Front Porch Friday: Parenting with Confidence?

My neighbor is from the Philippians and has commented more than once that Americans are too isolated. In the Philippians and also in the United States' recent past, it was common for people to spend time outside or on the front porch with people in the community. I have often heard older people talk about how their kids used to play all over the neighborhood, and they did not worry about them because they knew that all of their friends and neighbors would make sure they were not getting into trouble! There is a chorus from a country song that makes me think about the impact this kind of change can have.

If the World had a front porch, like we did back then
We'd still have our problems, but we'd all be friends
Treatin your neighbor like he's your next of kin
Wouldn't be gone with the wind
If the world had a front porch, like we did back then

It makes me wonder how many problems we have today that were unheard of in the recent past (things like school shootings) are the result of not allowing people to truly know us or "spend time on our front porch." I think that while we are more interconnected that ever before with people around the world, we are possibly more isolated than ever before. Therefore, I have decided to initiate Front Porch Friday where I invite you to sit on our Cyber Front Porch and get a glimpse of what has really happened in our week!

This week:
1) We had to go to cloth diapers 24/7 because Jessica got a nasty heat rash after I put her in disposables to make it easier on me for 2 days (I felt like such a bad mommy!!!). We tried EVERYTHING!!!!! We did manage to find some disposable diapers (7th generation) I can order online and use periodically, but if I use them all of the time then she will still get a heat rash. They are also reasonably priced. We also discovered that the BumGenius cloth diapers


worked better at controlling her heat rash than the prefolds we had been using. (See my earlier post on Diapering on a Dime.) They are about $18 a piece so we will probably buy a couple here and there. I did experiment with sewing my own, but mine tended to leak more. Also, quite honestly, with all of the laundry, baby care, cooking, and dishes I don't have time to experiment with sewing diapers!! We did have one very exciting moment amid all of the stress of trying to alleviate her discomfort. I had to go to the bathroom so I took her to the bathroom with me and set her on the potty chair and read her a book. When she got up, we saw that she had pottied!!!!!! I got so excited that I clapped and gave her some chocolate and then called everyone I knew and posted it on facebook!!!! We are not trying to push her into potty training but at this point I am definitely trying to encourage it because even one less diaper a day cuts down on my laundry!


2) We had an incident at the pool where I freaked out another mother. I felt bad at first because I felt like I was not being a good mother. After swimming lessons I put Jessica in the baby pool, which is shallow enough she can sit down in and still be able to breathe. I went maybe 10 feet to get our towel, while watching her, and she face planted in the water. I waited just a second to see if she would get herself up. She didn't and did exactly what she does in swimming lessons: a dead man's float. A mother across the pool freaked and started running through the water to get her. I told her I had her and pulled her up. She sputtered a second and was fine. Later she did it a second time and I pulled her out again. Finally, she decided to walk around the pool, and I followed her because I thought she might trip and fall head first into the water. She didn't but she did faceplant on the concrete! She cried and I held her for a couple minutes and then she wanted to get down and walk again. All of this happened in 30 minutes time! We left shortly thereafter with me thinking "Great! Now someone is going to call Child and Family Services on me for being negligent!" After I had time to think about it, I realized it was fine and that mother was probably a little bit nervous while I am not since I used to be a lifeguard. (Her child was almost twice as big as Jessica and was wearing floaties in the baby pool!)

3) This week while I was walking with some moms in my neighborhood, one of them commented on how impressed they were that I grew my tomato plants from seed. I told her that I only did it because I did not know that they sold tomato plants!!! She thought that was hilarious because she had been thinking that I was a super, overachiever, earth momma, when in reality I am a cheap, curious, easily bored and distracted momma who doesn't really like shopping and doesn't realize all of the things you can buy instead of make these days!!!

Feel free to leave comments about what has been happening on your "Front Porch" this week!