Parenting Pep Talk is a weekly series of guest posts all about encouraging other parents by sharing some of our happy moments, the advice that has worked for us and some positive words of encouragement.
Today’s post is from Jodie Danner, who blogs at This Mum Business and describes herself as follows: “34 (when did that happen?!) Wife, Mum of two girls and business owner.”
1) Tell us a little bit about you and your family.
In my family there is my husband Neil & I. We married 2 years ago in Cyprus. We met 15 years ago when I was the office temp – we were such a cliche! Neil designed and manages my website.
I have two daughters. Niamh is 6 and is bright and creative. She’s a deep thinker and will stay awake worrying about the world’s problems. Esme is 17 months. She has a suspected Growth Hormone deficiency and only weighs 15lbs and wears aged 6-9 months clothes. She’s a little spitfire. She has so much character and is mischievous and lots of fun.
2) How would you describe your parenting style?
I like to think in terms of my parenting style that i’m the right balance of good cop and bad cop. I’m always there with the hugs, kisses and encouragement but I also like to set boundaries for them too to ensure that they feel secure. I still breastfeed Esme so I suppose I could be accused of being one of ‘those’ mums but it feels like the only positive thing I can influence with her situation so more power to us. Hopefully she will have weaned by her first day of reception!
3) What’s your favourite thing about being a parent?
My favourite thing about being a parent is finding out how much love my heart can hold with room for more. I worried that I would never love a second child the same but I absolutely do and it takes nothing away from my love for Niamh. Being a mother is wonderful.
4) What piece of advice have you been given that you found especially helpful?
The best advice I was ever given was to trust your own instincts with your babies. This lead to us discovering a wrongly diagnosed skull fracture when Niamh had a fall and I think that it is through my own research that we are finally getting to the bottom of why Esme was born so tiny.
5) What one piece of encouraging advice would you give to a new parent?
My advice to any new parent would be to not allow any visitors for at least a couple of weeks. With my first baby I counted no fewer than 12 people in my living room the day after I came out of hospital and this only added to my PND and anxiety. You need that time to find your feet as a new family unit. People mean well but can sometimes take over when really you need to experience the full thing – the good, bad and ugly.
I wrote about this here: http://www.thismumbusiness.com/2016/05/please-pss-off-unless-youve-brought-food-frozen-fanny-pads/
6) Can you share one of your favourite parenting moments?
My favourite parenting moment was getting back results after ten months that confirmed that Esme did not have a life limiting premature ageing condition. It was a trying time that saw me lose 3 and a half stone with stress and to hear that this was negative was like every Christmas and Birthday come at once. My baby was going to be ok.
7) Anything else that you would like to share to encourage other parents?
My parting quote has to be – wing it. You can read every book and blog post on the subject but parenthood will always be a marvellous wonder and part of the fun is to figure it out for yourself. Raise your baby how you see fit and try to reserve your judgement with other parents, as hard as that can sometimes be. It is the greatest club in the world.
Thank you Jodie for sharing your positive parenting moments and the advice you have found helpful.
You can connect with Jodie on the following social networks:
If you’d like to share some of your positive parenting moments on the Parenting Pep Talk, then let me know in the comments below and I’ll email you with more details.
I totally agree on the trusting your instincts and not allowing any visitors at the early stages – I remember I stupidly did this and it was hands down one of the most stressful experiences of being a new parent! Great guest post and thanks for linking up to #coolmumclub xx
Oh my goodness that must have been so difficult for you waiting to find out whether your little one had a life limiting disease. I’m so glad she’s going to be okay. And I totally agree with the advice about not having visitors after having a baby.
Nat.x