An amusing anecdote and question from the DaddyTypes blog addresses the best piece of advice he received from parents when he was expecting his first child.
About six weeks before the kid was born, I was checking out a flock of strollers parked in the gym lobby, when the owners, a group of Tribeca moms, showed up. After figuring out I wasn’t trying to steal their rigs, we got into the “oh, when are you expecting?” conversation. When I told them, one woman said, without a second’s hesitation, and with an intensity that sticks with me to this day,
Go out every night!
It’s advice I pass along, partly as a joke, but also because it’s not exactly the kind of thing you’ll read in a What To Expect book. And because it turned out to be damn good advice.
So. What one piece of advice did you get before the kid was born that strikes you as valuable, unique, or surprisingly important?
What piece of advice do you wish you’d heard but didn’t?
That seems like it would be a good question. Certainly, when you’re a new or expecting parent the one you don’t lack for is advice, both good and bad. Probably the best advice we got was my sister going with us to Babies-R-Us to register for the baby shower and telling us what we need and what we don’t need. There’s just so much stuff for sale by the Baby-Industrial Complex that it can be overwhelming. I’m glad we took the advice that we didn’t need to buy a crib right away because we ended with a very nice free crib.
The best advice I could give is to relax and realize that you don’t need to spend thousands of dollars on baby stuff and that used clothes and toys and furniture will not scar your child for life and if makes your friends turn up their noses at you, you need new friends. Although, the “go out every night” advice isn’t bad either, at least if you’re not the type who enjoys staying at home.
So what’s the best, most unique, or surprising advice you received while expecting your first child.
Technorati Tags:advice, parenthood, parenting
