I'm going to admit something to you, I judge people.
Yes, I do it.
If someone tells me something that they do with their kid that I (personally) wouldn't do with mine, I judge them. Now, I'm not a complete asshole. I don't do it out loud. But I do it, internally.
I blame society.
Look, I live in a neighborhood where I walk down the street, and random strangers will shout out parenting "advice" to me. These people think that they have the right to tell me how to parent my child. They are blatantly judging me.
We live in a society that condones judgement.
It's okay to tell a mom to breastfeed.
It's perfectly acceptable to force your opinions about formula feeding on a new mother.
It's fine to tell a new parent that sleeping training is cruel.
It's also perfectly reasonable to tell a parent that sleep training is the only way to get a baby to fall asleep.
What's the matter with our society? Why are we so nosy? Why can't we just raise our children the way we like, and stay the hell out of everyone else's family.
What works for you might not work for another mother or father, or grandmother, or grandfather.
And guess what?
That's okay.
We can be different from one another.
Diversity is awesome everyone.
Let's embrace our parenting differences.
Let's unite based on the fact that we all parent differently. Let's try our best not to judge another parent because they do something differently from the way that we do it.
Do you have a parenting philosophy? I'd love to hear it!
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I try really hard not to judge, but I still find myself doing it. Constantly. In my job, I have to show parents how to foster their child's language learning, and I find myself nit-picking their parenting sometimes (in my head, of course).
ReplyDeleteI keep my judgements to myself, but when people complain about what a terrible eater or sleeper their kid is, I have to admit that part of me suspects that they created the sleep/food monster they are now living with. Is that terrible?
My parenting philosophy? You do yours and I will do mine. And nevermind what goes on behind closed doors, the door is closed for a reason.
ReplyDeleteI judge too...internally! There a couple things that super duper bug me and I just can't help it.
ReplyDeleteI think it's human to judge. But I really hate it when others judge my parenting. So I'm going to make a conscious effort not to judge. Unless of course there's a situation where a child is in danger.
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