{"id":2593,"date":"2014-09-10T08:10:57","date_gmt":"2014-09-10T08:10:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/?p=2593"},"modified":"2014-09-09T20:02:23","modified_gmt":"2014-09-09T20:02:23","slug":"you-asked-for-it-advice-for-new-moms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/2014\/09\/10\/you-asked-for-it-advice-for-new-moms\/","title":{"rendered":"YOU ASKED FOR IT: Advice for New Moms"},"content":{"rendered":"
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6 Replies<\/a><\/h1>\n<\/header>\n
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\"Josh_and_cindy_in_muir_woods\"<\/a>NOTE: In the early years of BlogHer “virtual baby showers” – posts on a topic new moms might like – were frequent. \u00a0This, one of the first, sought advice for new moms. \u00a0In honor of two new grandchildren, here’s what I wrote then, in April of 2007.<\/em><\/p>\n

That\u2019s me with my older son, Josh, in Muir Woods outside San Francisco\u00a0 \u2014 pretty many years ago.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know if you can tell but I\u2019m pregnant with his brother.\u00a0 Happy to join the virtual shower although despite my adoration of and respect for both Liz and Catherine, I\u2019m from the generation that put their babies to sleep\u00a0on their stomachs\u00a0<\/em>and so may sound a little old-fashioned.<\/p>\n

1. Don\u2019t do anything that doesn\u2019t feel right no matter\u00a0whose<\/em>\u00a0advice it is.<\/p>\n

2. Trust yourself.<\/p>\n

3. Remember that everybody makes mistakes and anyway a child is not a product, she is a person. You\u2019ve heard that kids are resilient. They are. Do your best with love and if you don\u2019t dwell on your mistakes neither will they.<\/p>\n

4. You can\u2019t turn a child into someone. You can only help them become the best somebody they already are.<\/p>\n

5. Don\u2019t be afraid to say no. Parents who don\u2019t set limits and help their kids learn self-discipline are selfish. It\u2019s easier but it\u2019s not right.<\/p>\n

6. No experience is wasted on a child. Maybe they\u2019re too young to remember, but if it happened, it had an impact. So share as much of what you love as you can \u2013 music, museums, trips to Timbuktu or Target \u2014 poetry, cooking, washing the car.<\/p>\n

7. No child ever went to college in diapers.<\/p>\n

8. Listen to experienced people you respect, preschool teachers, friends, even, God forbid, your mother.\u00a0 Experience really is a great teacher.\u00a0 Then, though, think it through and then do what you think is right.<\/p>\n

9. Everything is not equally important. Pick your fights and win them.<\/p>\n

10. Leave time to just be. Lessons are great but quiet time is where imagination and a sense of self emerges.<\/p>\n

11. LISTEN to your kids. They are smart and interesting and wise and if you respect them you have a far better chance of having them respect you.<\/p>\n

12. Did I say trust yourself?<\/p>\n

With love, admiration and the joy that comes from knowing all you\u00a0wonderful<\/a>,\u00a0poetic and caring<\/a>,\u00a0committed<\/a>\u00a0and in one case,\u00a0very new<\/a>\u00a0mothers on the occasion of this lovely\u00a0virtual baby shower<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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6 Replies NOTE: In the early years of BlogHer “virtual baby showers” – posts on a topic new moms might like – were frequent. \u00a0This, one of the first, sought advice for new moms. \u00a0In honor of two new grandchildren, here’s what I wrote then, in April of 2007. That\u2019s me with my older son, … Continue reading YOU ASKED FOR IT: Advice for New Moms<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2736,42,7,29],"tags":[1556,50,3417,2839,213,205,789,2841,2840],"class_list":["post-2593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogher-2","category-family","category-life","category-women","tag-child-rearing","tag-children","tag-family","tag-new-parents","tag-newborn","tag-parent","tag-parenting","tag-trust-yourself","tag-virtual-baby-shower"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4gBq8-FP","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2593"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2593\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2596,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2593\/revisions\/2596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}