Your Best Parenting Tips

If you didn't already know, Steven and I are expecting our first child, due Christmas Eve. And I have officially entered the "Oh my goodness, how do you raise normal children" freak out phase. With that being said, I'm hoping to gain knowledge from your parenting experiences. The only thing I know for sure to do is pray a LOT.

I'm pretty sure I'm already off to a poor parenting start--I can't even keep up with the Ultrasound images. Maybe I am missing an important link. I mean, some folks scrapbook and are halfway through a diary by this point in their pregnancies. I on the other hand was digging through a glove box last night looking for Ultrasound images so that I could appease my sister's text message request for a more recent image.

I was with some friends over the 4th of July weekend who told me what I consider to be a horror story. Their son, who recently had his mouth washed out by his mom, went to school and told a few friends about his punishment. The school contacted the parents requesting details information about what soap was used and told the parents that washing a child's mouth out is considered poisoning! REALLY???? They did not feed the soap to him! The school probably lets him work around marker fumes all day and drink too much sugar--but they are worried about a little bit of soap in his mouth. Maybe this soap story is what started my parenting wheels a turnin'.

I read a Wiki How article about parenting that mentioned punishing with a loving heart.  . . .sooo, use organic soap and give them a hug afterwards. The article actually was simple and good. With a focus on good communication and family time. But, there are thousands of self help books and articles out there written by "experts", I want to know what worked FOR YOU, in the real world.

Some of the thousands of questions that have run through my mind:

What on earth will I do with the first grocery store fit?

Disposable or Cloth diapers?

Time Outs?

Spanking?

How do you raise a normal, confident child?

How on earth do you potty train?

Lord, please let me effectively teach my child good manners.

Give me all your tips! Hopefully I will learn from your successes and mistakes. It takes a village.