I Said I Would Never... {52 Weeks of Blogging With a Purpose}

When it comes to motherhood, there are many things that we all say we will not do. We will not allow our child to have junk food...ever. We won't bottle feed. We won't breastfeed once baby has teeth. We won't co-sleep. We won't allow our child to cry it out. We won't wear mom jeans. We won't allow our kids to watch TV. We won't mess anything up, we'll always go by the book and do everything right. The lists go on and on and on...

And then we actually become mothers, and EVERYTHING changes. Suddenly you find that those things you said you would never do actually work. You find that occasionally allowing your kid to have a little treat or watch a little TV won't kill them and perhaps you might even get a little work done. You find that mom jeans are actually comfortable, and that's okay every now and again...at least around the house anyway. You realize what you thought would work, doesn't work for your family and your child.

Personally, I cannot think of any real specifics that I really ever said I would NEVER do, but there are certainly things I did not imagine myself doing. Two major examples that come to mind are nursing past the first year (for a full 3.5 years) and co-sleeping. When I became a mother, I'd never heard of 'attachment parenting' and certainly didn't set out to fit that description. I knew I would attempt breastfeeding and give it my best effort but I never dreamed we would continue as long as we did, or that I would become so passionate about the topic. When it came to sleeping, we had a bassinet and a crib before our little man was born and had absolutely every intention to use them. We soon discovered that Shaun had other ideas. He was a horrible sleeper and would wake every time he was moved to the bassinet (forget the crib, we never made it that far). After many sleepless nights, we discovered co-sleeping was the only thing that worked for him and never looked back. Again, these aren't things we set out to do, but that just happened naturally and worked out well for our son and our family.

You see, I have found that in motherhood what works for one child and one family does not always work for another.. When it comes to all those hot topic motherhood issues, there really are no rights or wrongs...just differences. As long as baby is being cared for in the way that works best for them, that is all that matters and only we as mothers know what that means for our individual families. You can say you'll never do something all you want, but when the time comes you might just surprise yourself. When it comes to motherhood, never say never!