Tulas/baby carriers, commitment to BFing (nearly all my friends combo fed or were done BFing by six months), and super healthy eating. The internet makes it sound like no child has ever had McDonald's.
Post by Dumbledork on Jul 31, 2015 23:08:20 GMT -5
Car seats for older kids.
Dd will be six in two weeks. She's 40lbs and 42 inches, still falls asleep in the car and isn't mature enough to sit in the right position during a car ride in just a seat belt. She's still in a five point harness and she's fine with it. Or was until we visited family last week.
Her cousins, one almost exactly a year older and one three months younger and only slightly heavier than her, aren't even in backless boosters anymore. I can see not having them in five point harnesses, but I'm pearl clutching at five and no booster at all.
DD is still mostly happy with her seat but she was a little disappointed when her "When I'm six, I can sit in a seat like you momma!" speech was met with a sorry, but no.
Post by winecheery on Jul 31, 2015 23:15:59 GMT -5
Extended rear-facing. Everyone rolls their eyes at me and says I could've turned her already, blah blah, cramped legs, blah.
My group is divided on the screen time thing. I'm one of the few who's kid has never sat down in front of the TV for anything, ever. She has seen 1-3 min clips of like, Bambi, and Winnie the Pooh from my phone. But that's it. I have some friends who feel very strongly about this too, and then a couple others who are like waaaaay more breezy. I don't judge (really I don't) but I do get a bit pearl clutchy (wilted) I just don't love TV, so that's part of my thing with screen time.
Post by awkwardpenguin on Jul 31, 2015 23:38:00 GMT -5
Baby led weaning Extended rear facing is rare but not unheard of in my circle. Car seat safety knowledge is pretty rare IRL in general. I actually only know one SAHM IRL, but I think that just means I need more friends.
I live in a hippie parenting bubble, so everyone cloth diapers and babywears, and I know many extended breastfeeding moms.
I cannot think of many things talked about online that I don't see in real life in Seattle, the land of yuppie hippies with mass quantities of disposable income apparently.
This. I think my area of WA/OR is pretty consistent with the Internet "rules".
share.memebox.com/x/uKhKaZmemebox referal code for 20% off! DD1 "J" born 3/2003 DD2 "G" born 4/2011 DS is here! "H" born 2/2014 m/c#3 1-13-13 @ 9 weeks m/c#2 11-11-12 @ 5w2d I am an extended breastfeeding, cloth diapering, baby wearing, pro marriage equality, birth control lovin', Catholic mama.
I really want to add to this thread, but I don't know enough babies and moms IRL. The interwebs has set impossible standards for me. I am failing at screentime and experimenting with FF.
I live in an area of crazy helicopter and tiger moms. So I'm crazy breezy by their standards. DS1 is 4 and can't read yet. DS2 is 15 months and can't walk or talk yet. And every time we're around local moms I feel like total shit.
My last city was a hippie parenting oasis. Or I was oblivious to others. My circle of mom friends is not far off from The Internet.
This is my experience... Attachment parenting... Breastfeeding.... Baby led weaning... Car seat nazi... Amber teething necklaces.. Baby wearing in various wraps.... It all exists here in my world...
My worlds are too merged. All my reall BFFs are on some baby sites and have internet mom friends. One BFF lurks here as does one of my sisters. The other sister is super crunchy.
So basically my real life people do BF excluaively and some cloth diaper.
I don't think women I work with actually BF though. I see pregnant women all the time and almost no one uses the lactation room.
I know no one who cloth diapers. I do know that I look strict with some of what dad is allowed to eat as far as snacking and juice and regarding TV time. But then I'm much more breezy than most moms I know about letting DD learn to explore and allowing her to fall and get hurt so that she can learn (within reason of course!)
My H's friend's wife isn't on any mommy boards but she BF up to a year, cloth diapers, does extended rearfacing, and monitored screen time (until #2 came along anyways). H's aunt is a vegan and really into attachment parenting.
This is going to sound bad, but we've definitely noticed an age divide on these things. My friends who are moms are around my age (mid-30s) and we probably read 4 pregnancy/baby books each on average. The young 20s moms I know follow what their moms tell them to do. I find it fascinating from a sociological perspective.
I think I'm seen as middle of the road on most of this stuff. DS watches TV in the morning so we can get ready for work. He doesn't drink juice or eat sweets. We use disposable diapers. I BFed as long as my body let me. I mostly use a stroller when out with DS. He's rear facing in the car. None of this is unusual in my circle. But I also see a fair amount of cloth diapers and baby wearing and NIP and I don't live in a crunchy area at all.
It's hard for me to tell. I think many of my more "vocal" friends (ie:post stuff on FB about parenting stuff) are into breastfeeding, car-seat stuff, cloth diapers, and the like. It's really hard to tell what the "non-vocal" ones do or think, as most of my mommy friends don't live near me. My gut feeling is that car seat safety and breastfeeding awareness are generally higher in my generation (ie: thirty-somethings) than it is among younger moms (though I know a few exceptions to that), and I know very few people IRL who cloth diaper because most moms I know use day care and very few day cares outside of major hippie-metro areas are willing to "deal with" CDing.
RFing and car seats in general. A lot of people here turn their kid at 1, and have their kids in a too-advanced car seat for their age. My good friend has a petite 5yo and a average-sized 3 year old, who are both already in high-back boosters. DS is 7 months older than her 3yo, and is no way ready for a booster.
Also BFing. In my mommy group I am definitely the longest BFer even though DS self-weaned at 23 months. That's not long by MMM standards.
Movie ratings. People I know take their 3yos to see The Avengers, Jurassic World, Guardians of the Galaxy, etc. I'm apparently a prude for not taking my preschooler to PG-13 movies.
BLW. One of my bf's did it, but she has a super crunchy pedi.
CD, our daycare does it, but there is only one other kid in DS' class that does it.
Baby wearing with anything other than a Bjorn. I do see a lot of ergos/tulas at target and Costco though.
Screentime. One of my friends asked me what shows A watches now. I said we don't have the TV on when he is awake, and she looked at me like I had 3 heads.
I know most of my friends RF until 2, but I doubt much beyond that.
Post by thebreakfastclub on Aug 1, 2015 7:04:43 GMT -5
I also think being very conscious about birth experience, birth plans, midwifery, is more of an Internet thing. Anything other than a hospital birth with epidural is Internet only for me.
I have one friend who does all the internet things, and honestly, I think she needs to unclench a little. She sometimes comes off pretty high and mighty about some things.
Everyone else I know is a pretty even mix, but I have BF both my kids to a year, and that's the longest of most of my friends. But I think in the grander scheme if statistics, is pretty right-on.
No one I know IRL is into fancy name brand kid stuff... Like Baby gap is the fanciest. No one does HA or tea collection or half the other brands people talk about here.
Mommy war stuff. SAHM vs. wohm, bfing vs. ffing, etc. irl most people are supportive and gracious. There are some idiots of course but on the whole I would say most people don't have time to even think that much about other parents' choices.
Red shirting. Never heard of it until here. And sometimes moms in my parents group will post 'I want to keep my kid home for another year, what do you think?' And 99 people say 'nope. He's ready' and one person says 'I want to send my kid early. Is that allowed?'