When I became a parent, I was inundated with well meaning advice, tips and stories. As a first time mum, I took a lot of these tips on board and tried to apply them to our life. However, as we got further down the parenting road, we soon realised that a lot of these tips that were supposed to ‘change our lives’ were actually myths.
The one I remember the most is how our baby MUST have COMPLETE silence when she was sleeping. We studiously eliminated all noise sources from our house – when she slept there was no hoovering, washing or TV allowed. Consequently we spent several hours a day unable to do anything at all while the baby slept. One day I just had too much to do, so while Gemma slept, I *shock horror* hoovered the living room. Surprise surprise she didn’t move a muscle.
Babies actually like a bit of background noise – when they are in the womb they can hear many things, from your voice to your favourite music. So to then be exposed to complete and utter silence must be a very unsettling experience. Many parents find babies actually sleep BETTER with some sort of background noise – the washing machine, a cot mobile or a radio.
Once that parenting myth had been busted we actually realised that a lot of the advice you are given, while well meaning, is actually outdated rubbish. We learnt ourselves, through trial and error, what worked for us.
It would have been really helpful to have had some sort of parenting class to attend where we could have received practical, up to date advice. CANparent is a new government initiative aimed at providing high quality parenting classes to support the parenting skills of both mothers and fathers. There are lots of myths you will encounter as a new parents – these classes can help to bust those myths and provide advice that REALLY works – I know I would have found this invaluable in those early days! Read more about the classes and stay up to date with expert parenting advice by visiting and “liking” the CANparent facebook page.
There is also a fun CANparent myth-busting video that I would recommend watching – it will make you smile!
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Those classes seem such a good idea….Even if all they do is dismiss some of the myths x
Exactly, I think just the myth-busting art would be so useful for new parents!
We are intentionally noisy when our kids are sleeping 🙂
It’s the best idea!
I’ve always made noise around my sleeping kids