Kids - Thinks I Think About Raising Kids That Have Yet To Be Tested

Here's your chance to remember this and call back to it when I actually have kids and none of  it works, but from reading and babysitting and being part of a big family, here's what I think, in no particular order:

• Babies are way sturdier than you think
• Crying is okay, so long as your kid doesn't have, like, a heart problem
• Babies and especially kids need a little time where they feel like they're being left alone
• Chores are good, but even the best kids will hate them
• Behavior is something that's taught, and you're the best teacher
• Kids aren't blank slates, but they are very impressionable and malleable
• TV is not a babysitter, but it's way useful when you pick the right channels
• You need to give kids a reason to be good, because being bad is a lot easier
• Taking monthly pictures of your baby is a great idea, because they'll change every morning and those squishy baby days go fast
• All kids eat weird, but a little kid won't let himself starve
• You have to find your own ways to raise your kids, and other people won't understand them or your home the way you do
• Baby-books are mostly to keep the mother-to-be from freaking out
• Attachment parenting is probably leading to codependent children
• You don't have to give up your life just because you have kids--you just have to plan better
• You'll never be ready to have kids; you just do, or you don't
• There is absolutely no reason you can't have a creative, artistic lifestyle with kids, and you probably will come out with better kids if you do
• You can travel with kids anywhere you'd travel with adults, and in fact, kids come out with wider and more interesting understanding of the world when they travel earlier in life
• It's hard to actually mess up a kid
• Babies = worry, but that doesn't have to keep you from relaxing
• Kids need free time that isn't scheduled so they know who they are to themselves
• Encourage creativity in your kids
• Discourage passive acceptance and sedentary lifestyles
• Discourage violence as a way to solve problems, express themselves, or react to unhappiness
• Kids should be allowed to wander their neighborhoods, and if you live somewhere where this isn't safe, you need to move--you can't lock a kid up inside any more than you can lock a high-energy dog up
• Read to your kids, and not just from kid-books, because the appropriate ages stamped on them probably don't apply
• Kids love superheroes
• Avoid super-artificial things in the kid's diet, like aspartame and HFCS, because their bodies and brains are still forming and they don't need that extra stress
• Immunizations are safe most of the time, and necessary if you're going to have your kid in school with other germ-factory kids
• Killing all the germs in a kid's house is bad