Sunday, September 13, 2009

Mother of the Year

Feelings of guilt and inadequacy started for me the minute I became pregnant with Shelby. I think any mom will agree that the feelings never go away. During pregnancy, it's "I'm not eating enough protein" or "I had a diet Coke and have decreased my baby's IQ by 10 points." During maternity leave, it was "I only have __ more weeks with my little one until I have to abandon her for 8 hours a day."

Now, my guilty feelings revolve around "She's watched tv for 2 hours today" and "Oh, no, her college fund doesn't have 5 figures yet. How is she ever going to Yale with no money?" But, my number one worry is about separating Shelby and her bottle. Don't judge me. I've had a lot to do lately. So, she is still drinking her milk from a bottle 3 months after I should have taken it away. I know I'm rotting her teeth for life. I feel guilty everyday.

So, all that being said, I was asked by a stranger yesterday, "When are you going to take that bottle away? My kids all were completely off of the bottle by 1 year." Little Miss Know-It-All really got to me. I had a wonderful day--a massage, a wonderful baby shower, time with lots of family, and lots of laughs with Shelby. But, yet, going to sleep, all I could do was stress over the stranger's judgements. Thank goodness for the internet! This picture saved me:

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So, I'm rotting my child's teeth out...at least she is still breathing!!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Can you download the picture again to your blog? It is not showing on my screen. curious!

Monica said...

Mom--here's a link to the picture:
http://peopleofwalmart.com/?p=2931

Ha!

Anonymous said...

M-

You are a great mom! Shelby is always happy and smiling. Glad you had a great weekend! Take care!

Christy

Molly said...

We had Carly off the bottle at one year...and her teeth are horrible! There's no exact science...we all do the best we can. Even the WalMart lady. You'll be ordering a leash off the internet next week. Never say never.