Practise makes perfect, parenting fails and hails

May 3, 2019

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Being a parent is a blessing, but it’s also a rollercoaster of emotion. One minute you are laughing at your little angel, the next you are marching the little devil to the naughty step. Life is full of parenting fails.

As a parent of two children under three, I have learned a lot about little humans the last few years but just when I think I have mastered the art of weaning or sleep training, my daughters begins to change. My parenting hail becomes a fail, but that’s ok!

Many parents wish they could capture each moment, freeze every laugh and make it last forever but, to be honest, my girls say and do so many hilarious things that they begin to get lost with time.

At the minute I am having a Game of Thrones-worthy battle with my 3 year old at bedtime. So, like many new age mammas out there, I took to google ‘How to make a three year old go to bed nicely?’ and I have been doing the same routine for a while - bath, supper, teeth, toilet, bed, story, chat, leave. But lately my daughter has been making additions to this routine to include; two toilet breaks, a drink from her special unicorn cup, another chat and if all of this doesn’t work she gets out of bed and hangs on to my leg. She is testing her boundaries but after a fun (and very busy) day at the BubbleBum office, as well as the housework and looking after two toddlers, my patience is at zero. I speak calmly, I try to bribe her, I take toys away, I remove her iPad, then finally I lose my cool and scream like a banshee, which makes everything 10 times worse. EPIC FAIL!

I have learned to be clear with her before we go to bed, making sure she knows what the plan of action is. I have learned to be consistent in rewarding the good behaviour, and this has worked for the past few nights, but she has gotten wise to my method and now the little demon is trying to outwit me.

She went to bed ever so nicely one night “goodnight mammy, love you”... hmmm I thought, something’s not right here. I sat on the sofa, turned on my soaps (yes, I love soaps, don’t judge me) when I heard a banging noise coming from her room. When I went to investigate, I could hear her tiny little feet running spritely across the room as I approached and when I opened the door, I could see that little angel face, wrapped up snugly in bed… PRETENDING TO SLEEP.

So I suppressed a little giggle, turned on my heel and left the room. Anyone who has kids knows never to breathe or talk in their room after 8pm, just in case. I have become amazing at ballet because I walk around my babies room like I’m in Swan Lake.

Again, I went to the sofa and let out a sigh of relief at the thought of 20 minutes peace and quiet... then the banging again. I went to her room four times more, and each time she was lying in her bed, eyes closed…..silence. I eventually worked-out my daughter was rocking on her rocking horse, then when she heard me coming she would run over and jump back into bed and pretend to be asleep. I have to hand it to her, it was quite clever and it did make me laugh.

I eventually removed the horse when she was ‘sleeping’ and after I closed the door, I heard a little sigh, which made me laugh out loud, which made her laugh as well. She lay down and peacefully went to sleep, happy and drama free. My parenting fail turned into a triumphant hail, with two babies sleeping sweetly. Cerci Lannister has got nothing on me.

I asked my fellow parents at BubbleBum Booster Seats if they experienced these daily fails and hails, and of course, they did. One of the BubbleBum Crew was taking a picture of their sleeping baby and woke her with the flash - epic fail because it led to hours of trying to get her back to sleep. Another of my colleagues bumped their kids head off the door frame whilst carrying them to bed, and another left a jar of Sudocrem sitting out with no lid and their child decided to paint the walls with it.

Every parent has fails and most of the time they are pretty funny, it is human and it is real. Parenthood is challenging and most of the time it is our first time being in charge of another human being so we are bound to get it a little wrong.

With a little practise bedtime will be stress free, when we learn from our mistakes we become better and it will make our parenting life easier.

I’ll finish with a few more fails- I was mopping the floor and missed the babies nap-time so she fell asleep in the Jumperoo. Another time I forgot to leave the pram for the childminder and she had to drive to the BubbleBum office to get it. Once my daughter needed the toilet in the forest and I lifted her and she weed on her leggings and shoes.

I have so many fails but lots of hails too! Many parents also forget to leave a car booster seat for the childminder, but don’t despair, turn your fail into a hail and give your childminder a BubbleBum booster seat, that way they will always have one available... even when you aren’t at the peak of parenting game.

Share your funniest fails and hails with us at BubbleBum- I am sure one of us will have done it to!