I am resolutely not allowing myself to feel guilty for letting her do stuff like this most of the day.

What's the guilt-inducing part of this? What should she be doing instead?

Annabel plays happily with her toys on the floor

That's good developmental stuff right there.

We're not perfect parents, and our daughter is doing extra work in preschool (should be in school, but Missouri won't allow it, stupid cutoff law). Leif is just freaky, the kid is two and already can spell a lot of three and four letter words. Now he's starting to read some words in his books.

Um... sitting on the floor and playing with toys is what a baby's supposed to be doing.

Many people don't realize what enormous amounts of learning a baby does during the first year simply by hanging out.

Slacker mom is me.

And I wouldn't feel guilty at all, Susan. One of the best things I ever taught my kids was how to amuse themselves, at least part of the time. You are definitely doing more than OK.

I don't spend anything like as much time as I imagined I would reading to her, singing to her, and playing with her. Mostly I just do the things I did before I had a baby, only with her in the room, either roaming the living room floor or in her playpen in the computer room.

(xposted--that was in response to ita)

We're not perfect parents, and our daughter is doing extra work in preschool (should be in school, but Missouri won't allow it, stupid cutoff law). Leif is just freaky, the kid is two and already can spell a lot of three and four letter words. Now he's starting to read some words in his books.

Julia was a November baby, so started kindergarten right before she turned 6. When I was a kid, she would have started a year before. Despite the fact she would have been fine if she went last year, I was still glad for the extra year. That's one more year before boys-in-cars become an issue.

Leif sounds like Chris, only earlier. Batten down the hatches, Gud.

I don't spend anything like as much time as I imagined I would reading to her, singing to her, and playing with her.

Just wait, that will all change with toddlerhood.

I don't spend anything like as much time as I imagined I would reading to her, singing to her, and playing with her.

Neither have most mothers through history.

The household with a single parent focused entirely on a single child is a historical anomaly. In most households, there would be multiple children, and the mother would have many responsibilities besides caring for the child.

Sir Isaac Newton's mother wasn't doing flashcards with him. Galileo's mother wasn't playing educational games. They were both busy.

DH and I were both freakishly early readers. They found out that DH could read at 2 1/2. I wasn't discovered until 4, but by then I was already attempting to sound out dinosaur names phonetically and learn about volcanoes from my grandmother's coffee table book, Marvels and Mysteries of the World Around Us. That was my favorite book for years.

I think my whole guilt problem is I bought every aspect of attachment parenting wholesale years before I sprogged, and then discovered that it doesn't suit my personality, style, or commitment to my writing. There's a part of me that's amazed that a formula-fed child who hangs out in a stroller rather than a sling and in a playpen rather than my lap, and sleeps in a crib rather than our bed, can be so healthy and happy. Because I'm doing the opposite of what all the learned tomes that most impressed me say you're supposed to do.

Note to self: stay away from learned tomes.