Parenting Pitfalls

I am currently enrolled in a 6-week parenting course at church, hoping for some stellar insight and guidance to keep me patient and striving to be a good parent. This week's session is on parenting pitfalls and I can't wait to learn what they are and how Don and I can avoid them. Unfortunately, we already have hit some of these (though not likely covered in this particular course), like feeding and rocking your baby to sleep (instead of teaching them to go to sleep on their own) or confusing their need to eat and need to sleep cues.

One interesting, innocent and completely accidental pitfall occurred after a lovely dinner out on a sunny Cambridge evening. It was the perfect summer night for an ice cream and we happened upon a sandwich/coffee shop selling home-made delights. There were some very intriguing and unique (and very British) flavours, including Rhubarb Crumble, Cucumber and Blood Orange. The proprietor was keen to let us try several, including a Pimm's Lemonade. He first said that it was lemon and then to Don said, with Pimm's. I did not hear this part as I was blissfully zoned out with my first mouthful of the Rhubarb Crumble. Having been to Wimbledon twice and not one to often imbibe any form of liquor, Don was convinced Pimm's was a brand of lemonade, had a small taste himself and popped the rest straight into Aiden's open mouth! The bloke behind the counter looked a bit surprised and said, 'You know that has alcohol, right?' 'WHAT?' Don exclaimed. Suddenly coming back to reality, I said, 'Why did you give that to Aiden?!' A really pointless question since he obviously wouldn't have given it to Aiden otherwise. Knowing there was nothing we could do about it and that it really was a minuscule amount of ice cream with an even smaller amount of Pimm's, Don laughed and said, 'Well I guess I get the 'Father of the Year Award'. And with that we paid and headed across the street to consume our treats in front of King's College.