Babies: 0 - 3 Months
kzel0627
member
I am officially THAT mom...
kzel0627
member
I'm a substitute teacher (obviously can't get a job cause there are none!) and I'm subbing a half day tomorrow. It's my first day this school year because I had DS in August. I figured I would work myself back into gently by doing a half day. My sister in law is going to watch DS for me and I totally wrote out two and a half pages of care instructions...right down to holding off on changing his diaper when he farts cause there's always more to come. SIL is completely competent and capable of taking care of DS for a few hours (she has a bachelors in psychology and a masters in social work) but I feel like nobody does or ever will know DS like DH and I do. I hope she doesn't think that I'm undermining her intelligence! Someone please tell me I'm not crazy and that I'll be fine tomorrow!!!
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Re: I am officially THAT mom...
I watched a friend's little boy a few times and she did the same thing- pages and pages of instructions. She knows that I'm an elementary school teacher with a Master's in child development, but she still wrote down everything I could possibly need to know and then some. I was not offended at all. She's a very protective mom and a little OCD about stuff like that. I knew it wasn't about ME- she was just focusing on her child's needs. As another PP said, as long as you don't call your SIL all morning or attack her with questions, I'm sure you're fine. You could even remind her that you trust her, but you just want to provide all the info you can or something like that...
My DH was laughing at my nighttime routine Word Document that I typed out for my sister. It is pretty crazy, but some of these things are very important for the caretaker to know. You never know what piece of advice they will read and need so why not include it all? I would be happy if I was babysitting and had a nice page of instructions.
I used to substitute teach and I will never forget the day I walked into a kindergarten classroom and saw a 3 page document on how to take lunch count... My how times have changed since we were in school. It used to be, eating at the cafe or not eating at the cafe.
I would do the same thing... especially now that I learned I need to! We left DD with MIL for 3 hours last weekend and of course she didn't listen to anything I told her. We left right after I fed DD and I told her that in approximately 20-30 she will get sleepy (yawning, looking away, etc) and then within 5-10 minutes at the most put her in the swing. Well, she never put her in the swing and DD wouldn't nap longer than 10 minutes on her so she "just played with her to make her tired". Ummm, I guess she didn't hear me say that she needs minimal to no stimulation to fall asleep? MIL thinks that shaking colorful key rings in front of DD's face really fast because she likes to watch it will make her sleepy not overstimulate... I think it's been a while since she's been around a baby.
Thanks everyone for your reassurance!! SIL was thrilled that I gave her all that info. Her SIL would drop off her son with my SIL and not leave or tell her anything...not what time he last ate, when he needed to eat again...nothing! She was soooo glad that I basically let her know everything possible she needed to about my LO. She wasn't offended at all. She wrote down feeding and diaper times, how much DS ate, and what was in his diapers and she wrote me a note back about how things went even though we chatted when I picked him up!! She is definitely going to get to babysit again
My day went very well....I love where I sub and everyone was very welcoming...I expected no less....even students were asking about DS.