Having a Baby

As parents, we make choices hundreds of times a day. We make them for ourselves and for our children. We try to be good role models. We try to be knowledgeable on issues about our children’s lives. But, this is a complicated world and it’s hard to keep up.

Even though we try our best, the Law of Unintended Consequences can still come up to bite us in the butt. What is the Law of Unintended Consequences? Well, that’s when we can’t see far enough ahead or around the corners of our decisions –when the intended solution actually makes the problem worse.

Parenting decisions are full of these unintended consequences. I recently talked with a mom who said, “We put bumpers in our baby’s bed. We felt like such rebels!” Her feeling was that she was protecting her baby from the bumps and bruises of hitting his head on the crib or having his arms and legs become entangled in the slats. She had been told by her physician that a bare crib was best but that advice didn’t feel comfortable to her. Bumpers are cute. Bumpers are soft. Bumpers make a baby’s world more comfortable and they wouldn’t sell them if they weren’t safe. Would they?

In short, she felt she was being protective of her baby boy. She was being a better mom by providing him a comfortable, well-padded sleep place –until she discovered her beautiful four-month old son dead in his crib with his face pressed up against those bumpers. No parent expects to pay such a devastatingly high price for a simple decision. Blind-sided.

The Law of Unintended Consequences – A perverse effect contrary to what was originally intended, such as when a decision has a perverse outcome that causes the opposite to what was intended.

Unintended consequences happen frequently in our lives. When the American Academy of Pediatrics first stated that babies could sleep on either their backs or their sides they could not predict that a whole new industry of unsafe products called “Sleep Positioners” would develop. Later, when doctors encouraged parents to only place babies on their backs to sleep, no one could have predicted that many parents would follow that advice so closely that babies started developing flat heads and developmental delays.

As parents, we grow, we learn, we gain experience and hopefully, we get lucky enough not to be seriously bitten by the Law of Unintended Consequences.

Go to http://www.SafeSleepTraining.com for more information on safe sleep for baby.

Going room by room, however, it is going to seem a lot like repetition, but in my opinion each room is different on how you baby proof your and make it safe for the new arrival of life’s joy. As we, all know when our babies are no longer babies and they start to become mobile. Whether it’s by rolling, crawling or walking we should know it’s time to baby proof our homes even if it means from the very beginning as you start the journey to parenthood.

Starting out with cleaning the floors whether, it is sweeping the floor or vacuuming. Why? Because we walk on these floors daily and some of us have pets. And whether we have to be specific for our little ones and their safety, this is a must do. In my opinion for my living room, I sweep the floor every day before I go to sleep and during the day. And if you have a dog that’s in and out of the house well that’s different. In my case my dog is in her designated area inside of the house and if she goes through what I do is sweep and mop. It is a pain but I’m cautious especially when we’re putting the baby on the floor even on a play mat the germs, oh those germs. But some parents sweep and mop daily I tend to do that but sometimes there just isn’t much time. A solution to this for wood floors or tile floors would be the Swiffer mop. I have used this and it is a great time saver.

As for vacuuming carpets, any vacuumed be good as long as it sucks the dirty and all of the carpet. But with pets and a baby Vacuum also daily. What I do is sprinkle Glade Carpet & Room Odor Eliminator Powder around all the rooms with carpet. Let it stay for a while I give it a few minutes like ten for the scent to linger on longer and then vacuum the room clean. This I call the WIN-WIN you clean the room getting all small objects you can’t see along with dog, cat etc. fur and you get a good smelling room.

Now for the Living room doors of the furniture. There are devices to keep our little ones out of our stuff. Other than moving all breakable objects away from reach or putting it all away. Cabinet Locks, spring cabinet and drawer lock; there are a variety of child proofing locks that can be used for a variety of cabinets, drawers and etc. especially now day when a lot of furniture has a lot of drawers, cabinets and sliding doors where we place our Flat screen T.V, stereos, our books and other stuff. Just as we need to keep the floor clean and have little pieces same with the places where we put out belong because once they crawling, walking, and standing everywhere there going to get into your stuff and trust me new parents it gets stressful sometimes. Because we want to create a safe environment for our kids but we can’t always keep them safe and that’s way we need to practice repetition and teach our kids what “No” is and what they can and cannot touch.