"Well we did _________ back in the day and our kids turned out fine" . Did they really though Carol?
Who else feels exhausted with the slew of outdated parenting practices the older generation tends to bombard new moms with๐๐ผโโ๏ธ Useful experience sharing is one thing....but outright telling a new mom she is doing it wrong.... is another.
The truth is we are living in a different world now than when our parents or grandparents were well....parenting. The way we parent is going to look different and thats ok. Again ....IT'S OK.
The idealistic picture of what family life should look like needs to evolve. The same way our parenting practices do. We are living in a time where more information is available at our fingertips than ever. We are able to gather parenting information from various sources....not just our elders and doctors. Knowledge is power and having different knowledge than our parents did, will absolutely shape how we parent.
For example, we now know, that offering a sandwich , with chips , a fruit roll up and juice box for lunch....isn't really lunch. We are armed with so much information regarding nutrition that just wasn't available to past generations. Not to mention many of us grew up with constant stomach aches and health issues that stemmed from our poor diets . No fault of our parents....they just didn't know any better.
The trouble comes in, as our generation starts to move away from many of the parenting practices past generations used, in exchange for more informed ones. There is some strange stubborn entitled trait that leads the older generation to believe how they parented ....is how we should be parenting.
The myth of "Well our kids survived" needs to stop. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to keep a child alive. The question is .....did that child grow up to be an emotionally balanced and educated member of society? Judging by the amount of 80's- early 2000's kids with health issues mentally and physically .....I think not.
The saying "know better do better" comes into play here. The other thing to keep in mind is how the landscape which we are parenting within is drastically different. We just went through two years of endless lockdowns and pandemic restrictions , which past generations never had to deal with while raising children. Now we are watching housing markets, energy prices and basic living costs rise drastically. We are navigating a totally different world.
New moms shouldn't be made to feel guilty when they make choices for their families based on what is going on in the world. What worked for Carol back in 1989 is not going to work in 2022 .
Our version of parenting is just different and thats ok. The same way that our future children will parent , will also be different. Parenting isn't one size fit all . Family is no longer a Dad, Mom and their kids. It all looks different and so should our parenting practices.
Don't feel bad for making your own parenting choices. Your job isn't to please Carol....it's to raise a healthier and more balanced generation.
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