Only people who've never had kids are perfect parents
Before I had a kid, I knew exactly what kind of parent I was going to be. For one thing, my children would never go to bed hungry. Proponents of tough love would give their kid his dinner, and if the kid didn't like it, the parents would say, "well, that's all you're going to get" and not give him any more food until the next morning. I thought that was cruel and that kids needed something in their stomachs in order to rest well, so the parents should always provide something that was healthy but kid-friendly for dinner.
Of course, I changed my stance once faced with the same problem. This week Annika had not been eating properly, complaining of pain in her throat and stomach. She'd had a cold and the stomach flu (we changed our sheets 3x in one night because she kept throwing up) last weekend but the fever and sniffling and throwing up had disappeared by Monday, so we thought she had recovered and was just describing what she had gone through the past weekend. In short, di naman namin inisip na nagsisinungaling siya, pero akala namin nangsti-stir lang. When she was sick she kept waking up at night so we would give her something to eat or drink (to replace the fluids she lost from throwing up) and comfort her back to sleep. So Tuesday night when she woke up at 2am asking for milk, I held my ground and said that she won't get any milk at night just because she didn't eat her dinner, and since she wasn't sick anymore, it wasn't time to eat or drink milk, it was time to sleep. Loud wails of protest followed, pero mas matigas ang ulo ko, so she ended up defeated and just went back to sleep in my arms.
We took her to the doctor the next day because she kept picking at her food and refusing to eat, and his diagnosis was tonsillitis. Siguro nga noon pang masakit ang lalamunan niya, tapos masakit ang tiyan kasi gutom siya.
Even if I always do what I think is best for my child, I can never be correct 100% of the time. I know small mistakes like this will hardly scar Annika for life, but I still feel terribly guilty.
Of course, I changed my stance once faced with the same problem. This week Annika had not been eating properly, complaining of pain in her throat and stomach. She'd had a cold and the stomach flu (we changed our sheets 3x in one night because she kept throwing up) last weekend but the fever and sniffling and throwing up had disappeared by Monday, so we thought she had recovered and was just describing what she had gone through the past weekend. In short, di naman namin inisip na nagsisinungaling siya, pero akala namin nangsti-stir lang. When she was sick she kept waking up at night so we would give her something to eat or drink (to replace the fluids she lost from throwing up) and comfort her back to sleep. So Tuesday night when she woke up at 2am asking for milk, I held my ground and said that she won't get any milk at night just because she didn't eat her dinner, and since she wasn't sick anymore, it wasn't time to eat or drink milk, it was time to sleep. Loud wails of protest followed, pero mas matigas ang ulo ko, so she ended up defeated and just went back to sleep in my arms.
We took her to the doctor the next day because she kept picking at her food and refusing to eat, and his diagnosis was tonsillitis. Siguro nga noon pang masakit ang lalamunan niya, tapos masakit ang tiyan kasi gutom siya.
Even if I always do what I think is best for my child, I can never be correct 100% of the time. I know small mistakes like this will hardly scar Annika for life, but I still feel terribly guilty.