It is an amazing phenomenon. Absolutely everyone who found out we were pregnant or had a newborn *immediately* came out with a piece of parenting advice, completely unprompted and unsolicited. Everyone, no matter what their experience, offers up some 'helpful' tidbit. People who have never seen a baby in their life know somebody who knows somebody who had an aunt who hid in the basement for 17 hours while their kid was crying and the kid never did it again so it must be the right way to do it. It's really quite remarkable.
Now don't get me wrong - I'm new at this and I love to learn and learning from others' experiences is often a valuable way to do so. But one of the things I quickly found out with all the completely divergent parenting advice is that you have to forge your own path. Fortunately I have 38 years of experience in taking strident advice in as much stride as possible (which is not to say it has always been 'in stride') and forging my own path - love you ma & pa! :). Actually they have been great through all of this, offering less advice than most complete strangers I tell we have a newborn.
If I were to offer a bit of advice to new parents it would be to do what works for you so long as it's not illegal, immoral or unsafe, and don't let any other person, book or "expert' make you feel badly about it.
See, I do it too.
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The Dark Side of Perfectionism
10 years ago
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1 comment:
Oh dear - I hadn't read your last couple of entries before I called on Sunday afternoon - otherwise, I would definitely not have relayed the story about trying to get Evan to sleep.
Sorry!
One way to look at it is that people are interested and wondering how all of you are doing. Everyone loves a baby - and Quinn seems to be a particularly lovable guy! (No doubt his deep teenage subconscious is hoping that this particular attribute will last into, and through, puberty!)
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