what have you done as a parent that you never imagined you would do?

[Nicole M]

Today I hid my boys' books. Last night they stayed up late reading, which I did know, since I get up at the crack of doom and collapse early. My boys are old enough now that I do not consider it my responsibility to get them out of bed. So when they were still not up at 7:45, I asked my husband what the heck was going on. "Probably up late reading." So I thought I'd spend my free time going over the boys' work from yesterday. Guess what? I discovered that some assignments that were due yesterday were not done.

 

So I went in their room and collected Ink Death and Eragon and hid them. When they finally rolled out of bed, we had a little... discussion.

 

Later, when my oldest returned from classes at the community college (yes, community college!) he ate his lunch and then said to me, "Mother. This is a form of torture. You could be endangering our national security if you keep this up." Nice try.

 

So what have you done that you never imagined you would do?

[bumbledeb]

Well, I've cleaned up way more poop than I ever imagined would be necessary to be a parent.:lol:

 

Staying up late reading though should be included in the 'Rights of the Child' thingamabob. ;) I can remember staying up reading by the light of the moon because my Mum would have heard me switch on the lamp. Even now I sometimes stay up late reading. I consider it a fairly normal human weakness.

[JudoMom]

I've said, more than once, to more than one of my children "No, you may not have any more [salad, broccoli, carrots, peas, etc] until you eat some of your [chicken, hamburger, or other main dish]."

[WTMindy]

I have told my children, "No more reading today!" And, I never thought I would say that!!!

[Nicole M]

Well, I've cleaned up way more poop than I ever imagined would be necessary to be a parent.:lol:

 

Staying up late reading though should be included in the 'Rights of the Child' thingamabob. ;) I can remember staying up reading by the light of the moon because my Mum would have heard me switch on the lamp. Even now I sometimes stay up late reading. I consider it a fairly normal human weakness.

 

Poop. I knew there would be poop involved with parenting, but I had no idea what the volume and frequency of dealing with it would be.... I sypathize.

 

Oh, you're quite right about reading late. Part of our whole deal about wanting to do school at home was that when my oldest was in school, he had no time to read. None. But we've just come off two weeks of no school, because of a death in the family, and they had tons of time to read. That's all they did. So now we need to get rolling with school again, and it wasn't happening this morning, even though I made my expectations very clear last night. I never imagined I would ever say, "Put down that book right now!" And yesterday, it came out of my mouth. The hiding was an act of desperation....

[cin]

Speaking of poop....I knew I'd be cleaning it up, but we had a constipated child and what I did trying to help her get the poop out....I won't even go there....

 

Also, telling my kids that if they touch each other they would be spanked. (This was at the end of a long, long shopping trip. It wasn't really that long, but their behavior made it seem like 10 days at the mall.

 

That's it, off the top of my head. I know there's more, but I'm pretty much comatose right now. WITHOUT a Mike's.

[swellmomma]

I have been known to tell my kids they can not read anymore until they do xyz.

 

OMG too many issues with poop in this house, I never dreamed I would have a child who smeared it, nor a child who held it in then hid it when he went, or that I would have to plunge my toilet once a week due to said constipated child.

 

I never imagined I would be the parent who bribed her kids to not talk for a while with a slurpee from 7-11, or a trip to the dollarama, etc.

 

I never thought I would be the parent to turn on the tv for toddlers jsut so I could sit on the couch and veg for a little while.

 

I also never thought I would raise my voice, spank, or lock myself in the bathroom because of course I would have "perfect" children.

 

I never thought my parents words of "eat the meat" would come out of my mouth, even when it is not real meat like hot dogs, when my kids are getting full. Or no you can't have more salad until you eat your meat.

 

My 5 year old hears me say "no more fruit today" far too often, or no more milk, or no more raisins, or dd hears no more oatmeal etc. I never thought I would have to restrict the healthy stuff.

 

Basically everything I do as a parent I am surprised by lol

[Jane]

LOL. My dh is the one to say the veggie thing and I'm the one to complain about reading. Today I told my dd (10) to "Stop reading that grammar book and do your math!" Um, well it was a pop-up grammar book (high interest reading as far as grammar goes). I think I'm going to pull out a few of my living grammar books and let her read them for grammar tomorrow. It will probably make her day. :)

[Lacie]

Pulling peas out of noses and ears. Explaining to my 3 yo ds that he cannot wear his hair in pigtails. Telling him not to spank his little brother. Getting my 18 mo ds not to chew on the cat's tail.

 

I guess the most unexpected thing is the way I had to watch ds#2 poop to look for any problems, and how I still have to watch everything he puts in his mouth. He is allergic to dairy, soy, and egg, so I read every label and have lists from researching places to eat out safely.

 

 

*oh, and I don't think that staying up late reading is a problem, until it starts affecting schoolwork... then something needs to change. jmo

 

Michelle

[Remudamom]

I'm going in a different direction here. I never thought I'd have to tell my boys half the things I've had to tell them.

 

"Stop trying to ride your bike up the side of the house!" comes to mind, as does "Well, you can't do that in real life, this is not the Matrix."

 

I've had to ground them from their books too though, so it's not all bad.

[Nicole M]

*oh, and I don't think that staying up late reading is a problem, until it starts affecting schoolwork... then something needs to change. jmo

 

Michelle

 

Totally agree. But if they don't get out of bed, I can't do the work with them. I leave for my job right at lunch, so our morning hours are critical. If we don't start early, we don't get everything done, and it's disaster. Guess I should have mentioned that. They'll get the books back when they've finished their work. I'm not a complete ogre. Or terrorist, as my son would say....

[kalanamak]

Putting on a play with plastic elephant models, shredded wheat as hay, and raisins as elephant dung on the tray of a highchair, in the hopes of keeping Mr. Squirm in place long enough to get him full.

[Pam "SFSOM" in TN]

So what have you done that you never imagined you would do?

 

I let my son go away to boarding school the day after he turned eleven.

 

When we lived in Germany, we had British friends who sent their kids back to Great Britain to go to school when they were so, so young. I told my dh that if it were me having to do that, I would emigrate. They would take my kid away to boarding school over my cold, dead body. And what kind of parent sends their kid away at age ELEVEN? Some kind of freaky, unnatural parent, that's who. :glare:

 

I've just about stopped saying "never" around my house.

[Jane Elliot]

I always swore I would never decorate with dead animals. Now I have 5 teenage boys who live in hunter's paradise and love to hunt. In my living area alone, we have 3 bears, 3 elk heads, and several antlers. There would be more, but we are out of wall space. Someday I will return to my policy, but for now they stay.

[5sweeties]

Never say never, around here too. Everything I said I would never do, or that the kids would never do...well, it's done.

 

It's a proven fact. The minute you get up the high-and-mighty to declare anything is beneath this fam, there ya go...it happens.

 

The only things I ever say that about now days, are things the kids are too old to do...but then I figure I'm setting them up to have one of their children do it someday!! :lol:

[Retired]

Did you know that if a kid eats a dollar or a crayon the paper will exit the back side.

 

I went to wipe my ds backside and saw something sticking out his back side and pulled out a part of the dollars that said "this note is legal tender" and another time crayon color 'violet. The kid was obsessed with paper.

He also loved playing finger paint with his poop. I had to start duck taping his diaper on.

[Peela]

I compromise big time on nutrition. When I am tired, its cereal for dinner. My fussy child eats barely any vegetables. Both kids eat too much sugar (by my standards- maybe higher than others).

When I am feeling enthusiastic, its green smoothies and vegetables hidden in spaghetti bolognaise. When I am tired, it's whatever they can find in the cupboard.

[Apiphobic]

what have you done as a parent that you never imagined you would do?

 

Never thought I'd homeschool.

 

Then again, I didn't know anything about it until a couple of years before we started. So, it wasn't that I swore I'd never do it.

[mcconnellboys]

Homeschooled.

 

I didn't even know it existed until I moved here. My oldest still claims that hsing is torture, even though he's been in private school more than a year (he claims that's torture, too). Of course, you have to take that with a grain of salt, because at any given moment, any single component of his life is considered the most horrible of tortures...... I think he's going to major in theatre.....

 

I've completely changed my view of computers and children. I try to keep my children away from computers as much as possible. Some months I do better than others. (That's torturing them, too, by the way.....) When my oldest was young, I thought computers were the new way to learn for the future. They do have their place, but I don't think it's really good for children with ADHD or other such issues, or young kids with developing minds, to spend too much time hooked up to any sort of media.

 

Food. I don't buy chips and soft drinks and keep them in the house on a regular, weekly basis. Ditto for cookies and super-sweet cereals and other standard junk food fare. ("We NEVER have ANYTHING to eat here." The pantry is completely full, as are two freezers and fridges.....) I never knew I would get to be such a food nazi in order to try to safeguard my children's health. I feel assaulted on all fronts by crappy food products.....

 

No one else has to do chores, keep their grades up, have parental controls of any sort on their outings, have their facebook page or email monitored (no matter how infrequently), or have restrictions from riding in cars with other teens as drivers. No one, that is, until we actually speak to any other parent - when we amazingly find that they have the SAME rules we have, wonder of wonders...... I never knew I could love other human beings so much that I would go through years of being the "evil empress" in order to safeguard their lives.....

[Birkenkathy]

I know there's alot about poop here already, but I never expected to have to wash poop out of my hair at 3:00am.

 

Kathy

[Doran]

...threaten to throw away a child's toys if she did not put them away. She put away the ones she liked and left the rest on the floor. I couldn't bear to toss them.

 

...clean a diaper on the hood of a car, in the dark, on Thanksgiving weekend after having fed wearer of diaper baby food prunes to relieve her constipation. It had been four days since we'd had a dirty diaper.

 

...tell a child that if she wanted to "wrestle" with her stuffed animal, she needed to do it in the privacy of her bedroom

 

AND LATER, MUCH LATER

 

...explain that pregnancy was not the result of a bad diet.

 

...hear any child of mine ask, "How could you even still love me!?"

 

...use as punishment the removal of reading or, in the case of my delayed reader, audio-listening privileges.

 

...ever get this far as a parent and still have so many danged questions about parenting still left to answer.

[Alenee]

Did you know that if a kid eats a dollar or a crayon the paper will exit the back side.

 

I went to wipe my ds backside and saw something sticking out his back side and pulled out a part of the dollars that said "this note is legal tender" and another time crayon color 'violet. The kid was obsessed with paper.

He also loved playing finger paint with his poop. I had to start duck taping his diaper on.

 

:lol::lol::lol:

[Amy in Orlando]

...ever get this far as a parent and still have so many danged questions about parenting still left to answer.

 

:iagree: Yep. The poop and the tantrums and bedtimes actually sound kind of good compared to the things you have to talk about with older kids.

 

I vote Doran writes a book.

[homeschoolmom]

Try to catch vomit in my hands, be thoroughly puked on by my then 4 year old, and NOT throw up myself in response.

 

This from the person that still hates/avoids cleaning up cat gack.

[Stacia]

Touch a snake.

 

In trying not to pass on my severe phobia to my kids, I have let a snake be rubbed on my arm at the local raptor & reptile center. More than once.

[Guest janainaz]

nurse, stay home, homeschool and let them sleep in my bed.

[Zelda]

Make mistakes. Get mad at my kids. Not know exactly what to do.

 

I was a rather opinionated pre-parent.

[RoughCollie]

Frankly, it never even crossed my mind that I'd have triplets. After that, nothing surprises me much any more. Oh, I have dozens of stories to tell about things I didn't exactly expect, but I pretty much roll with the punches.

 

Except when I grounded one of my sons from reading, for the same reasons you did. That bothered me for a few minutes.

Edited October 22, 2008 by RoughCollie

[Vida Winter]

I never imagined I would:

 

- Lock myself in the bathroom to get a few minutes of peace.

- Let my kids eat ice cream for breakfast (not all the time, LOL).

- Do so much laundry

- Beg and try to bribe my child to poop on the potty

- Throw away a set of sheets that had been thrown up on (rather than try to wash them).

- Let my 8yr old pluck my eyebrows :blink:

 

~Dana

[cathmom]

Frankly, it never even crossed my mind that I'd have triplets. After that, nothing surprises me much any more. Oh, I have dozens of stories to tell about things I didn't exactly expect, but I pretty much roll with the punches.

 

Except when I grounded one of my sons from reading, for the same reasons you did. That bothered me for a few minutes.

 

I never expected to have twins! Up until I saw 2 heads on the ultrasound machine, I did not think I was having twins.

 

It used to annoy me greatly when I would ask my mom what we were having for dinner and she said, "Food." I swore I would never answer that to my dc, but, alas, I have.

 

She also used to tell me to stop reading and go play because I read too much.

[Aggie]

Make mistakes. Get mad at my kids. Not know exactly what to do.

 

I was a rather opinionated pre-parent.

 

Opinionated? Why, I *knew* it all...'twas no opinion!:lol:

 

" never imagined I would:

 

- Lock myself in the bathroom to get a few minutes of peace.

- Let my kids eat ice cream for breakfast (not all the time, LOL).

- Do so much laundry

- Beg and try to bribe my child to poop on the potty

- Throw away a set of sheets that had been thrown up on (rather than try to wash them).

- Let my 8yr old pluck my eyebrows

 

~Dana"

 

That's quite a list! :lol:

[Deidre in GA]

more Algebra.

[Sasharowan]

Don't dump Koolaid on the cat!

 

Why yes, I have a 2yo, thanks for asking. :)

[melissel]

Try to catch vomit in my hands, be thoroughly puked on by my then 4 year old, and NOT throw up myself in response.

 

I was SOOO going to say the same exact thing! :lol: The first puking episode didn't yield much, so it seemed reasonable that I might be able to catch it the second time. I was wrong.

 

I also never anticipated having to say things like, "Stop nursing your sister!" and "For the last time, leave your v@gin@ alone! You're going to make it sore!" Oy.

Edited October 23, 2008 by melissel

[KidsHappen]

Try to catch vomit in my hands, be thoroughly puked on by my then 4 year old, and NOT throw up myself in response.

 

This from the person that still hates/avoids cleaning up cat gack.

 

:rofl: My hubby has done this.

[Guest]

I've said, more than once, to more than one of my children "No, you may not have any more [salad, broccoli, carrots, peas, etc] until you eat some of your [chicken, hamburger, or other main dish]."

 

Haha my dd(5) and ds(7) would much rather eat salad, broccoli, carrots, peas, etc than chicken, hamburger etc. They are always asking me, "is this healthy" lol!!!

[Nicole M]

..."For the last time, leave your v@gin@ alone! You're going to make it sore!" Oy.

 

Oh. My. Gosh. The very first time I babysat, in high school, the mom told me in quite a nonchalant sort of way, "Jane likes to masturb@te. We tell her that's okay, but she'll need to go to her room to do that in private." I hadn't thought about that for years, but your line reminded me. :smilielol5:

[melissel]

Oh. My. Gosh. The very first time I babysat, in high school, the mom told me in quite a nonchalant sort of way, "Jane likes to masturb@te. We tell her that's okay, but she'll need to go to her room to do that in private." I hadn't thought about that for years, but your line reminded me. :smilielol5:

 

:lol: Now, see, as a mom that doesn't shock me, but as a teenage babysitter? I can only imagine! I figure it's only a matter of time before we're facing that; right now she's only contemplating...pondering...examining...ruminating...studying... I've never seen a little girl so obsessed with her own bits, I swear!

[Zelda]

I was SOOO going to say the same exact thing! :lol: The first puking episode didn't yield much, so it seemed reasonable that I might be able to catch it the second time. I was wrong.

 

I also never anticipated having to say things like, "Stop nursing your sister!" and "For the last time, leave your v@gin@ alone! You're going to make it sore!" Oy.

 

:rofl:

[homeschoolmom]

:lol: Now, see, as a mom that doesn't shock me, but as a teenage babysitter? I can only imagine! I figure it's only a matter of time before we're facing that; right now she's only contemplating...pondering...examining...ruminating...studying... I've never seen a little girl so obsessed with her own bits, I swear!

 

LOL, you guys are killing me! :lol:

[Karen sn]

Imagined my life not as a parent.

[KidsHappen]

There are some things that you just don't want to know about your children and other things that you just don't want to share with them. It is a fine line between just enough info and too much info.

[ncmomo3]

Remove an entire piece of bubble gum from the depths of a belly-button.

[lynn]

take a lego out of a nose.

 

clean up throw up. never thought of who would do this if it happened well.... thank God we get the strength to do this without passing out or throwing up ourselves.