What is the worst/dumbest thing anyone has ever said to you about parenting stuff? II - Page 11

[AoifesMom]

Regarding my then 3 month old baby, "You can't be expected to keep getting up in the middle of the night. You MUST Ferberize that baby. It did a world of good for my baby." From a man who's daughter now has severe emotional and behavioral problems.

[jsnv]

When my ds got his first tooth at 6 months my MIL told me it was time to wean him and give him things like fish to eat.

Also when he was really young she told me that I should put him in the sun to take naps so his skin can toughen up.

[minkajane]

Originally Posted by jsnv

Also when he was really young she told me that I should put him in the sun to take naps so his skin can toughen up.

I have a baby book from 1969 and one of the things it emphasizes is that babies must be laid in the sun from the age of several weeks old, increasing in length to 30 minutes twice a day at (I think) six months.

It's a CRAZY book. I'll see if I can dig up a link to the thread where I posted the nuttiest stuff if anybody wants to see it.

[nolonger]

Originally Posted by minkajane

I have a baby book from 1969 and one of the things it emphasizes is that babies must be laid in the sun from the age of several weeks old, increasing in length to 30 minutes twice a day at (I think) six months.

It's a CRAZY book. I'll see if I can dig up a link to the thread where I posted the nuttiest stuff if anybody wants to see it.

I would LOVE to see it! i was born in '65. my mother used to put me in a soundproof room "so your crying wouldn't disturb Sis" and I STILL have weird nightmares about the ceiling.

[hollyvangogh]

Whew!

Finally read all the posts in the two separate threads! Feels like quite the accomplishment.
Subbing now!

My brother in law and I have had fun coming up with all the things I'm "doing for two" now that I'm pregnant. It's all joking so not to be taken seriously. But there have been some funny ones...being cranky for two, sleeping for two, etc.

When I told my mom I was pregnant she told me to make sure I take prenatal vitamins and omega-3. I told her I had been for a while and she said "Oh, so this was planned?" She really wanted me to finish my degree first so I wasn't really upset that she said it. She's actually pretty cute, always asking if I'm doing this or that and how I'm feeling.

Can't wait to see what kinds of comments I get once everyone else knows I'm expecting (only 6 weeks today).

[Ruthie's momma]

How funny!

Originally Posted by spmamma

DH and I had met friends for dinner tonight and we were all standing outside the restaurant afterward. A lady looked at DD who was playing on the ground and said to me, "No socks?!"

We live in California. It was over 60 degrees out. She wasn't cold. I said, "It's okay."

Lady: "But it's cold. She should be wearing socks."
Me: "It's not cold. She's fine."

I received a similar comment from an older women while out and about with my little one...this was a really warm fall day...pushing 70 degrees!

[Ruthie's momma]

This is the dumbest remark I have received!!!

Originally Posted by avalanchelynn

i don't know about this being the dumbest, but it was most annoying to me

"this baby shouldn't be so attached to you, she's too close to you" - courtesy of mil...

total screwball, wtf of a remark..

My MIL has told me this on more than one occasion! It is usually followed by something about how getting away from my baby would be good for me?!?!? I first received these comments when my DD was less than a month old...and I am still hearing them several months later!

[mamalisa]

Originally Posted by minkajane

I have a baby book from 1969 and one of the things it emphasizes is that babies must be laid in the sun from the age of several weeks old, increasing in length to 30 minutes twice a day at (I think) six months.

It's a CRAZY book. I'll see if I can dig up a link to the thread where I posted the nuttiest stuff if anybody wants to see it.

Ds was pretty jaundiced and ended up back in the hospital to be under the billi lights when he was a newborn. The dr told me when I took him home to put him in front of a sunny window (it was December) for a bit every day to help flush the rest of the bili out. I'm not sure if it worked or not, but I did it and he improved pretty fast.

[dubfam]

Originally Posted by minkajane

I have a baby book from 1969 and one of the things it emphasizes is that babies must be laid in the sun from the age of several weeks old, increasing in length to 30 minutes twice a day at (I think) six months.

It's a CRAZY book. I'll see if I can dig up a link to the thread where I posted the nuttiest stuff if anybody wants to see it.

Ooohhhh...please post the link...pretty please? :

[minkajane]

Found it! Here you go. Some of it's funny, but some of it is just plain scary.

[the elyse]

WOW. i don't know what to say to that!

[fresh_water]

I can't think of any doozies at the moment, but I know I've heard them. I just tend to tune them out.

I'm just sitting here thinking that I hope I never said any of that stuff in talking to parents before I had kids. :

[Lizzardbits]

nak.

we spent all day yesterday with my in-laws. Alex is teething like mad right now and the entire day, MIL was adamant that we give Alex a pork chop BONE to teethe on because she was given a pork chop bone to gum when she was a baby.

my hubby said that if she ever did try to give Alex a bone of anysort, he'd slap it out of her hand so quick she wouldn't know what happened--yay hubby! i didn't say anything to her because i know that she'll never be left alone with alex anyway.

[dubfam]

Originally Posted by minkajane

Found it! Here you go. Some of it's funny, but some of it is just plain scary.

Thanks!!
That was hilarious and horrifying all at the same time!

My DH was born in 1970, traumatic birth (forceps etc)...it makes me wonder if this is how he and his mother (who was only 19) were treated.

WOW a lot can change in 40 years!!!

I had to give that thread a bump!!

[nolonger]

yea, that 1969 book brings back some less than pleasant memories; i was instructed to "playpen train" a six month old i babysat when i was 13, which would have been 1978. he wasn't crawling yet or even sitting up by himself much, but i was supposed to put him in the playpen in front of a teevee, turn on sesame street, and leave the room.

the part about comfort nursing being a "waste of time" kind of explains the earliest stupidest advice i got from my own mother, who was actually fartly crunchy for her time-unmedicated hospital births for herself and later pro-homebirth and not shocked by UC, although she doesn't know i had one three weeks before my 43rd birthday, and she nursed Sis a full year and me for 18 months. Mom seemed very happy and excited to impart a family secret and share the wisdom of her experience when she told me to stick a pacifier in dd's mouth within hours of her birth and make sure she sucked on it every day whether she wanted to or not "so she doesn't suck her thumb".

after i told Mom thanks but no thanks for the advice and listened to her tales of how hard it had been to break Sis of the habit of sucking her thumb and how easy it had been to throw my paci away (i don't even remember my paci), practically every conversation about parenting we had would begin with Mom grumbling, "i don't know why you want her to suck her thumb but i tried and tried to talk some sense into you and you refused to listen so...."

none of my kids has ever sucked their thumb.

it was easier with my favourite grandmother, whose advice actually belongs on a BEST thing anyone has ever said to you about parenting stuff thread. Gran was a writer with an excellent eye for detail and a memory that just wouldn't quit, so i could practically see the young mother she had once been sitting on one side of a closed door crying and looking at her watch waiting for the scheduled time when the doctors said she could retrieve her baby from the crib on the other side of the closed door and hold him while she gave him his bottle. her instinct battled with the "scientific" advice given by her doctor and his insistance that the baby would be completely ruined if the 23 year old girl disobeyed his orders.

Gran followed doctor's orders, lived to regret it, and the only advice she ever gave about her great-grandchildren's upbringing was to follow my heart and realize that childrearing advice comes and goes. she became very pro-AP (or always was but didn't have a name for it) and never tired of listening to my reasons and research and serving as a sounding board when i needed to talk things through to come to my own conclusions.

[NettleTea]

Originally Posted by Jezzy

she is MY baby I wish they would leave me the heck alone!!!

Say that to them! You don't need to put up with that. You can hold your baby as much as you want to.

[queenjulie]

Originally Posted by AoifesMom

Regarding my then 3 month old baby, "You can't be expected to keep getting up in the middle of the night. You MUST Ferberize that baby. It did a world of good for my baby." From a man who's daughter now has severe emotional and behavioral problems.

Jesus. Not only is that insane, but even Dr. Ferber would tell that guy he's nuts! If you actually read Ferber's book, he clearly, repeatedly says that you should never, ever try to make a baby younger then six months try to sleep through the night. And I'm pretty sure he's said in several interviews that he hates the term "Ferberizing."

[luvmy2grls]

Oh there are just so many.... Hubs cant stand it cause he rides the train with these yuppy looking parents, and all they can talk about is how they are ferberizing their two month olds and stuff.. he says he is tempted to turn around and tell them to read the no cry sleep solution.

The school nurse gave me grief cause she said my oldest needed a vax or she would be expeled, that in CT they do that vax at 4, I always heard 6 and that was when we planed to do it (we selectivly delay but she had them all by kindergarden) so I told her we were waiting till 6 that it was not safe to give it to them that young.. she turns around and says "well all the other kids here got it at 4 and they survived" great so hopefully she will just survive it,, nice.

The best is my home birth and the "what if something happens?"

like my midwife doesnt come equiped for a situation or something, I always say.. what if I go to the hospital and they force pitocen on me, then something will happen and I will not be able to live with myself when I know that is the reason why something went wrong.

a few days ago "you have to let newborns cry cause it is good for their lungs, if you don't their lungs will be all weak for life"

[ashleyhaugh]

Originally Posted by Lizzardbits

nak.

we spent all day yesterday with my in-laws. Alex is teething like mad right now and the entire day, MIL was adamant that we give Alex a pork chop BONE to teethe on because she was given a pork chop bone to gum when she was a baby.

my hubby said that if she ever did try to give Alex a bone of anysort, he'd slap it out of her hand so quick she wouldn't know what happened--yay hubby! i didn't say anything to her because i know that she'll never be left alone with alex anyway.

my mom gave us porkchop bones to teethe on, and we've given ds a pork chop bone once, and a couple of chicken bones, and he loves to chew on them, they taste good, and he sucks all of the good stuff out, lol

[baschabad]

My husbands Russian family has a hard time understanding all our 'strange' parenting ideas. His siblings are very receptive but his parents just don't get the new fangled notions of raising kids. They always want to know why I don't give DD water. I think my MIL is just excited to feed her, she said she can't wait until I start giving her applesauce, (she's 3 mo's.)

It was great though when DH's grandmother and another lady were discussing how I feed her so often, when doctors used to tell them "wait 3 hours between feeds- let baby cry."
The lady comments- "But you know, these babies are so much happier.."