With Roxie now on the move - Natalie is struggling to keep up with her explorations and questions how best to deal with with her natural inquisitiveness with damage limitation!
Just short of eight months and Roxie’s almost overnight discovered how to crawl, it’s remarkable just how quickly they learn everything!
So here we are, Roxie crawling around the lounge and I am constantly chasing after her as she is adamant to touch everything in her reach which of course makes up most of my ‘do not touch’ type items (I realise I shouldn’t have any of these items now that I have a baby but I’m stubborn and I don’t want to admit to having to change that part of my life too) 😂.
All of this has got me thinking. Does getting a playpen make me a bad person? She can’t explore and practise as well if she is ‘caged’ in and let’s be honest, that’s what they look like - cages! Am I a bad and lazy parent if I do get Roxie a playpen? Surely this ‘phase’ won’t last too long and she will be walking soon enough, at that point is a playpen just simply unacceptable?
Should I just be following her around for now instead? The facts are that just like the questions above there are many questions I ask myself now that I am a mother and most of them tend to have a reason for me to feel that dreaded ‘mum guilt’.
In reality, a playpen will allow her to play independently, teach her valuable emotional and physical skills and build her confidence in my absence and using it in moderation (like with anything), will allow me to get the things I need to quickly meaning I can go back to giving her my undivided attention (well most of the time anyway).