JFF -Do People Forget What It Is like to Have Little Kids?

Yeah, I've forgotten a lot. What stands out, more than it did when they were actually little, is how cute they were and how I wish I'd enjoyed it more.

YES ppl forget! Just this weekend we were at my aunts house. She had a place set up in one of her guest bedrooms??? There was a tent in there and TONS of meds on the counters along with jewerly all over the dresser. Everything with in little ones reach! My son is 3, neice is 2 and my daughter is 1 1/2. I was scratching my head wondering if she ever had kids. Which she does. I think the same thing about my own parents with the neglect they have while babysitting my neices. I wont let them watch my kids yet untill they are old enough to fend for themselves!!!

You reminded me of yesterday at Thanksgiving. My SIL has a 5 month old. The baby was crying. I thought my sister was gonna commit suicide, listening to that baby, and crying herself, over having to hear the baby cry. It was hilarious to me, thinking how immature my sister is. Anyway, so yes, I guess some people do forget what is is like, namely my sister.

YES!! I agree that sometimes I get advice from people and I think...really? I'll probably gloss things over too when I'm that age and people will be complaining about me! ;)

I'm with One and Done on this...they ones who irritate me the most are the "no kids" people. I just defriended a good friends husband cause I'm sick of hearing his anti-kids campaign...

His latest was "I'm going to create an airline and the slogan is 'No Children on board'.."...all because the baby in front of them pooped! Boy I can't wait to hear how he handles children...cause she wants them and soon!

My evil laugh>>>>MUAAAAHHHHHH!

Heck, not only do they forget what is was like to have kids - they forget what is was like BEING a kid. I think that is the biggest detriment in parenting. I remember like it was yesterday being a kid (I am 43), I constantly make parenting decisions with those feelings/memories in mind. And I have terrific kids :)

Yes, my son is the first grandchild on both sides of the family. When we go to visit our families act like we are completely unreasonable when we say an activity is inappropriate for our child, or that it's bedtime and we need to go home. Fortunately all our family lives 2 time zones away so we learned to keep our son on pacific time in order to make him fit on everyone else's schedule, but I am perpetually shocked at the things our families expect him to be capable of. Fortunately he just got a cousin so maybe they'll see the light the second time around!

Mysis step mil never hada kids. So she has no clue. We eat dinnee at 530the so kids can get a bath and in bed at 730. She thouggt. I should put kids to bed and tgen whip up a fancy dinner for ne and hubby. Maybe we could eatat 9 after kids were in bed. Ha ha.after tgey r in bed i am worn out.
Shesaid that i had a hard time wirh my kids cause i was old. They are 17the months apart. A newboen. And a toddler is hard woek doeant matter how old the mom is.

And let's not forget about the "no kid at all people"! LOL
I have DINK friend couple who would always want us to meet them....downtown....at 8:00....for dinner.....with out toddler. Um......yeah....never happened! haha

MY IN LAWS! Holy cow. I'm not a particularly overprotective hover parent, but they have no concept of toddler safety. AND they always want to "watch the kids for us" when they visit.

Lock the screen door that opens directly onto busy street? Phooey, we won't even try to remember.
Keep choke sized items away from baby who eats everything? Phooey, take this wine cork and have a blast.
Just because no one swims yet is no reason not to plan an intertube trip on some rapids.....

the list goes on and on.

I actually take my babies to Oktoberfest and the like though. :) They're still only 2, 3 and 5 and we do the adult-type stuff all the time. I don't know about your Oktoberfest, but ours has a bouncy castle you can see from the beer tent and plenty of room to park your stroller while you swill a nice lager....ahhh, bliss. We were ready to tough it, but there were tons of kids and babies there. I lived in Germany before and Oktoberfest is a family affair :)

My son is 5 and has always been extra difficult and things that many people do regularly with kids (like eat out) DO NOT happen in my house. People are always suggesting we do things that are just not happening most of them people who have had little ones. My friends who have never had kids are more considerate sometimes.

They sure do. It's maddening sometimes, isn't it!

I remember family members whose kids were 4 and 5 years older than my kids, expecting them to act as mature as their kids did. It really made me pull away to protect my kids from their judgmental feelings.

I keep promising myself that I won't act like that. I hope that I really don't.

Dawn

Why wouldn't you bring your kids to Oktoberfest? We go to at least 2-3 every year and everyone brings their kids. My 3 1/2 year old loves to dance to the polka music. And what is wrong with snowtubing? Maybe not the toddler but for you and the 7 year old? Everyone has different philosophies on parenting, it doesn't mean they "forgot". The only thing I notice in older people is that they are dismissive of new medical information saying "we turned out fine", ect. Really old people think children are automotons and if they misbehave, it must be because they have bad parents.

I can't forget. I've had kids in my home in every stage for the last 27 years and there's no end in sight. I'm thinking that by the time my youngest leaves the nest, and the grandchildren are all in school, I'll have actively parented every single age group for about 36-40 years. In fact, if she starts her family young and I'm still with her children, it may stretch out a LOT longer :)

Everyone forgets. LOL Sometime I do too but I'm soon reminded since I now have a 19 month old who thinks he's 10. The only thing I remember well about things is how I felt when people would act like my kids shouldn't act like they're two etc.

Yes, people do forget. Also, when you are a parent you have all these hormones running high so your sense of safety for your children is much higher then that of any person without a small child. That is why my grandma used to say: " My kids always stay with me". She never trusted anyone else.
You know, kids forget too :) and forgive us all our little imperfections. As long as there are not too many.

I think its some of people forgetting, some of circumstances and some of folks doing those things even with small children.

I wouldn't do an indoor Oktoberfest with our son, but friends of ours took their very mild-mannered children for dinner and were gone before the drunken crowds. We took our son to the Hofbrauhaus Oktoberfest last year, with friends, because it was outdoors, awesome weather and plenty of fun for families.

Snowtubing is something my son has loved since 2yo. We have great sledding hills behind us and he looooooves winter, so he's done a lot of winter activities that most of his friends haven't done.

When I think people have forgotten what its like to have kids is when they suggest things like: "just run to the store real quickly" (as if anything is done quickly with a toddler), "he'll have to go inside the hospital with you, you're the mommy" (he'll have to go, but he'll still be scared/mad/freaked out and then meltdown), or "let him be on his own, he's fine" (in a room with hundreds of glass jars and no babyproofing at all.

I have completely blocked our the less than two years of diapers as well as sleep deprivation on my part. It wasn't bad because she was always an amazing sleeper and I was truly so grateful to have her (she's adopted).

From the moment she was born though, I have taken her so many places for travel (beauty of an only child for me). Road trips, short flights, cruises, going to the beach, looong flights, they all worked out great. I was also pretty easy going knowing that she wasn't going to die if she went to bed at 7:10 instead of 7:00, flexibility was key for us.

I don't get how parents let their children run around in restaurants like it's Chuck E. Cheese...need to reel them in or teach manners or go a place more appropriate. Sometimes in markets, stores, restaurants, movies there comes a time to abandon mission at whatever cost.

I have a no-kid couple as friends and they suggest things like going to NYC on Christmas Eve to go ice skating....literally the week OF Christmas Eve and NYC is not that close, even on Amtrak. Yeah...right.

My sister feels tied down right now and I remind her, "Sis, you have a NEWBORN!" Yeah, they're portable, but there are limits.

The last flights I took this summer were actually not bad and you wouldn't have even known there were at least 6 little kids on the flight (I know because we didn't get an in-flight kid seat but that's another post). If someone gets upset because someone in diapers pooped....maybe he shouldn't fly.

Yes, I think people forget what is like to have wee ones running about. My mother, for instance, will say to me, "how can you tell that child no?" when my daughters ask for something or are fussing. Well, mom, it is kinda my job to tell them no...set boundaries...you remember that, right? You told me no when I was a child. She'll just say, "Yes, I know, but how can you resist their sweet little faces?" My FIL is always forgetting that you can't leave legos out when there is a baby in the house. He forgets that they put every single thing into their mouths.

Oh yes they do!!!! I am the middle of five kids and to hear my mother tell it you would think we were all perfect angels all the time. My parents literally never took us out to eat, we rarely got to go the store etc. I remember one time we were driving home one night and it was mayhem in the car (this was before carseats and seatbelts)..my mom was speeding and didn't even hear there was a cop behind us. I think he felt so sorry for her..he let her go.

Yes, we forget and it's a blessing. Really, who wants to remember how our kids screamed and kept us awake at night for a year and a half? Now that mine are teenagers, I am used to the quiet. It's real nice. And when I'm around little kids with all that noise and constant motion, it's kind of a shock.

Oh my gosh, yes!!! We've been saying this about my husband's family. My twins are 3 and my baby is 5 months. When we visited them when our twins were six months, I swear they'd never been around small children! They were shouting and making so much noise that our babies couldn't sleep. We are usually pretty understanding (especially when we are guests in a person's home), but it was as if they'd never had small children, let alone two babies who couldn't sleep. We were so frustrated at the lack of understanding, and no one got why we were so upset and ended up leaving early. Umm, hello, our kids need to sleep, or do you forget that already?