For nearly a decade now, I’ve been telling anyone who’d listen (which, admittedly, isn’t many) that Bill Harley’s The Town Around The Bend CD is the greatest thing in a parent’s bedtime arsenal once that parent is the parent of a toddler. My oldest daughter fell asleep to that curiously odd album of stories and songs every night from age 3 to 8, and still enjoys it now at age 12 during overnight road trips. It’s a modern classic that far too many people don’t know about it.
We at Life of Dad figured that every parent likely has that one special thing that they are convinced every new parent should have. So we asked ‘em, what’s that one thing that every new parent needs! Here’s just some of the hundreds of responses we got back!
Paul Clark suggests a “rock n sleeper.” And many parents agreed with him immediately! He added “We never would have made it without that. Our daughter just turned 2 and she slept in it by our bed for the first 6 mos.”
Get a radio for the baby’s room says Harold Sharkey, “Do not tip toe around your baby, always have noise always! Don’t be the parents that say or put signs on the door…. Shhh baby’s sleeping.”
Because life with baby boys gets wet in a hurry, Bill Lukawy says “Dude be prepared to get soaked. Get facecloths from Dollar Tree or any dollar store. The second air hits their peckers…..it fires.”
Deidre Chea Parker knows of what she speaks: “Wipe warmer. Nothing pisses off a baby faster than a cold wipe to the butt in the middle of the night.”
Because onesie snaps in the middle of the night are the product of the devil, Katherine Figueroa recommends baby gowns. She adds, “I have a son and I was so tired to change him. Those baby sacks at night also helped my son stay asleep since I just rolled it up to change him. We loved calling him our man in a dress!”
Kirk Edwards: The miracle blanket made it much easier to swaddle, lasted longer (size wise) and allowed my last one to swaddle till almost six months, which she needed.
John Haukland’s boys are older now but you can almost see him getting misty-eyed when he suggests a new dad get a “really comfortable chair or rocker for those three am feedings or four am snuggles, or five am bad dreams… You get the point, but I have the best memories of being with my boys in a dark quiet house and just being. The way they stare at you, and babble their baby talk. Oh man, to go back for a day.”
It’s not the name of a punk band, but Charles French’s new parent essential: “booger sucker! I wish they had an electric one when my son was a baby. Here the order of more than one thing 1)prayer 2)booger sucker 3)the swinging chair aka baby sitter!”
Take it from a mom who’s been there 4 times in quick succession: Erika Weed Montez’s advice will help a new parents get stuff done, “We had 4 in 6 years. By #4 the must haves changed completely. A good bouncy chair. It was the only thing that made showering, eating, etc. possible some days.”
Finally, it’s not a thing but it’s super important too as Helen Anna-Louise Pell explains: “A set routine from the beginning. Set a bedtime routine so you and your [partner] get time together in the evenings.”
What’s the one thing you think every new parent will need in their home? Share it with the Life of Dad community.
*Flickr photo by Karen Sheets de Gracia, used under Creative Commons license.