The Best Advice I Received As A New Mother

As a new parent, you get bombarded with advice from every person you have ever met. A lot of it I found extremely unhelpful, contradictory, and sometimes really offensive.

These are the three that I found the most helpful and I still live by. 

1 - You can't spoil a baby 

I can't tell you how many people have offered their opinion on how I should have been settling and responding to my children. 

The good old "a baby never died from crying" chestnut.

 I have felt pressured to let my babies cry it out or at least cry for 'just a minute' because they can't think you will come every time they cry. 

Actually they can - because I will. I loved having twins because it gave me an excuse to go straight in and comfort my baby incase the other woke up. 

If that's the method you want to use - that's fantastic! I'm just saying don't feel like you have to be doing it just because that's what others are telling you to do. 

You can't spoil a baby. Don't feel bad for giving them what you are wired to do - comfort them. 

2 - The smell of the house can change everything

A house that smells good appears cleaner and more welcoming. There are a few different things that make me look like a much more efficient housewife and only take seconds to do that I turn to regularly. 

Lavender spray - I have a bottle of water and lavender oil to spritz if I have anyone arriving.. This gives the allusion of recent cleaning..

Cooking - if Josh is about to walk in the door and I want to look like wonder woman, I throw some butter and onion in a pan quickly.. Then the mess on the floor is not the first thing he notices, he walks in the door saying "something smells good!!" and thinking I'm just amazing for being so freaking organised. 

Bleach - yep, I don't clean the bathrooms as often as I should.. But if I need to make everything seem freshly cleaned, I splash some bleach in the toilet and light a candle, if it smells scrubbed, that's good enough for today!

3 - Don't try to tidy up during the day

This one I heard back when Mr X was born but didn't pay any attention to until now. It made no sense in my head, I kept thinking that if I ran around picking up toys and wiping down surfaces all day long that by the time kids were in bed, the house would be cleaner overall. 

It's really not. I would spend all day cleaning up after three toddlers and at the end of the day, my house still looked like a natural disaster had hit. 

Now I clean and tidy when the kids are in bed. 

Anything before then is pointless. I am a much more relaxed mother for it.