Things I'll 'Never' do as a parent

Before becoming a parent most people have lots of ideas about what they will and will not do, some things you swear you will never do. It’s all too easy for someone without kids to say ‘Oh I would never do that,’ but the reality is much different. You become a parent and you relax your rules and your high expectations.

Things I said I’d do or not do:

• I swore I’d never let my baby sleep in my bed, especially when they were tiny – I’m now a strong support of co-sleeping and have done it with both boys.

• No Dummies – Having a colicky baby made me reach for the dummies to save my sanity.

• Dummy will be gone by the time J is walking – He walked at 10.5 months and still has a dummy now at 21 months. It WILL be gone by the time he’s three though. No going back on that. That dummy is the bane of my life, but at the same time a god send. R doesn't have one and I'm still unsure if it's good or bad.

• I will breastfeed for at least 6 months – The exhaustion of feeding every two hours day and night let me to switch to formula by the time J was just over four months old. I think I’ll be breastfeeding R for a long time to come though.

• No sweet foods – Mummy fail, J is always eating sweet foods. Don't get me wrong I do limit it, he doesn't have biscuits for breakfast but he has them as treats quite often.

• Controlled crying or Crying it out – Done both at some point, I don’t agree with it before six months though. That never changed. It was a last resort but it definately solved our bedtime issues.

• Let them watch T.V– How naive was I? T.V is a life saver.

• Won’t let them have a tantrum in middle of a supermarket – Ha I now know that you cannot stop a child having a tantrum, it doesn’t mean you can’t control your kids and you can’t drag them home because the shopping needs doing.

So what things did you change your mind about? Or what ‘rules’ do you have for when you have kids? I'd love to hear them.