I have read a few posts this week talking about sleep, potty training, weaning, feeding teenagers, screen time…….and the list goes on and on and on.

Our children didn’t sleep, at all, ever. I joke that I have had 24 years of sleep deprivation as at the end of my first pregnancy I was so big and our baby was so wriggly and 1996 was a hot summer, so I found it hard to sleep. We tried sleep training (nope, did not work at all), co sleeping (1 would sleep well, 2, not so well, guess who slept (hint, they were under 4)), cots, cot beds, futons, lavender, baths, lavender baths, baby massage, cranio-sacral therapy, early bed times, late bedtimes, no bedtimes (going to bed with us), and nothing worked, our kids just did not like sleeping on their own.

However, for us, potty training was sooooooo easy! Both boys were out of nappies in the day by 20 months with no accidents. Our eldest took longer to be dry at night because of a kidney problem, but our youngest was dry at night at two. It just worked and was easy! Lots of no nappy time, then we bought them ‘big boy pants’ and that was it. Unless they got very distracted, they were dry.

Food – argh!!! As long as we cooked the same kind of food, they ate. I remember when our eldest was in hospital for a week when he was 7 months and everyone was amazed that he ate whatever was on offer from the children’s menu rather than baby food, but then he started nursery at 2 and started to hate food. Similar pattern with our youngest – eat anything and then eat nothing. I think they both survived on beige food from 5 to 15.

Feeding teens – endless beige food with fruit seems to be the norm in this house, although that is improving.

Screen time? Yes, they have lots of screen time (obviously our eldest does what he wants now, but this refers to him as a teen). They are dyslexic, and YouTube is for them what the local library was for me. They watch highbrow videos, utter trash and everything in between, pretty much like the books I read when I was 15.

Every family is different, and every child is different, and as long as the child is loved, fed, looked after and clean, nothing else really matters. When they are little, breast vs bottle is an odd argument. Feed the baby, love the baby and look after mum (& dad) too.

No one knows your baby/toddler/child/pre teen/teen/young adult as much as you do. Trust your gut, but if you are struggling or have a question or just need reassurance, please ask someone you trust rather than a stranger on social media and above all, do what works for you.