If in doubt, ask mom

Thank you Graham Bell, for inventing the telephone. And thanks to the deregulation in telecom industry that has brought about considerable fall in the prices of the STD and ISD calls. This enables me to be in constant touch with Mom.

If Lil General so much as sneezes or does a green potty 5 times or anything that he hasn't done before, the next thing I know I am talking to mom. Lil General measures only 70 cm in length...but huge enough to send jitters down my body anytime. A huge responsibility and a job assigned without any prior experience or training, yet you have to come out with flying colors all the time. No room for mistakes, only guidance available.

It has taken me a month to figure things out on my own, what to feed him, what not to, work out a schedule and if I am doing it right. With parents living abroad, I realised it is not always easy and feasible to get in touch with them at unearthly hours. So I found a new savior - the Internet that has answers to most of my questions such as "is it OK to give milk to a kid who has fever?" or "is it alright to give coconut water when it is raining? or "is it OK to bathe the kid if it is raining?". A lot of questions swim in my head all the time. Sometimes I am convinced by what I read and sometimes I don't and there are times when I feel very confident. Sometimes knowledge is power and sometimes ignorance is bliss. When I don't get convincing answers on the net, I reflect on experiences or ask mom and when nothing works, my instinct does.

There are still moments when I am overpowered by self doubt and decide after preparing the feed, that it might not suit him. Yea, welcome to the world of cautious parenting.

I am sure all the moms talk to moms frequently but how much I am not sure, atleast with their first kids. If you are amongst those know-it-all mom who does everything by yourself, I admire you and would like to hear from you.