*twitch*twitch*

I think I may be going a bit stir-crazy.

I am - almost literally - itching to get out of this house. I know all of you are like: "Uh, so what? That's normal, especially with a newborn." No. See, you don't know me very well. I'm a misanthrope. I don't like people. They baffle, outrage, astound, and offend me. I just commented on Grrl's blog in reference to what Julia's going through with crap-ass commentors and the general concept of mommy-bashing.

See, Julia wrote that she used CIO (cry it out) for her son and a whole slew of asshats proceeded to tell her how horrified they were and what a terrible mommy she was, etc, etc, gag, retch. Well, I said that this was why I actually avoid moms IRL. I have no mommy friends off-line. I can't take being under the microscope - from little passive-aggressive murmurs of how little Jacksyn knows all her letters and numbers and mathematical symbols ... in French - to outright opinions on why I should AP.

No thanks. Really. I seem to be doing a fairly good job so far with this Mom thing. You do it your way, I'll do it mine. Cool.

I mean, everyone has her opinions on parenting. I certainly do, and ... erm, firm opinions they be. You're entitled. Blog about 'em, talk about 'em (if asked), but don't try to convert me. Don't go on and on and on about how much better your way is.

Oh, and for the record? Anti-CIO people? Cry It Out is not some trendy new thing. It's not suddenly fashionable. I don't care that you've been seeing it on a few blogs. It's (generally) parents attempting to do what's best for their child ( that is: have him get some sleep ... on his own, without being dependant on another person or complex rituals).

Reject the psychobabble as well, moms! Not every little tiny thing that we do is going to adversely affect our kids for years to come. Shrinks have been sending out panicky messages since the 60s telling us that everything is wrapped inextricably up in psychology. Don't do this or this will happen.

I call Bullshit!

Parenting never used to be this hard. Past generations of women ran their households, went to work, suffered much worse adversity than we can imagine, and raised perfectly fine - and in some cases great - children. They taught them to eat at table, wee and poo in the appropriate place, read, write, and behave like humans without all the angst we modern mothers are subjected to. They did a lot of it while pregnant, nursing, and caring for other children as well.

What has happened to us? Little Jaelynne can't play on a playground lest she get hurt? Young Emmaleigh has whatever she wants whenever she wants 'cause mommy and daddy can't stand to see her cry? Caydin has all of his homework checked and corrected by daddy so he won't have that most awful blow to his self-esteem: a low grade that he deserved?

Gah! I think a lot of moms would do things differently - go more with their gut as opposed to some book by a guy with DR in front of his name - if society just laid off us a bit. Oh, and we stopped sniping at each other!



Ahhhhh ... I feel better. Say, how was your Fourth?