"I'll never ever..."

[aussienic]

I will never lie to my children ~ now I tell little white lies on a daily basis

I won't Bf that's gross (ha) or i won't BF past 6 months ~ I BF all 4 all for varying time.. Longest was DS3 and DD 21 months and 21 months and 9 days.

I will keep the kids Vegatarians till well over 1. We kept this up with Ds1, he didn't touch meat till over 13 months lol my other childrena ll had some meat around 9-10 months (in saying that though, DS1 was on formula by 3 months and I felt he didn't need the iron.. Where as my other 3 were all still getting booby juice..

[Snacks]

I used to think smacking was a perfectly acceptable way to discipline a child.
Now I know how useless it is - having done it a handful of times (each time I wasn't in control of myself) I know it just plain doesn't work and sends the wrong message to my kid.

I thought I'd be a patient parent... my impatience astounds me some days.

I always knew I would enjoy my kids. The reality is while I don't enjoy them ALL the time, they do delight me and fill my heart more than I could've imagined.

[MummaSue]

Fabulous thread!

I used to be so judgemental about people who co-slept with their kids. FOR SHAME!! I LOVE IT!

I have to also agree with the other ladies, I never thought I'd love my baby so very much. I knew I'd love her obviously, but not so intensely. I would do anything for her.

Sue xx

[Trillian]

The only one we ever really had was no babies in bed with us, which worked fine for the first three because there was no need to have them in bed with us, but then we had a baby with reflux that didn't sleep from 4 to 10 months old so it became vital that he slept in bed with us so we could get some half decent sleep. SIL is a good one for saying "My kids wont do..." and she is adamant that her kids will do as they are told, all the time and not do the things she doesn't like. she is due in 3 weeks and she is about to find out the hard way that kids aren't very good at listening

[misty]

I would not let them eat junk food until they were older, and then only occaisionally. I was pretty good with DD. Not so good with DS1, he started eating junk food much too regularly at about 1yr. And Sadly, DS2's first food was a milky way - fed to him at the ripe old age of 4??mths by his wonderful sharing big brother. I don't think I ever had a chance with that one.

I never liked the leashed too much, but with DS1 and now DS2 - Absolute godsend!!! especially when trying to chase three kids in three different directions and not loose the pram and your purse at the same time (and they are good for strapping the kid to the chair at the food court so they wouldn't run away.

Those are probably the only two things I said I wouldn't do. BUT there are alot of things I said I would do that I haven't followed through with.
Said I would do baking and cooking with my kids - much too messy and time consuming, not to mention bad for my waistline.
I would do arts and crafts - ditto to the above (although, minus the waistline problem).
I would take them for walks to the park and get out side and play with them - usually much too cold or inconvient.
I would read to them everynight - doesn't work out that way EVER, so we just read when we get the urge during the day.
I would ensure they had a good stable religious education - somehow fallen by the wayside, we rarely even attend church anymore only for special occaisons (lets hope this one gets fixed when they are at school).

I know my DH always used to go on about how his kids would never have runny noses, go downtown half naked or without shoes, that they wouldn't throw tantrums or write on walls, that they would behave in restraunts. I always used to laugh at him, and now he knows why.

[deletedit]

especially when trying to chase three kids in three different directions and not loose the pram and your purse at the same time (and they are good for strapping the kid to the chair at the food court so they wouldn't run away.

This is the biggest advantage of having kids with a big age gap - the biggest one becomes an extra pair of hands to keep an eye on the smaller ones, and the little one is likely to want to chase the big one around so you sort of know where they are in a department store.

Having such a big age gap was also something I'd never considered