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The 5 Things Every New Parent MUST KNOW

1) Babies are essentially fool proof. They will feed when they want, walk when they want, talk when they want. Almost nothing you do will change that. You can worry endlessly over this and that and the other, but relax and you'll have a better time.

2) Who you are, genetically speaking, probably matters a lot more than what you do. At conception your kid has the genes to have a certain IQ. You can nurture that or degrade it, but otherwise, its fairly set. Your kid's genes also affect whether he will be driven or lack focus. Twin studies confirm this. So you if your genes connect in the right way and you get a smart, driven kid out of the dice roll, pretty much nothing you can do will change that.

3) Your kid faces more of a risk of injury from being a passenger in a car than from vaccines. Vaccinate your kids.

4) You'll get an amazing amount of advice. Notice I didn't say amazing advice. Pretty much everyone who is anyone, especially if they have or ever had kids, will give your their thoughts. Feel free to ignore them. Each kids is different and pretty much no strategy works on every kid. There are a few broad strokes you can paint, but the nitty gritty specifics are unique to each kid. Get a routine, stick to it. It helps you. Set a bed time and keep to it. It helps both you and baby.

5) Parenting is hard. Its unlike anything you've ever done, so you are completely unprepared for it. Thankfully, as I've said above, its also somewhat hard to mess up. You'll have days when pretty much everything goes wrong and you feel like a complete failure. Welcome to the club.

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