Part 8 - Doing it different

A friend asked me how my arthritis has affected my parenting and I had to think about it. There was certainly more of an affect early on as opposed to now. When Isabella was a baby we did things a little different, we did the partial cry-it-out method, not letting her cry in her crib for more than 5 minutes straight. I couldn't pick her up and put her down over and over so I just didn't. It only took a few nights of this before she slept straight through. I changed the crib to a daybed when she was only 18 months because I simply couldn't lift her out anymore; she seemed to stay in her bed all night so no issues there. I couldn't push a stroller past the age of 2 so that’s when she started walking everywhere. She never complained about being too tired to walk so we didn't have any issues there either. When I’m sore now we tend to watch a lot of movies together, or read books, or other things that aren't physically demanding. I like to give my two cents when people ask for advice but a lot of my parenting decisions are based on my own physical health. I have to remember this when I see 3 and 4 year old's in cribs and strollers. I haven’t used those in years but that was out of necessity, and while it's hard not to judge I find myself comparing my kid to others all the time. This is something I definitely have to work on.