New mum shares her 'rules' for visitors: but are they sensible or OTT?
And would you pin them on your front door?
There's no doubt that having a new baby in the house brings with it all sorts of changes in lifestlye: it's an issue that a midwife tried to tackle some time ago when she put together a note for new parents to put on their door for visitors - just to give them a few tips on handling the whole 'newborn' situ.
And now, a new mum, on a parenting website forum, has made her own rules and asked other mums what they think of them.
They are (caps hers):
- PLEASE – be honest about your health – if you have been feeling unwell please come back another time
- PLEASE – wait for Mum/Dad to offer you the baby. Baby may be sleeping or eating so we will let you know when baby is ready to be held by someone else
- PLEASE – wash your hands before holding the baby
- PLEASE – don’t ring the doorbell in case you wake the baby. You wake the baby you volunteer for baby-sitting! You have been warned….!
- We would appreciate no comments on Mum’s size/weight
- Last but not least, please don’t take things personally. We are first time parents who are sleep deprived and anxious – it's our first time at this and we are still getting our heads around our wee bundle.
- We’re happy you’re here!!
She's gone on to ask if people think it would be OK to pin them to the front door - though does worry that she "might come across as a total cow".
The response
Views on the rules have been a bit - errr - mixed, shall we say. "The rules themselves are fine," said one mum, "though I think if you believe there are people who genuinely need this sort of thing spelt out to them, then I would maybe not be inviting them over in the first place!"
"No, don't do it," said another quite bluntly - and yet another thought the comment about not saying anything about mum's weight seemed a bit unnecessary.
Here at MFM HQ we have to say - we do find the rules a bit - formal - perhaps.
We'd probably be more likely to have a quick convo with people before they came over if there was anything we really wanted them to know.
And we'd probably trust our friend's judgement on things like not coming over if they were ill.
And, to be honest, we certainly wouldn't even anticipate them pointing out if we were carrying a bit of baby weight ?
What do you think?
Would you be tempted to put these 'rules' on your door - or definitely not? Let us know in the comment below or over on Facebook
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Authors
Tara is mum to 1 daughter, Bodhi Rae, and has worked as Content Editor and Social Media Producer at MadeForMums since 2015
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