Parenting Experts on Twitter
There's a Twitter pattern: announce a first baby, then resurface a year later as a militant parenting expert. Ten years and several kids in, I've learned how little of my own experience transfers, even kid to kid. Case in point: nine-month-old W just quit nursing overnight.
I've seen this happen a few times very recently. A Twitter account announces that he's expecting his first child. Baby is born. Then, inevitably, sometime during the first year, this first-time parent starts coming out as a parenting expert. Almost invariably, they come out adamantly opposed to something based on apparently having read the most absurd take on that thing. When to introduce solid foods. Developmental concerns. Sleep training. Whatever. Doesn't matter. One kid. Parenting expert. "You're an awful person if you do <X>."
If I've learned anything over the past ten years, it is that little of my parenting experience is generally applicable to other kids. Sometimes it isn't even applicable from kid-to-kid.
W is nine months old. Aside from a brief moment of experimentation early on, W has refused to take a bottle. Or medicine. Or food. Or anything. Other than breast milk direct from the source. Until yesterday. A switch flipped and he decided he was done with nursing. No warning. No transition. Just done. He will now drink (eat?) exclusively from his sippy-cup thing. I guess we'll see how long this'll last, but it feels very definite and permanent.
Today. This morning. Just now. Was the first time I've assisted W in drinking a full bottle, which he absolutely pounded. Nine months old. It's just such a departure from his siblings.
