My wife and I are in our "planning stages" before starting with building our family. Any advice for us?

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Try not to be like the wussy's on this forum and have a DRUG-FREE, NATURAL CHILDBIRTH.


ummmm......other than that.....I'd say you're safe until kid #3 which will require a new home and a mini-van. Found that one out the hard way.


Plan on socializing less....


Plan on less taxes....


Make love standing up so you have a boy. (hehe)

I think it's funny that you call them wussies for NOT using drugs... my wife and I... well my wife plans on having a natural child birth. She's going to school to be a chiropractor after all. I'm planning on getting drunk enough for the both of us! I don't deal well with seeing my wife in pain. So how does this standing up to get a boy thing work? Diagrams? :rolf:

I disagree with squat on the whole natural, no drug delivery (what could you possibly know about that you girl squat! When was the last time you tried to push a watermelon out of your butt?!?). Plus, that's definately your wife's call. Epidural's are awesome when done right.

First, I suggest you borrow someone else's kids for a week. Not a day, not a weekend, a week. For a day or two, kids can pretty much behave themselves. But a week with you, and you'll see their true colors!

OK, seriously now...sort of.

It's hard to give advice on this, because you're never going to believe us. Your life is never going to be the same. And I mean that in the best and worst possible cases. Your life is going to change in ways you never thought imaginable. BUT, a couple years down the line and you'll barely remember what life was like before they came along. And you'll wonder why it took you so long to get them in the first place.

They are joy unimaginable on their best days. And then on their worst days...can I suggest early bed times? (Because Raspy's going to suggest apricot brandy in their bottles and I don't think that's legal.)

Keep Christ at the center of their lives. Pick your battles. Never, never, never negotiate (even if you have to keep reminding yourself that YOU are in charge). And bribary really does work. Don't let anyone tell you different.

And I guess, go on and have some fun making that first baby! Because this will be the end of carefree sex until they move out!

*Checks personal "mommy drawer".... make sure you stock up on:

Duct tape
Leather belts
Ear plugs
Nose plugs - for changing those whopper diapers
Eye mask - good luck getting ANY sleep at all....
Candy - to at least bribe the kid once in a while to behave
Beer/Wine or wiskey, whatever your preference is
Bible - scare them into bein' good OR ELSE....

Ok, ok :P ....listen to the advice given NOW 'cause once you're pregnant, you'll be told to wear blinders and earplugs unless in the doc's office.

Very interesting... keep em' comin'!

I'd say:
Make sure you're where you want to be. What I mean is before we had our children we said we'd do this or do that (travel) and then once I got pregnant it was a lot more difficult to keep what we had planned on doing. We still traveled with our firstborn but didn't make it to some of our goals. Once our second kiddo came around...all traveling stopped!
So basically - have you done what you hoped to have done by now? :rollseyes: :tease: :booyah:

Chiropractor's wife chiming in. Natural, drug-free birth is great and all, but even better than that is both baby and mother surviving delivery. Sometimes interventions are necessary and don't make you wusses.

I have to second this one. Youeven give them an inch and you're gonna have a whiney, demanding brat on your hands making your lives miserable!

Congrats on having time to be just the two of you. I got preg on the pill (prior to marriage--got married real quick) and so that togetherness you've shared is really somethign to be grateful for..

Being a parent is somehting you grow into. One you get a positive on that preg test, you've got about 8 months to get used to the idea and a lot of growing up will happen to you.

I am not so sure i agree about the no drug thing., I mean if there is pain relief available, why not take it?? I am not sure how your wife tolerates pain, but I have a very low pain threshold. Drugs are good. Of course I ended up having a c-section so drugfree was not an option....

I knew the "wussy" word would spark some eyebrows.....hehe.



Watermelon outa my butt? BRING IT ON! (hehe)

Oh and you must remember to be CONSISTANT!!!!!!!! All the time. You look at parents who have children that seemto run all over them and I guarantee you they are weak and inconsistant in disciplining.. Make the rule, set the consequences and stick with it. If you are consistant, once the child realises that the tantrums or whining won't work, they give in and behave like civilized human beings for the majority of the time. You have fewer battles, less disobedience, more politely behaved children, and tons of compliments on how well behaved your children are.:)

Life will be easier and less stressful if you stick to your guns and don't be a wiener of a parent..

sig worthy! :booyah:

1) I don't always suggest Apricot Brandy..... Sometime Blackberry goes better with what's int he bottle... Sheesh.....

B) Sometimes I suggest Duct tape and stun Guns......

III) I'm not talking give them a fifth with a little apple juice for color.....

It's only illegal if you get caught.... and it does help wonderfully with teething.

What advice can I offer you.....

Remember all the crap you pulled as a kid.... Remember all the stuff you didn't get caught for.... APOLOGIZE NOW!!!!!! They will come back to kick you in the junk as your kids try to pull it on you.

Boys are easier for Men to raise then Girls.... Girls will give you nightmares because you will remember what you wanted to do with them when you were a boy...... girls will make you VERY suspicious......

Kids are gonna piss you off... you're gonna see exactly where they're heading and you'll keep shouting no turn left left LEFT dammit... then go run for the bandaids as they go up and slightly to the right... which you were fairly confident couldn't be done.....

Kids are great

But they are a lot of headache and heartache... but they are also worth every second of it.

Hold them accountable.... they do wrong don't laugh it off like they did something cute.... Don't hold them too tight they'll just learn to escape detection better.....


Listen to everyones advice and filter out the 99. 9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999
9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999
999999999999999999999999999999999999999999213345686i345% that is pure crap for the small nugget of truth.......

What works for me and my kids, or Squat and his brood, Or Lynn, or Deb, or Honey, or Clay, or String and Basil, or a2J and Sarah... <insert parents here> and their respective families may not (prolly won't ) work for you at face value... you'll have to figure out your own trick to it......

...so I'm to listen to advice that probably won't work for me... great!

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siege...just listen to me...I'm always right.

Definitely NOT sigworthy..... :rollseyes:

Lots of great advice on here so far.....

Take the childbirth classes that are offered.

I like Lynn's idea of watching somebody's kids for a week.....seriously, good idea!

Pick your battles thing.....great....and not just with the kids but with the advice you'll get from friends & family....let it go in one ear and out the other, make up your own mind on that.

You ALWAYS need to win the battles with your kids. Always. If you need to come back later & tell them you were wrong, you made a wrong decision, or whatever, fine.

It doesn't hurt a baby to cry.

It doesn't hurt a kid to have a tantrum.

Bribery is a GOOD thing.....altho some people call it a "reward system"....same diff.

Be prepared to have your world turned upside down for the rest of your life.....and loving (almost) every minute of it!

Congrats!! :hug:

BAD ADVICE right there! Listening to this punk will get you into deeper trouble!!!








































































































:P

Some of it will some of it won't some of it you'll dismiss as complete crap but might have worked anyway, some of it you'll take as gospell just to have it blow up in your face... Parenting is life.... just with you looking out for a smaller being that will eventually say "Oh yeah well screw you Dad I wanna do it this way...." whether it's to your face or not.....

Nothing is written in stone... sometimes kids are like the Borg... they adapt to things you try and it's hard to keep them at bay....

I think we had an experiance last night that is sure to continue when we have kids. We have a new puppy who last night would not go to sleep. She's crawling up on the bed, whining or coming over and wanting attention all while we were... well trying to get it on! It was so annoying! At one point I was thinking, "oh, forget it!" at one point but then thought about when we have kids and I don't want to get into the habit of bagging on it because our kids are always bugging us. We'll need to figure something out because I'm not into decreasing our frequency!!!

:D Tell that to the exhausted post partum female body!! Boy are you in for a wake up call! :rolf:

Uhhh you may not be but your wife will surely be...

:blink: :rolf:

***whew! I needed that laugh!!****

Let us review that statement after the baby's born..... B)

Advice..........don't do it.

heh heh - neither was I. Then the good Lord blessed us with my OD. And, everything changed. We got married, we spent the nights up with a sleepless child, we had to stay in our room with the door locked. And there was the one night we unlocked and opened the door to find a 2-year-old curled up and asleep right on the other side... :nono: