Motherhood. A never ending learning experience.

As moms, as women, as human beings in general, we have a way of criticizing ourselves and our everyday lives. Whether that be the decisions that we make, the relationship we are in {or not in}, or the projects that we take on at our 9-5 job {eh, I don't know what that means}, we tend to be hard on ourselves. When we don't do something right.

Especially when it comes to our children.

I am not one to "follow" the crowd or trust everything that is put out there. Especially on the internet. I love to ask questions. I like to talk to other nurses and doctors that I work with. And I especially love to talk motherhood with other moms out there.

That being said, I don't know it all.

I don't know what isn't told to me at my well visits. I don't know what I happened to not read while looking up some information on the internet. I don't know about a conversation that never took place. Or the answers to the questions that I didn't ask.

That eats away at me. When it's something that I just didn't know.

That's happened to me a few times during the past couple of years and I'm always kicking myself saying "Well how come no one told me this." And then I turn around and talk back and say... "You should have looked into it." And then the other half of me snarks back..."How would I look into something I didn't know I needed to look into."

Remember, I said I argue with myself at times.

It's true, though. As mothers... how do we know we need to be aware of something that is never brought up with our doctors. not mentioned in that specific milestone chapter of the book, and not discussed by other moms. Even your own mom.

As moms, we want to do our very best. We want to know everything there is to know about every little important mothering based topic out there. We want what's best for our children. More importantly, we want to make sure that what we are doing is keeping them safe. Not the other way around.

Right? Right?

That's why I propose that a list is given to all moms when they leave the hospital with their bundle of joy. Forget the giant 500 page book that they handed me {which I do read by the way}. I want the most important details spelled out to me in PLAIN ENGLISH, in number format.

I'm not going to give you a mothering list. None of that- sleep when the baby sleeps, breast is best, no bottle past 1, and get rid of that pacifier at 6 months. None of that. You will figure out what works for your family and what doesn't on your own.

What kind of list am I going to give you? One that is solely on safety and health. A list I wish that someone would have handed me the day I became a mother. One that I can read through and then do more thorough research from there. A list. Plain and simple. To keep our children safe.

That is, after all, our sole responsibility as parents. And often what we don't know can do the most damage.

And although, I could have placed the list in this post instead of making you wait until tomorrow, I decided not to. Why? Because one, that would make for a very long post that I promise people would bicker and complain. And two, because you all would skip everything I just said and scroll down to the bottom to read the list instead. And since I love to talk and want to be heard {because I'm obnoxious}, I'm going to go ahead and save the list for tomorrow.

Until then.