Parenting Books - A Disservice to Us All?

There are no words to describe how disgusting kid vomit is, or how much MORE disgusting it is when it is inside rain boots, stuck to curly kid hair, crammed in every crack and crevice of a car seat, or spread across the upholstery and carpet of your car.  Yuck, gross, gag-me disgusting isn't even enough!

JD and Sophie left here yesterday at 6:30 pm for a 7 pm swimming lesson.  They walked back in the door at 6:50 because Sophie had been sick in the car, and not just once but four times.  Poor Sophie was covered in puke and beside herself.  Cleaning her and getting her tucked into bed was quick and easy because she was too miserable to argue.  Cleaning her clothes, car seat and the car was a whole other story.  Thankfully for me JD did most of the disgusting clean-up, but unfortunately our car still has a very unpleasant smell. (Even after being detailed.)

This is one of those things that parenting books don't tell you.  They don't tell you that your children will randomly puke for no apparent reason.  They don't tell you that rain boots will also act as a throw-up catchers.  They don't tell you how to clean vehicle upholstery.  They don't tell you that your peaceful Sunday evenings will become chaotic in a split second.  Damn parenting books. (They are all in the trash now.)

Parenting books really aren't helpful.  They gloss, glaze, skim, and leave out all the important stuff.  I understand why prenatal books leave stuff out; because if they gave us the blow by blow who would ever rationally, make the decision to get pregnant.  But come on, once our beautiful, bouncing babies are here why don't they just lay it all out there?  What's the point in hiding the pukey, poopy truth?  We all find out eventually, and when we do we need all the help we can get!