A Mom Blogger’s Advice ~ Week 6

With a new baby on the way, I am planning a virtual baby shower for August complete with tons of baby gear reviews and a massive giveaway. I already have some great companies lined up, and I am working on getting more. (If you have a baby or new mom product and would like to participate, contact me.)

Leading up to the virtual shower, I thought it would be fun to recruit some of my fellow bloggers to share their best parenting advice. So every week from now till August, I will feature A Mom Blogger’s Advice. I hope you enjoy the advice as much as I do (I am printing all of the advice for my baby book).

I’d love to hear from you too. If you have parenting advice you would like to share (whether you are a blogger or not), email me. I’ll feature any advice I get so everyone can enjoy.

Advice from Cheryl at BeautifulSideOfHectic.com

How to maintain your sanity while being a SAHM

This post is purely humor, I use a lot of humor to get through my day to day life. I am a newly minted 30-year-old, stay-at-home mom with 2 girls Lauren who is 4 and Jillian who is 2.5. Jillian was diagnosed with Spastic Diplegia Cerebral Palsy and that is the primary focus of my blog: http://beautifulsideofhectic.com. Oh, I probably shouldn’t leave out my husband too, who has a tendency of acting like a child. 😉 

People Give Opinions- Did you get that plus sign or 2 lines on that pregnancy test? Apparently this informs EVERYONE around you that it’s a free-for-all advice time (or horror story time…) If you’re like me, I seemed to get a LOT of these people. It’s definitely hard to maintain any resemblence of sanity when people bug you all the time.

Babies Cry- (hell, toddlers and kids cry. Oh and I cry too.) Sometimes there will be no rhyme or reason for such outburst. I like to attribute it to the wind blowing the wrong way or the fact that my kids woke up on the wrong side of the continent. (MUCH MUCH worse than waking up on the wrong side of the bed.) Keep in mind (as some of your remaining marbles clank around in your head) that this too shall pass. I have also adopted the, “If you can’t beat them, join them” school of thought as well. This may extend your sanity for a few minutes.

Gage The Hour- ANY time of day could be considered wine o’clock. However, if you’d like to keep drinking before 5 pm to a minimum, feel free to use some Irish Cream (or something similar) in your coffee. Not only will it relax you, but if you live in the great white north as I do, it’ll warm you up on those cold winter mornings.

TV Can Be Your Friend- There are some mornings (ok… a lot of mornings) that I am NOT a morning person. I have no idea how I created 2 little happy chipper morning people, but here they are. And for me? I’m gratetful for my TV. Just 20 minutes of TV time first thing in the morning, allows me to stay connected to the outside world, aka reading all my friends Facebook statuses from overnight. It’s a riviting life I have here, folks. Don’t get all jealous.

HIDE- Seriously. There will be at least ONE point in your journey through parenting that you get overwhelmed or need a break. I often say if I were given 2 solid minutes to pee by myself, with the door closed, I could probably find a way to end world hunger or world peace. Seriously, the possibilites are endless. There are also prime times that hiding from your children is completely acceptable. Like deciding to indulge in some ice cream or chocolate between meals? Totally acceptable. Sneaking off to pee in peace? Totally acceptable.

Also Acceptable?? White lies… No one likes the idea of lying to anyone, but sometimes it’s necessary. Prime example: if your family tends to do Santa Claus at Christmas. Or the tooth fairy. Also this will prove to be very handy when your kids ask you questions you’re not ready to answer “properly” yet.

Don’t Compare- look. I get it. I’m a girl. We compete against other people in MANY areas (not just parenting). You will probably lose the remaining marbles you have left if you start comparing your child to anyone elses child. Even comparing your child to their sibling! This is a dangerous dangerous area, you guys. It sets our mind up for random stressing over mundane things. And even though it’s human nature, try not to compare too much, there are different time lines for everything for a reason!

There ya have it. How to maintain your sanity 101 while being a stay at home mom is complete. Feel free to go pee in peace before returning to your children.