I Would Never!

     People tell you that when you have a kid, you will do things you promised yourself you would never do. I thought that was dumb, and ignored those people. I was very wrong. Here are some things I said I wouldn't do, that I actually do now that I have a toddler.

1. I would never, ever, ever call him Bubba.
    

         Ok, to explain: I live in Texas. The South of it, to be exact. I used to joke that if 

       you didn't know a white guy's name, just call him Bubba and 9 times out of 10, you           would be right. It is either a name or nickname and it is rampant here, and it is                 associated with trailer parks and guys that walk around with their butt cracks                   showing. Guess whose kid gets called this regularly? Oh yeah.

2. I would never, ever give into tantrums.
     

         Ha. Haha. Hahahahahahaha.

3. I would make sure to encourage speech. I would not respond to gestures or grunts once he was old enough to start speaking.

         Oops. I actually didn't realize I was doing this. At first, I did it because he really 

        was too young to speak, and gestures and grunts were all he could really use to                communicate. But then we both got into the habit of just communicating in this                way. And now he is 16 months old, and he has yet to say a single word. Unless "Gah"          counts. (We use "Gah" as a kind of Marco Polo to figure out where the other one is in          the house. I say it or he says it, and the other responds in kind until we figure out              where the other is. He has never not responded to "Gah").
   

4. I wouldn't call things baby words like "Binky" or "Juicy".

       Ugh. It just happened! Because everyone else was doing it and I am a sheep. Although I have put the kibosh on other words, and made sure the grandparents understand that his penis is called a penis, etc. I do not want my child to grow up feeling as though a part of his body is wrong or dirty.

5.  My kid would never be "that kid" because discipline.

            Sometimes, he is that kid. And that's OK, because, you know what? Kids are humans that have yet to understand how to fully deal with emotions and sometimes you are frustrated in the middle of a restaurant and you're not sure how to deal with it so you scream about it. I totally get it. If it was socially acceptable, I would scream in frustration in the middle of restaurants sometimes, too.

What things would you NEVER do until you had kids and discovered that, yes, you totally do that now?