Well, I would never...

Remember back to before you were married? Before you were a parent? Remember those times you said, "I would never...."

Well guess what, that's a joke. Here's a short list of the things I naively said I would never do:

• Let my kids drink anything besides milk or water.
• Feed them "bad carbs" like bread and white rice.
• Bribe them to get them to behave.
• Give in just so they'll stop crying or screaming.
• Let them sleep in our bed.
• Use the TV as a babysitter.

I will confess that I've done every last one of those things and many more that I can't even think of right now.

Does that make me a bad mom? No! It does however reveal how ridiculously naive and arrogant I was. It's easy to make a list of "I would never" statements when you've never been in that situation. 

I recently overheard a first-time mom-to-be proclaim one of her "I would never" statements. I was drinking a diet coke at the time and nearly spit it out. I wanted to smile and say, "That's what you say now, but we'll see." Of course I didn't do that because it would be as annoying to her as it is to me when a non-parent offers me parenting advice.

But it did make me think of my own oversights and naivete. And I just had to smile. Been there, done that.