Good Advice and Bad Advice

Motherhood can be a great responsibility. I have always been the type of person to try to learn from other people's mistakes, so naturally when I became pregnant I started to interview other moms. I'm sure at least they felt as though I was interviewing them. I constantly asked questions, hoping to be able to make all the right decisions for my children. I suppose in the beginning we all act this way.

I wanted to know everything and be prepared for everything. I took everything everybody said and tried to live and do what they all said would be best. I found out that this will get you in a lot of trouble. People mean well and advice is just overflowing when it comes to children. I have dished out my fair share to unsuspecting people.

One of the worst pieces of advice I followed came when it was time to potty train. I had already potty trained one and now here we go with the second. I did a lot of research and reading and pondering. I wanted to make this training session much quicker and easier than the last. The overwhelming thing I found when it came to boys was that you should just let them run around naked and when they learn how to go, they will instinctively want to use the bathroom. This is not so. I let my youngest run around in the buff and I noticed that not only did he NOT want to use the toilet, but he thought peeing on the couch was way more fun. So here is some unsolicited advice. Don't believe or try everything your friends tell you. What worked for them, may not work for you and your child. You may just end up with a dry cleaning bill and a floor that has to be mopped.