Introduction from Dr. Mandy Menzer: “I wish I had Known”
Posted by Catherine on August 19, 2011A Family Village welcomes Dr. Mandy Menzer as a guest blogger! Thank you Mandy!
I am new to the blogging world but am excited about the opportunity to share my views about being a parent and hopefully have some words of wisdom to offer about this journey. To introduce myself, I am the mother of a 6-year-old son, with another little boy about to join our family sometime in late August (my due date is August 28th) so I am gearing up to start all over again! Parenting, particularly what is feels like to be a parent, is also of interest to me professionally. I am a psychologist who works in private practice but I've recently started teaching workshops to help couples adjust to the transition to parenthood. I remember what a shell-shocking experience it was for me when my first son was born, and I have enjoyed talking to parents who are about to go through the same thing. The Transition to Parenthood workshop is based on the Bringing Baby Home workshop by some of my favorite family and relationship experts Dr's John and Julie Gottman (some of you may have seen the book "Baby Makes 3" which is also by the Gottmans). I am eager to start posting, although I may get derailed as due date draws nearer. I would also love to hear feedback/questions from others or thoughts about your own parenting journey - particularly what you wish you had known! For me, I wish I had known that a) newborns are a lot of work and are actually pretty boring ;) and b) that there would be times that I would not enjoy all the work and stress of being a new parent but that didn't make me a bad parent or someone who didn't love my baby. I could have saved myself a lot of guilt!
