Only Diamonds Last Forever

This Valentine's Day, remember only diamonds last forever and enjoy the moment :)

New parents often hear this sort of arbitrary "advice": "if you don't stop your child from doing X by X-age, they will never stop doing it!"

Or

"If you don't teach your child to do X by this age, they will never be able to do it."

The problem with this sort of crap (and it is crap) is that it scares parents and is simply not logical. Parents will second-guess their instincts and do stupid things in order to comply with the specific timeline some idiot has made up.

I once heard a doctor quote on a website: "if you don't teach a child to eat with a fork by the age of 12 months, they will never be able to do it."

One, NEVER is a really strong word. Two, what's so special about 12 months? What about 12.5 months or 13 and 2 weeks? Three, what if you live in a culture that doesn't use forks? Is that really so bad? Did you know that the MAJORITY of people in the world DO NOT USE FORKS to eat? Are they missing out?
What about me?  I didn't grow up using chop sticks but somehow managed to learn to use them as an adult. Fancy that! And you know what, your average person will not starve because they don't have the exact correct eating utensil. They will find a way to stuff their face.

What you should be asking yourself is, does the child eat food? Yes? Fantastic! Now go find a real problem to worry about.


I always love the whole, "if you don't get them out of your bed/off your breast by....."
Really? I can totally picture my gangly pimply 15 year old, with stinky feet and a creaky new man-voice, jumping into my bed after school and saying, "mama, can you cuddle me?" Sure. Hell just froze over. It's just not going to happen even if I wanted it to happen (and believe me, I don't!).

Look man, enjoy your kids when they are small. They are only small once! Let them develop how they do, even if sometimes it seems a little slow. They will only need you this way once and then they grow up and need different things. I savor those feet kicking into my kidneys and the kisses on my face in the morning because nothing lasts forever.

Baby them while they're babies. That's our job.