I like to play favorites with my kids. I like to say things like ‘You’re my favorite oldest son.’ ‘You’re my favorite daughter.’ ‘You’re my favorite kid in this room right now.’ Or, more simply, ‘you are my favorite kid named insert child’s name here‘. Eventually Freckles got wise. He started to say ‘But I’m you’re ONLY one!’. Which I could have laughed at and left. Because how terrible would it be if we then told him that actually we had at least half a dozen test Freckle’s before him who live under the stairs because they didn’t meet standard? I mean, a good parent wouldn’t tease their child that if they keep annoying them they’ll just put him with the ‘other Frecke’s’ and try again. So obviously, that has never happened….. …… When Freckles was born, he had a slight disadvantage from the other kids. I was his mom. And I had never held a baby before. I had never fed a baby. Never changed a baby. Never cuddled or comforted or spent even 1 minute trying to convince a baby to stop crying. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. After Freckles was born I made DH show me how to change a diaper quickly while the nurses were out of the room so they wouldn’t think I was incompetent. My inexperience didn’t stop me in any way from judging other parents, mind you. Oh, I judged. And when I saw those posters advocating against shaking your baby, I thought ‘…
