Parenting Tips for First Time Parents

As a first time mom, you read the parenting books. You get the magazines. You get advice from you family, friends and coworkers on how to take care of the baby. You know to put outlet covers and cabinet locks on. However, nobody ever gives advice on how to deal with age 2, 3, and 4. There are a few things I wish I had known before I had a child that would've been helpful.

1) Discuss your use of euphemisms first. If you have a little boy who will be learning to speak soon, discuss what you are going to call his various body parts. Let me give you an example. If your son is about 2 years old and says "What's that?" You might want to know what you are going to call it. Otherwise it might inadvertently be called his "tally whacker" and he goes to daycare saying "Teacher, my tally whacker hurts". Get my point? Funny? Slightly. Appropriate? No.

2) Watch your language in the car. Turns out every "Move!", "Get out the way!", "Ugh, hurry up!" can be repeated at any time by a child at an inopportune time. Curb the road rage especially the curse words.

3) Bypass the toddler bed. This might not apply to everyone. However, they only get at best a year's use out of them. Then you have to upgrade anyway. Why not just bypass it?

4) Once your child is potty trained during the day, doesn't magically make them potty trained at night. Its hard for a first time parent to realize just how hard it is to potty train a child at night. Some kids take to it easy. Others, well, they're 5-6 and in pull-ups because they are such heavy sleepers. Its more common then you think. Believe me, pull-ups get expensive over time.

5) Sick time. Save every hour you have. Most new moms are only concerned about having enough sick time to cover maternity leave. However, what they should also take into consideration is that every cough, sniffle, and sneeze at daycare is given to your son and in turn you. Doctors appointments, fevers, the stomach flu, flu shots, and vaccinations all require the use of time away from work. This isn't counting if you get sick or have to go to doctor's appointments. When considering extending your family, bank as much time off work as you can.