Things I now understand

There are always things you say you are never going to do as a parent ... and then you do them. I don't have very many (yet), but I will definitely admit to a few things that I now can see from a parent's perspective.
As an early childhood professional for many years there were some licensing rules that I didn't quite 'get' but did them anyway. Now I know that those rules were insisted on by new parents.

Checking to make sure they are still breathing.
- Especially during the first few weeks at home, I would constantly check him to make sure that his little chest or belly were going up and down. If I don't hear sounds from him for a while, I still look over at him. There is such a fear that he will forget to keep breathing. Now I know why caregivers are supposed to check every 30 minutes while they are sleeping. A new parent fear has creeped in to early childhood rules. I took the fact of them breathing as a given as a professional, yet as a parent it is something I keep tabs on.

Moving the blanket off of their face.
- This is somewhat related to the checking breathing thought. Many children (including my own from about 1 month of age) like to pull the blanket over their head to sleep. Especially in a classroom where it doesn't get quite dark for naptime. I even like to sleep this way sometimes. Yet, another new parent fear has influence rules cause now at home I always pull his blanket back. Even though I always thought this rule was kind of silly at work, I pull the blanket from his face because of my fear of him suffocating on it. In my mind, I know he won't, but I pull it anyway for the 'just in case'.

My next admission is not so much a child care rule but a comment I often received from parents.
The "How can you handle more than one child at a time? I feel like I can only deal with one," comment from parents.
- This one is an I know that I have the skills to care for several children at once, and I don't worry about the future with adding children to our family (in the distant future). However, I now understand where parents are coming from when they have said this to me. I am so much more infinitely bound to my son that his every need is my highest priority. As a professional, I can prioritize group needs and multitask like you would not believe. As a mom of my first baby, I feel like I can't do anything else while I am nursing (maybe tv or a little facebook on my phone). In my classroom, I could feed 2 babies and read a book to another 2 or 3 children and keep an eye on the happenings in the rest of the room. Now I understand more about the mentality behind saying that just their child seemed like so much responsibility. Some of the comment might be motivated by a little insecurity in parenting skills, but not all of it as I used to suspect. There is a feeling of ultimate responsibility for your own child which makes every action and interaction that much more significant.