Your responsibilities as a parent

As the parent of a newborn you should set up some parenting priorities that will last throughout your little one's childhood. There are three key areas of parenting that I think all parents need to consider - health, safety, and emotional support. After that the issues you care about most of course will be based on your own personal parenting philosophy. I'm bringing this up because I recently had a run in with a friend who doesn't seem to believe that her kids would lie to her. She'll ask the kids, "Did you brush your teeth yet?" the kids say "YES" but all evidence points elsewhere.

• The kids come out of their room, go straight to the living room. When the mom asks if they've brushed, they've never actually left the living room, which of course would be required to brush their teeth.
• If you head into the bathroom the kids toothbrushes stand, fully dry, nice and new looking as if they've never been used.
• The toothpaste and floss is in exactly the same spot as it was two days ago when you visited - and I don't mean a spot for storage, it literally has not moved.

In case you think I can't possibly notice this stuff, I'll remind you that I have nine years experience as a mama. My mama senses have been fine tuned to recognize kid deceptions. My own son was one of those kids who would say he brushed his teeth but a dry toothbrush said otherwise so for a year I hung out with him while he brushed. Now he knows I'll hang out if I catch him lying so he brushes without a scene. When I mention the dry brushes, the lack of toothpaste movement, and so on, my friend will tell me, "But they said they brushed." Um, fine. In my opinion this is a form of lazy parenting. I don't know why this bothers me so much other than I like her kids and would prefer their teeth don't fall out. Also, when you let stuff like this slide, kids will try for more deception because they know they can. Teeth may not be that big an issue to some people, but letting kids get away with this sort of stuff IS a big issue because it doesn't teach them to one, take responsibility, or two, tell the truth. Plus on a grander scale if you're letting this slide as a parent, it's an actual health issue. Since part of your job is to look out for your kids' health, well, you're just not doing a very good job. Ok, rant over. It's just so frustrating. AND I'm an advocate of low-key parenting so it's not like I'm overly nit-picky, and I'm not perfect, but I do try my best to not let health and safety issues slide. From the time your little one is born you'll need to add some basic know-how about emotional health, general health and safety to your parenting skill set that will help you over the years. Some handy topics to consider include...

• Vaccines - should you get them for your child or not.
• Practice SIDS prevention.
• How to feed your child a healthy diet and hopefully encourage a love of veggies.
• Learn how to keep it together in an emergency situation.
• Play with your baby and encourage exercise early on.
• Protect your little one's skin.
• Baby proofing know how is a must as is knowing how to help a choking baby or child.
• Learn baby and child CPR and first aid. AND keep a fully stocked first aid kit in your car and at home.
• Know the basic signs of poisoning.
• Raise a nice child.
• Learn about drowning dangers.
• Make sure your little one practices good dental hygiene from the baby years onward and visits the doctor for health check-ups regularly.
• Consider removing "NO" from your vocabulary.
• Raise a positive and confident child.

If the above seems like a lot, all I can say is welcome to parenthood. It's not always easy but it is totally doable. All of the above are issue that good parents should work on in order to keep their kids healthy, happy, and safe. You're the parent - it's your responsibility to act like it. No matter what your parenting philosophy is there's no excuse to set your child up for dental problems, obesity, and other health and safety problems.