Take the Shower

My heart races as I slip off the breast-milk stained tee I’ve been wearing to bed for the last three nights. The water splashing off the porcelain tile is both familiar and exotic, I pause to appreciate the luxury embedded in each pelting drop. I peek over my shoulder at my newborn asleep in his bouncy chair in the doorway, “please stay asleep” I pray to the new-mum gods. As I slip through the curtain, the water wraps around me like a thousand tiny hugs. The tension drips from my body and swirls down the drain. For an instant, I forget about the sting of my c-section scar, my aching, engorged boobs, and the overwhelming responsibility of keeping a tiny human alive; I feel completely refreshed.

After five and a half years of mummyhood, this memory is still as vivid as the day I lived it; that refreshing while fleeting moment during my first shower at home after having my son Kellen. It was that instant that taught me the power of a shower.

As a new parent your life can quickly become narrow. It’s easy to lose sight of yourself and your own needs in those first few months of sleep deprivation. Chronic sleepiness can make it hard to nourish other bits of you that help you feel human, like reading books, getting dressed, or making and eating a hot meal. But a shower, even if it leads you back to the same breast-milk stained t-shirt, can provide you with the boost needed to get through another day of feeds, unexpected visitors, non-existent naps and unmet goals.

New parents (and even seasoned ones) receive a lot of unsolicited advice. Some of it’s helpful, some of it… not so much. But whether you co-sleep, cry-it-out, breast-feed, formula-feed, babywear or not, we all need to shower. So, here’s another piece of advice to throw in your toolbox:

Take the shower.

Even if the baby is napping and everyone and your mom tells you to “nap when the baby naps”.

I mean, it’s not bad advice, but you’re still going to wake up smelling like you just emerged from a three-day bender; not very encouraging for a person who may feel as if they’re slowly drowning in parenthood, if you ask me.

Take the shower.

Even if, rather especially if, you’re home alone.

Put that baby somewhere safe and go for it; worst case scenario, baby starts to cry. I can tell you from experience, crying (whether it’s yours, baby’s or both) harmonizes beautifully with the soft sprinkle of water bouncing off a tired achy body.

 

Take the shower.

Even if it’s after noon and you have nowhere to be, and no desire to go anywhere.  

Take the shower.

You may just be inspired to put on pants.

And let’s face it, that’s the real measure of new parent productivity.

7 Ways You Can #stopsucking as a Parent with Small Kids

I hold my breath as she grabs the glass of milk with one tiny hand; my eyes squeeze shut as the milk swooshes back and forth, grazing the rim. I hazard a squint only to see her other hand fumble to steady the glass. She lifts the glass to her lips and tips it up. I wait. She takes a small sip and wobbles the glass back onto the breakfast table of our favourite diner. I exhale into my cup of coffee, my death grip on it releases. She did it. My 3-year old drank from a milk glass in public and the world didn’t end. 

Now, I don’t really believe the world would end if my daughter Gwyneth ended up wearing an entire glass of milk. However, the way that servers throw piles of plastic straws at you through drive thru windows (or on the table when dining in) might suggest that they are merely innocent objects of convenience. But here’s the deal:

Worldwide, 1 billion non-recyclable straws are used each day.

That means that every day one billion tiny pieces of plastic make their way to landfills and oceans all around the world! 

If that doesn’t make you as incredulous as my kids were the first few times we told the server to #skipthestraw when dining out, then I fear for our planet.

“Where are the straws?! How am I supposed to drink my milk?!” came the pleas from my five-year-old, his face scrunched in angsty disbelief.

While the server shoots me a panicked look, I calmly remind him that he doesn’t use a straw at home. The reality is most kids (and adults) don’t. As the server scuttles away, Kellen begrudgingly picks up his cup and takes a sip. Surprisingly, he learns that his lips work in restaurants too and the milk tastes just as special; thank goodness for that!

As a parent of young kids, I get it; plastic straws can be outfit-savers and restaurant/mini-van catastrophe prevention devices. Don’t get me wrong, there are many times when I believe a straw is an excellent insurance policy, but the greenish person inside of me also believes we need to do better to limit our use of non-recyclable straws.

So, what’s a parent to do? I don’t profess to have all the answers, I don’t even have a fraction of them but here’s how we’ve tried to #stopsucking

1.     Have faith that your child’s cup drinking skills will transfer from one setting to another.
You can help by modelling your ability to drink from a cup without a straw; monkey see, monkey do!

2.     Bring alternative insurance policies.
A sippy cup, reusable water bottle and/or bib for car rides (and/or dining out) were musts for us when the kids were too young to be trusted with a regular cup. To be honest, we still use them when the kids are attempting to eat or drink in the van; those yellow lights really sneak up on me!

3.     Ask for extra napkins.
They’re paper, you can recycle them.

4.     Work on cup-drinking early.
Most parents are shocked to learn that babies as young as 6 months can cup-drink if you let them. Grab a bib and give it a try!

5.     Bring reusable straws.
With #skipthestraw and #stopsucking gaining popularity, demand for reusable straws has increased. You can go fancy and buy something like this from Unwrapped Life; or you can go the #greenish route like we have and simply recycle the inside straws from all those chewed up sippy cups gathering dust on the shelf of your kitchen. Make sure to invest in a good straw brush though, because if you’re anything like me you might not always get around to cleaning those straws right away!

6.     Carry a change of clothes.
Leave them in the van, under the stroller, or in that massive diaper bag you insist on carrying around with you even though your kids have been out of diapers for a year. Who doesn’t love a mid-event wardrobe change? Bonus: it gives you a good excuse to get some of those outfits worn before your kids outgrow them.

7.     Accept there will be messes.
Did straws really prevent all the messes for us anyway? I can’t count the number of times cups with straws and lids have been knocked off restaurant tables or dropped out of car seats only to explode all over the floor. Parenting is messy, life is messy, accept it armed with napkins and apologetic faces and move on.  

I’m sure there are many more ways to #stopsucking; and I know people might be quick to point out three million other ways we could do our part to help mother earth. While our family doesn’t always do as much as we can, this is a small and relatively convenient way to do a little better, to be greenish, if you will.

Have you tried to #stopsucking? What tips or tricks do you have?

Stayed tuned for more adventures in mummyhood, including other ways our family goes greenish.  

Stay tuned... new content coming soon!