What books say:
Main meals should be with minimal distractions !!!

What I do:
At lunch and dinner, when feeding Yash, he eats 3-4 spoons properly. Then he decides he does not like what he is eating, and I distract him so much that he finishes the food.

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What books say:
No T.V until age 2

What I do:
Evenings I cannot stop myself from watching a few sitcoms. I am so tired and bored that I feel I shld be able to do atleast that much. Yash is generally playing and does'nt actually sit and watch it with me , but he is looking at the screen sometimes.
In the T.V. somebody said \";Bye,bye\"; and Yash suddenly waved bye, BUT his back was towards the T.V !!! I was surprised .

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What books say:
Do not nurse or rock your baby to sleep.

What I did:
I always nursed Yash to sleep, even at nap times; But he is weaned off now and I have no problems with his night time sleep since he is soo tired that he will sleep off( at 11.00 pm). But naps are a different story....... its play until I can barely keep my eyes open and sleep coz I can't help it now !

So, there it is. 3 confessions that I can think of right now :-))
Please share so that I feel less guilty....

Love,
Jayashree Vani replied. Dear Jay and all
By reading your messages, I am feeling more and more guilty coz I am confessing from the day one about these things.

Rishi watches TV for hours in the day(at least not continuously) We don't completely switch off TV but amma watches a couple of serials in the afternoon and for about an hour or two in the evening. When Shyam is at home, he watches TV most of the time. Rishi is but interested only in ads. He won't watch anything else, but with ads, he is mesmerized.

I put him in his high chair, give him some toys and feed him solids. Or he watches ads and I feed him, that time he doesn't do any nakhra at all to eat. so basically this has become a habit.

We still have to sing to him and rock him to sleep. Maurni, I think Vrisa is an angel (touchwood) I cannot imaging Rishi going to sleep on his own. You are indeed a super-mom.

Can't make Rishi read, first of all, I myself do not understand teh concept. What will they read now? I got one book for him and he is more interested in tearing the pages!!!

Love to Kich, Yash, Vrisa and her bro!

Vani padma replied. Hi!!

Other than the TV part, i'm onto the distractions/rocking to sleep patterns too..

Kichu reads books or is generally crawling about/playing when we feed him. I dont have a high chair (dont plan to get one either) and no other contraption where i can confine him..

He still is rocked (carried around) to sleep. My dad does this. Nowadays i dont nurse him to sleep 'coz i am weaning him off all feeds except night and early morning..

Kichu has another problem. He wakes up every time he turns over in his sleep and expect me to cuddle him/pat back to sleep.. Donno why this is happening.

Chalo.. gotta do some work at office!!

Love to kiddos.
Paddoo maurni replied. Hi Jayashree,
Here are my deals:
When Vrisa eats, she has a specific book and a specific toy that she plays with while she eats. If she doesn't finish her food, I don't force her, though. She goes through phases sometimes where the portions of her meals differ.
I turn on teletubbies for her for about half an hour 4-5 times a week, usually in the evenings, after her dinner and before her bedtime. This allows me to get dinner ready for hubby and I or sometimes I watch it with her. She seems to have learnt a lot of things from this tv show.
I used to nurse Vrisa to sleep when I was BFdng, but since she's been weaned off I give her milk and then put her in her crib and she will fall asleep on her own. This goes for her nap times as well. I don't let her take anything in the crib with her because the one time I tried to let her have her book in there, she kept reading it for an hour and didn't sleep.
Other than that, I leave her to play by herself for sometime during her awake hours and take her out to swimming and playgroups where she gets to play and interact with other kids and gives her enough stimulation to tire her out and her bedtime is at 7.30-8.00 pm.
~M