Aha! Moments

I realize that I am still considered a newer parent, but it seems no matter how experienced the parent, there are always going to be parental Aha moments. Whether good or bad, these moments have their impact. My first Aha moment came when Grace was not even 1hour old. She was a larger baby, born at 9lbs 3oz, and with larger babies comes blood sugar concerns, so the nurse wanted her have formula. I had just been wheeled from the OR into the recovery room, and my husband was out in the waiting room telling our families the wonderful news. Here I was, by myself with this beautiful little girl, and the nurse asks,


"Do you have a preference for formula?"

Preference?? Was it like wine, the more expensive the better? I had no idea how to answer such a seemingly simple question. It was at that moment that I realized, WOW, I am a mom! Everyone is going to be coming to me for the answers, and I need to have them (or at least act like I do). I asked the nurse if she had a recommendation. She told me what they prefer to give infants, so I went with that. Luckily, MY mom came in at that moment, and she helped be me feed Grace her first sips of formula, and I am forever grateful to my mom for being there. I am sure most new parents probably have moments like this, but this is a moment I will never forget, as it was my first parental Aha moment.

My most recent Aha moment was bitter sweet. Now that my baby is a full fledged toddler, we have become very familiar with ‘time out.’ We began time outs around her second birthday, thinking that she was old enough to understand the concept. At our new house, the time out spot is on our stairs. This way we have a spot upstairs and down. A typical time out involved my husband or I explaining to her what she did wrong, and then having her sit quietly for 2 minutes (one minute per age). When the time out was over, I would ask her,

“Can you tell Mommy why you were in a time out?”

The typical response was,

“Yes,” then silence, and I would explain again the reason for the timeout. One morning, Grace was being especially difficult about getting dressed. She began to scream and hit. I put her in a time out and after she sat quietly for the 2 minutes, I went to her and asked,

“Do you know why you were in a time out?”

She responded with,

“Because I screamed and hit.”

Wow!! She got it, and I was not even expecting her to say anything. Aha!! It works! So, while I don’t like putting my Gracie in time out, I love that the technique actually works! Plus, I am teaching her the difference between right and wrong. I hope we will continue to have many more successful AHA moments like this.

Any other parental Aha moments from moms or dads out there?