My Top Ten Parenting Choices Others Criticized

1) Cloth diapering-- I think everyone thought I was crazy to decide to cloth diaper at first. A big reason for this is that when people hear cloth diaper, they picture the old time cloth diapers with plastic covers and diaper pins. They don't realize how far cloth diapering has come since those days. Once they see the pocket or all in one diapers, a lot of people come around to the idea that it would be a great idea to save money and reduce our carbon footprint.

The biggest criticism I still get about cloth diapers is the amount of laundry it requires. It is true that there are a couple extra loads of laundry per week, but it is an hour or less total time (and that is with stuffing all the pockets.) Plus to not have to buy a box of disposables a week and spend all that money on disposables, I will give up that hour willingly. Plus cloth diapers are so cute!

2)  Extended rear facing-- I have decided to keep Destructo rear facing until at least age two.  It truly is the safest way for him to travel at this point.   I will probably just keep him rear facing until he hits the limit on his seat which is 45 pounds rear facing.  I have this car seat, Diono Radian RXT Convertible Car Seat, Shadow, and really like it but more on that in an upcoming post about traveling with baby.  I am going to be doing a blog post about extended rear facing and all the reasons it is important sometime later this week. 

3)  Extended breast feeding--  I have posted about this one before and my reasons for extended breastfeeding (see post here.)  Needless to say I get a lot of flack for still nursing my child at nearly 15 months old.

4)  Baby led weaning--  Again I recently did a post here about my reasons for doing baby led weaning instead of purees.  (See post here.)   I think a lot of people truly thought my child was going to choke to death when I first started this, but it has worked out great.

5)  Low/No Sugar--  I try very hard to keep added sugars out of Destructo's diet.  I am not saying I don't let him have a treat every now and then, but on a daily basis I try to keep the added sugars to a minimum.  I do feed him yogurt every night since it seems to help him sleep better (and that has more sugar than I would like.)  He also gets a small handful of whole wheat graham crackers or animal crackers if he eats his meals well.  Sugars are just "empty" calories that are linked to tooth decay and obesity amount other things.  I would rather satisfy Kai's sweet tooth with a handful of blueberries or strawberries than cookies since he is getting tons of vitamins along with his snack.

6)  No Overnight Visits--  I haven't let Kai stay overnight with the grandparents or his aunts thus far.  A big part of that is breastfeeding since I hate pumping and don't want to have to pump just to let him sleep some where else.  But I also just feel he is too young to be away from his momma over night and if he wakes up scared, I want to be there to comfort him.  I am pretty sure this one drives grandma nuts since she wants to keep him overnight.  Maybe one day.  You know when I have another kid and have to have someone watch him while I am in the hospital.  :)

7)  No TV before one and very limited TV after one--  Most people don't see the damage with letting their young children watch television as long as it isn't all the time.  I did not let Kai watch any TV before one.  Studies show that watching TV before the age of one (and even two) can cause concentrations problems, is linked to obesity, and can lead to less child-parent interaction thereby slowing down language development.  I try to keep him from watching cartoons as a young child's brain isn't developed enough to process the rapid picture changes in cartoon.  I do let him watch Sesame Street, Yo Gabba Gabba, and Baby Einstein sporadically when I need to get something done.  But I keep it to less than a half hour to an hour a day and he isn't that interested anyways.  I prefer to be reading books with him or letting him play independently with his toys.

8)  Learning Toys Only--  I am not saying that Kai doesn't have any noise making, just for fun toys.  But I have a big preference for open ended learning toys (and especially toys not made from plastic.)  A child can do 20 activities with a set of blocks.  They can build castles, pretend cook food, hit the dog with them.  I tend to only get Kai learning toys like blocks, animals, books, puzzles, his wooden tool set, stacking cups, etc.  He has gotten some other toys, but honestly he doesn't much care for the noise making battery operated toys and they are usually given away.  And that suits me just fine since they typically drive me up the wall.

9)  Healthy smash cake for his first birthday--  Everyone felt that I should just let him eat a store bought smash cake loaded with sugar.  I felt I should make him one and that way it at least had some nutritional value to it.  He ended up with an applesauce cake with cream cheese frosting.  Still delicious, but at least not quite as much sugar.

10)  This was not exactly a parenting choice, but a pre-parenting choice?  My decision to attempt a med-free delivery.  I just figured that women's bodies are made to deliver a baby so why should I alter that process.  Everyone told me I was crazy and that was why epidurals were invented.  That being in pain couldn't be better for the baby.  That there was no way I could do it.

In the end, I did end up having to get pitocin and an epidural since I had been in labor for 70 hours and was failing to progress (see birth story here) but by gosh I could have done it if he had been positioned correctly and his little chin wasn't catching.  I do regret having to resort to pitocin and an epi since I feel it was a big contributor to my breastfeeding woes (see post here.)  But on the other hand, I don't regret it because it got my baby boy safely here and I didn't end up needing a C-section.


When it all comes down to it, we make the decisions we feel are best for our children.  The decisions I make, might not be best for your child and vice versa.  I just wish everyone had the same every child is different dust opinion.  There is nothing more anxiety inducing than questioning a new mother's decisions for her child.  Especially since that new mother is already questioning every single decision she has made all by herself.

What decisions have you made that others have criticized?


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