Cherrybrook

Exactly! One of finnish child psychiatrists said that "the child brings the manual with him". So each child is different and only the child can "tell" you how to handle them. (But I still don't think that spanking works for anyone, and neither does this psychiatrist). Even though it sounds unbelievable some baby's don't like to be held that much.

Yes, and I know even more fathers that do that and nobody sees anything wrong with that. Actually in some countries if the mother stays at home it means that the father needs to work around the clock to make a living. I don't see how this is in the best interest of the family. Exactly! In my family both of work and both of us take care of the kids and both of us do housework. In a lot of "stay-at-home-mum-families" I know the women really are worn out since they do everything but the money-earning. The reason I don't like the emphasis on the stay-at-home-mums is that I think the kids need mummy AND daddy just as much. Not mummy more than daddy. I go to work because it is the best interest of the whole family. The parents' sanity usually is. Why do some people think that working mums don't prioritize the family? I've noticed that I make a lot more effort for my kids than some of the stay-at-home-mums I know do. If my kid is ill or has an accident then of course I'll be there for them! Why wouldn't I? And quite honestly I don't care what my employer thinks about it. I'm lucky to work in a job that has a big shortage of employees. They plan and schedule with the husband, or take leave unpaid or resign during the school holiday to start again after it. or...whatever works for them? Why make it sound like it's a huge problem when it doesn't have to be? I could start about things like "How do stay-at-home-mums go see a doctor? Do they take like 5 screaming kids with them or what??" It's exactly the same thing! You plan! In my country the kids start school when their 7 and most of the LDS mums stay home at least until then. And they think if the child goes to kindergarten say in the age of five it must be really really bad for the child. Then again, a child in the age of five en England spends most of the time in school and the british stay-at-home mums have no concerns about that whatsoever. So in one country a five-year-old is better off staying home with mummy than in another country. Interesting.

Not necessarily. Our sleeping arrangements have varied quite a bit after our first son was born. First we tried the cot, but didn't work for any of us so we moved the baby in our bed and we all slept wonderfully. When he started moving around the bed too much, we bought him his own bed and moved him there and he was fine by that too, until the little brother was born. Then he decided he didn't like sleeping on his own anymore and since the baby was sleeping in our bed he wanted to sleep there too. Fine by me. We just got an extra big bed that could fit all four of us. That continued for about 6 months when our firstborn wanted to move back to his own bed. The baby stayed in our bed for...I don't remember how long. Probably until he was big enough to sleep in a junior bed (we had ditched the cot as useless by now). Since then the boys have pretty much slept in their own beds, but the "baby" (who is a big boy now) is still a regular visitor in our bed during the nights. Now they take turns in sleeping in the bottom bunk or in the top bunk or if they can't agree on who sleeps where they share the bottom bunk. So very little consistence in our sleeping arrangements but we've also had very little trouble overnight. Well slept nights have been a great, great blessing in our family life!

Elgama. I sympathise with you. Truly I do. I think people are beginning to be more open minded about doing things differently than what they were even 6 years ago when I had my first born. At least in my country. Me and my husband both carried our babies in sling. We also got some critisism for it, but pretty soon the slings turned out to be "hip" and "cool" and everyone had to have one. I was relly happy to see that. Cosleeping has also been our thing. I couldn't think of any other way to do it. I simply was not able to sleep if my baby wasn't right next to me. And my babies have been breastfed too, but "only" for 14 months. But we have used car seats and strollers etc too. I guess I've just tried to make the best choices for me and my family and not really follow a certain concept too literally, if you know what I mean. If something just doesn't work for you it doesn't. One of the hardest choices for me was to go back to work, but I still think it was the best decision. Probably not the ideal choice, but the best one I could make. I still fall short of my own expectations of what kind of a mum I'd like to be, but I keep trying very hard. And try not to be too hard on myself too, even though it's difficult sometimes, being the perfectionist that I am. And I do apologize my kids for my shortcomings and show them that after all, I'm also only a human and cabable of making mistakes. And I, too, sometimes get to see the results of my parenting and get the occasional moments of satisfaction that maybe I've managed to do something right, after all. But at the same time try not to take too much credit since I have received a lot of help from above.

Thanks for your posts. Geve me a lot to think about. Hemidakota: The word "LORD" might be a bit confusing and interpreted to mean either Father or the Sone, but in those quotes I gave they clearly talked about Jesus Christ as the center of our worship. And I think that can only mean one person.

Hello everyone. I finally managed to join in and have a question to begin with. It's something that my friend asked me a long time ago, but I could not answer. Now it came back to my mind through an article in Liahona. So here we go: Often when the mormons are asked if they are monotheists, because they believe in more than one God and they reply that yes we do believe in more than one God, but only worship one God, the Elohim. However, several church leaders mention worshiping Christ: "He is the central focus of our worship. I speak the name of Jesus Christ in reverence and wonder." Gordon B. Hinckley Liahona march, 2008 "That is Jesus Christ, whom we worship, with all our souls, all our minds and might and strength." Spencer W. Kimball, New Era, October 1978 "I worship Him as I worship His Father, in spirit and in truth." Gordon B. Hinckley Liahona July, 2006 "Jesus Christ is literally the Son of God, the Only Begotten in the flesh. He is our Redeemer, and we worship him" Heber J. Grant quoted in Liahona, march 2008 So do we (mormons) worship both Jesus Christ and the Elohim or just one of them? And if we worship both of them can we still consider ourselves monotheists?