perfect than anyone else? Has it really come to that!?

Heehee! Some of my mom friends and I were going to get "Bad Mom" tshirts made up, as we were so sick of being passive-aggressively criticised by the uber-mom set. "You mean Molly eats food that doesn't come from Whole Foods?" or my personal fave -someone once told me "We don't receive television in our home" in the frostiest voice ever - as though I should be shot for suggesting it. Later, she caused a drunk driving accident with the kids in the car. (they're all fine) Yeeps. Sometimes, a little perspective is needed. (I kept picturing her talking to the Judge, "But Your Honor - my children watch no TV - I must be a good mom...")

My personal mantra to get through the day - "There is no way to be a perfect mother, and countless ways to be a better one." Bob's mantra "Let's not end up on the 6:00pm news." :)

Laurel

Thanks for stopping by Jillian's blog - I have read your son's before when I linked to it from another blog - so I have been lurking for some time - funny how heart mom's can circle back around and find each other.

Sounds like you are like every normal mom out there. The ones you mention are the crazy ones - and their kids usually end up to be very neurotic.

I read your post before this one and I am glad you are so open and honest with your feelings - I think it helps to get out the anger and the sadness and not pretend that everything is ok and that we sit and thank our lucky stars every day that we have with our babies - it's not fair and we are human and every now and then it feels good to say "F--- this crap!"

I'll continue lurking around reading about your son and hoping that I can be a support to you as well.

Dina
www.jilliansommers.blogspot.com

You always manage to put a smile on my face!! You're an awesome person & mommy and you will always be your worst critic, so it's a great thing that you still have your wits about you!!

The photo of Sammy on the page right now is my most favorite ever...
~Julie

I think I already knew this, but was recently reminded again by an article I read where it said that actually the American Academy of Pediatrics says NO TV AT ALL for children under 2.

ROFL!!! That just cracks me up. And I suppose they plan on coming to my house to entertain/babysit my son while I take a shower or use the bathroom, right? Because, otherwise, neither of those things would happen. (not to mention a few minutes of sanity. They really do need to meet my son.)

Yeah, all those moms/dads out there with the attitude of "*I* do it the *right* way" drive me nuts. Funny, but I hardly know anyone like that in *person*. Makes me wonder if these people never leave their houses as well. You gotta do what works for you. End of story.

What makes those things bad? I don't get it. or do i have to be a mama to see how bad that is?

This just reminded me of the discussion board thread I was reading two years ago about teaching your children to count; one mom swore that her 3-year-old could count into the hundreds and had asked her what the bank statement was--and here's the best part--when the next statement came in, the little girl purportedly balanced it for her. Um, yeah, sure.

hah! you're too funny, em still loves her bottle (or two) of milk every night before bed and I don't feel compelled to take that away. One day I know she'll just outgrow it, like everything else. Hey, I still curl up with her, too! It's the sweetest, most peaceful, coziest part of my day. She *loves* goldfish and she napped in her swing until she quite literally didn't fit in it anymore. Oh, and I'd never manage to get dressed in the morning, make breakfast, and pack lunch without a little help from Curious George, Clifford and Arthur. I think cartoons are like coffee for toddlers...

You know my daughter is now almost 24 years old. So "back in the day" we weren't really told all those things by the experts and the only educational shows on were Mr. Rodgers and Sesame Street and they weren't on all the time and we really didn't have much of a way to record them (until she was a bit older anyway). So we let her basically watch whatever when we were busy. Sure we had structured playtime for her and encouraged her to use her imagination, but we were both working parents and sometimes the t.v. just had to help out (she is an only child so we were her playmates) if we were busy.

What I'm getting at is she is a very lovely almost 24 year old. She's in college (will graduate hopefully this year), just got married to a nice guy and they've bought a home, etc. I don't think she was harmed in anyway by the "wrong" things we did to her by letting her watch tv and have some junk foods, etc. (we didn't even know what organic food meant then).

Oh sure...her choice of career is a bit odd to us (funeral sciences)...

LOL. You just aswayed my guilt on using the TV as entertainment when I need to get stuff done. The expectation bar is getting set mighty high these days.

i wish mommies out there in cyberland could just be freaking nice and support other mommies. why the judgement? i just do not get it.
anyway, i wanted to give you hugs for your last post too, thinking of you all. ♥

You mean it's bad of me to want my children to watch some TV so I can actually get something done? They are almost 14 months old their not really into TV yet but sometimes I wish they were, just a little bit. They drink out of a sippy cup most of the time but have bottles of water in their bed and man do they enjoy them. They still suck their binkies and I don't care. I have plenty of time to work on that. They eat frozen meals sometimes as well as goldfish crackers. Who cares as long as they are getting some healthy stuff. People are just too uptight sometimes. I'm just glad my little guys are here. They had a rough start. Rock on with your bad mama self. You have a whole fan club out here in the blog world that are doing the same thing.

You rock. I wish you were my mom sometimes. But then, you'd probably correct my grammar too often and we would bicker a lot.

I am right there with you! Miranda is plopped in front of Noggin, with bottle and binky (ugh, she's 2 already) while I finish getting the meatloaf in the oven. And guess what? I don't always like it, but I have no guilt about it.

My daughter will be four in, gosh, less than two weeks and still uses her pacifier at night sometimes.

My four year old works the Tivo better than I do!!

And this is why I lova ya, girl. :)

When we grew up, we didn't have developmental videos, organic food, caps for the electric sockets or socks with no-skid rubber thingies on the bottom. No. We watched Phil Donahue because Sesame Street didn't run 24 hours a day. We ate macaroni and cheese out of the box sometimes with hot dogs. Not soy hot dogs, not free-range-non-offending-Harvard-educated beef hot dogs. Lips and asshole hotdogs! We stuck our fingers in electrical sockets once and never did it again. We slid on the floor and fell ass over tea kettle. And you know what? we're all quasi-normal, functional adults... and we're fine.

You and Jay are doing a beautiful job with Sammy.

Hehehe - counting the years until you can sit back and snort at the new holier than thou Mamas. I was a SAHM in the 70s and 80s when it was soooooooooo uncool... my reply to those "So what do *you* do?" questions: "Anything and everything I damn well please." Let me just say that if we all did and ate what was good for us and actually enjoyed it, no one would have to badger us to do so.

When I was pregnant, I said a lot of statements that started with "I'm never going to let my kid..." (do this or that). Within 4 months of his birth, I'm pretty sure I broke that vow on every count. Kudos to you Mama, you're doing a rocking job. Your kid is happy and thriving, and that's all that matters.