Tuesday, October 23, 2012

My parenting style. A bit crunchy granola....

A Poem, and a few things about how I like to mother my children..
 
 
 
 
Mother, O' Mother, come shake out your cloth,
Empty the dustpan, poison the moth.
Hang out the washing, make up the bed,
Sew on a button and butter the bread.

Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She's up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I've grown as shiftless as Little Boy Blue,
Lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo.
Dishes are waiting and bills are past due,
Pat-a-cake, darling, and peek - peekaboo.

The shopping's not done and there's nothing for stew,
And out in the yard there's a hullabaloo.
But I'm playing Kanga and this is my Roo.
Look! Aren't his eyes the most wonderful hue?
Lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo.

The cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow,
But children grow up, as I've learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down cobwebs; Dust go to sleep!
I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.

~ Ruth Hulbert Hamilton
 
I found this poem today on a natural parenting site.  I've heard the last stanza before but never the entire thing, so I thought I'd share.  (I think I might nick name Leia "Roo"!) Then, I surfed the site a bit too far, and found myself watching a circumcision video and nearly vomited.   The video was about 6 minutes long but I could only stomach the first minute.  I have never ever heard a newborn scream like that.  I had to change my shirt for all the milk that started to leak in sympathy or something.  I am still nauseous.  If you have a baby boy, you should watch the procedure, with non edited volume, before deciding what to do. And make sure it is a north american video, as in some countries, like australia, they will sometimes anaesthesize (which takes away the screaming, but not the horror.) where as here, anasethesia is not reccomended for little babies.  (and neither is circumcision).  Controversial posting, I know, but, there you have it. 

Mina was taking about babies, eggs, birds and so on, and we got to saying , wouldn't it be weird if humans laid eggs like birds to, and had to sit on the egg for 9 months before the baby could hatch.  I said how awful that would be to have to sit on it for 9 months.  Keith said that humans would have invented an incubator so that we wouldn't have to.  But then we laughed, because we both know that I would have insisted on sitting on that egg for the whole 9 months! No fake incubator in this house! 

Someone was looking for me at church the other day, but did not know who I was.  So his wife told him to look for the woman with a baby tied to her chest.  :)  Yep, that's me!  One Sunday I gave in and let someone in another meeting hold her, and the entire 40 minutes she was gone I felt so uneasy.  Eventually she started to fuss, and was returned to me BY A COMPLETE STRANGER WHO I HAVE NEVER MET IN MY ENTIRE LIFE!!! I am still horrified by this.  I think that will be the last time I let my infant out of my sight.  
 
Also , look - you can make boobs with your keyboard!  (.Y.)  how cool is that? Clearly I am spending way too much time on the internet.  

Now if only I could force myself to jump onto the whole wheat/no sugar/kale smoothie drinking bandwagon...  I just can't enjoy those things! Even though I know I should...

2 comments:

Patience said...

i still don't like strangers touching Jude and he is 7 months old. well, friendly grandpas are allowed to pinch his cheeks a bit, but that's ALL!

Betina said...

Handing my baby off always made me anxious, and baby wearing feels just right to me.

I highly recommend whole wheat and smoothies, but only if you are ready.