5 Things I did with my First Child that I didn’t do With my Second

A couple of years ago, I wrote a post entitles 10 things you said you wouldn’t do with your children but do.

Maybe your first child is a trial run, maybe you learn your lesson. I think I have done things differently with G. So here are my top five things I did with Boo that I haven’t done with G.

1.I sterilised everything with Boo for over a year. Bottles, feeding equipment-even toys. They had their own special cupboard and everything. With G, while I still sterilised bottles up to him being around 11 months, his cutlery went in the cutlery draw, his plates went in with the other plastic ones and toys? I laugh at that. Not a chance.

2.I never wanted Boo to have a dummy but, one night she was particularly bad with either colic or teeth and Hubster sat holding one in her mouth. She loved that dummy. I did try G with one once but he wasn’t that keen so I didn’t pursue the matter.

3.I lasted until Boo was nearly one before she had her first taste of chocolate. I thought that was good going. I understand there is no nutritional value in it but at the same time, it is a lovely treat so, I didn’t think, in the end, that having chocolate was so bad. When I saw other one-year-olds enjoying it, I felt a bit sorry for Boo that she was missing out. I still remember the chants for choc though so G has hardly had any chocolate at all and he is 15 months.

4.I went back to work when Boo was six months old so, if she woke up in the night, for ease and to make sure I got sleep for work, she regularly came into our bed. As I gave up work after G, I was determined he would not fall into the same pattern as his sister. He has not slept in our bed once.

5.With Boo, I worried about what she played with (plastic versus wooden toys), I worried that she watched too much TV. With G, I have relaxed a lot. I try to only let him watch a couple of programmes on CBeebies but once Boo is home from school, she wants to relax and watch Ben and Holly or Paw Patrol and I cannot really stop G from watching along.

I may have learnt from some of the things we did with Boo but all children are different. I just think once you have more children, you worry a lot less about the little things.
What did you or would you do differently?