Parental Responsibility

The BUMBO seat has been recalled. http://blogs.babycenter.com/mom_stories/more-on-bumbo-recall/

For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, here is a picture of Zach in our Bumbo seat. It was passed down from big brother.

Zach eating his first rice cereal!

It's a soft seat that helps baby sit up, before he/she can sit up without assistance. It's great for parents with limited space (like us!) because it is compact, and allows baby to sit up to play and eat at an early age.

 

The reason it is being recalled is that babies are falling out of the chair, off of high surfaces, and they end up with head injuries. I can't help but wonder what parents think it is ok to put the baby in this chair and walk away?!  At what point is it absolutely ridiculous to recall products? I think this recall is just silly. Do you really need a warning label to tell you not to leave your child unattended. If he/she is squirmy, maybe they don't want to be stuck in a chair at that moment! Just my opinion... If a product is unsafe, recall it. If children are getting hurt because their parents aren't watching them, that's another story!

A delicate balance...

Talking to my husband this weekend, we both realized that we are slightly different people at work than we are at home. My husband works in customer service, so I'm sure that he deals with much worse situations that I do! In fact, I know he does... I've heard stories. "I will ONLY drive a BLUE car!"  Anyway, it got me thinking about all of the different roles that we play in our lives, and how it is so difficult to maintain balance. Here are a few that I could differentiate:

Wife- thankfully, I've known my husband since high school, so there isn't much to worry about here!

Mother- Am I allowing too much tv time? Are we eating enough vegetables? Do they play well with others?

Daughter- Am I giving enough back? Have I transitioned out of the 'child' phase, and into adulthood? Are my parents proud of me?

Sister- Am I supportive enough? Do we communicate enough? or too much? Am I too 'motherly' to them?

Co-worker- Am I too pushy? Do I get enough done? What do people think of me?

Friend- ...and this categeory alone has several different sub-groups. Did we meet in high school, college, after I had children?

OK, that turned out to be more of a list of "What I Worry About"- which is not what I intended!!



We are all many things to many people, and have so much to balance in our lives... we may not even notice the difference. My goal is to integrate all of these roles, so it doesn't feel like I am a 'different person' at work or at home.  Did I miss any 'roles'? Do you feel the same way?

Monday 6 pm

After a very long commute home, I walk in the door at 6 pm.  I find a kitchen flooded in dog pee, a coloring book IN the dog pee, a 64 pack of crayons shredded/chewed and all over the living room, and a murdered stegosaurus in pieces all over the rug.  At 6:05 pm, my poor mother-in-law walks in with my bare foot 3 year old and red faced 9 month old.  She can't find either of their shoes... She tells me about how 9 month old dumped her coffee in her purse, at the market- and how 3 year old decided to open the bag of pretzels before she paid for them, and spilled them all over the floor.

I proceed to lock the front door, walk upstairs still in my work clothes, still having a flooded kitchen, still with a very messy living room- to try to get the baby to bed.  I do not hear the doorbell, and decide it's a good idea to yell at the top of my lungs for everyone else to be quiet. I realize, at 6:15 pm, that there is someone at the door. My 72 year old neighbor decided NOW is a good time to bring over an ice cream mud pie for my husband. It is not a good time.

After opening the door, with a half-naked, hungry, tired baby on my hip- my neighbor tells me he's just going to put the mud pie on my counter. My three year old is bouncing off the walls, jumping on the couch. My basset hound nearly takes him out, and our Christmas tree, on the way to the kitchen. I tell him, "Be careful, the floor is wet!" I don't mention why...

Then I finally feed the baby, change the baby, and get out of my work clothes. 6:30 pm- my husband walks in, takes one look at me and says, "What's wrong?"

And it's only Monday!!