BFBN: “Start as you mean to go on”

Today is Babywise Friendly Blog Network Day!

Claire is guest posting for me over from My Devising! I’m posting over at Chronicles of a Babywise Mom so be sure to check out my car seat safety post over there today too 🙂

This is a phrase that played over and over in my head as I began my first few months as a mother.  

I read Babywise when my son was 3 weeks old and it totally changed the way I was doing things.  I started to experience routine and structure, I started to see a more content baby, and I started to sleep more!  

These were all wonderful things.  

In the beginning, “start as you mean to go on” meant that I would follow the eat/wake/sleep pattern, focus on full feedings, and establish a consistent morning waketime. 

My son, Duke, turns 2 in a couple of weeks and we are still reaping the benefits of each of those things.  He eats meals around the same time each day, is a great sleeper, isn’t a snacker, and follows a pretty predictable schedule.

But there are even some smaller-scale things that I’ve learned also fall under this “start as you mean to go on” category.  For example, phones.  

We decided early on that we didn’t really want Duke playing with our phones.  Sure, there were many times when it would’ve helped in appeasing a fit-throwing session, but we held back.  

We knew that it’d be worth it not having to deal with cracked screens or any other phone issues due to a baby handling it.  

Now, I have one game on my phone and in desperate times, I allow Duke to use it.  But because it was never a habit for him, he doesn’t expect to always get permission.

“Start as you mean to go on” is a really great rule of thumb to remember in those first couple years of life (and probably even later on as well – I just don’t have experience with that). 

It helped me think through some decisions in the beginning that would affect us later on.

So if there’s any piece of advice I’d offer or anything I plan to keep in mind for our next child, it’d be to “start as you mean to go on.”  

You have to start with structure in order to flex it.  You have to start with rules in order to bend them.  

If I would’ve started with absolute chaos, I don’t think I would’ve been able to reign it in later.  

How about you guys?  If you’re a Babywise follower, how has “start as you mean to go on” applied to you?

Claire is stay-at-home mom to her (almost) 2 year old son, Duke.  She enjoys teaching piano lessons, songwriting, and blogging at My Devising.