Parenting Nazis

Here is an area in which everyone seems to have an opinion and want to share it with you. In fact, it starts even before you give birth. The second you either tell people you are pregnant, or begin to show, people come out of the woodwork to give you unsolicited advice. And each and every one is convinced their way is the only way to birth and raise your child.

The truth is, though, there are a thousand “right” ways to raise a baby, and no one can tell you what’s right for you as a parent, nor for your child. Everyone has their own parenting style, and every baby is different. Totally natural, med-free home birth is right for some people, but not for everyone. Exclusive breastfeeding, cloth diapering, attachment parenting, co-sleeping, etc. is the same deal.

Yet, so many people seem to think it’s their business to tell a new or expecting parent how to handle every situation. What’s worse is that every other opinion contradicts the one before it, so even if you are interested in what people have to say, you’ll drive yourself crazy trying to figure out what the “right” solution is.

What’s so difficult about live and let live? Why is it necessary to force your views on everyone else? You gave birth to your baby in the water, at home, with no medical interventions at all … that’s great! It doesn’t make you a better mother than someone who went to the hospital, though. If you can exclusively breastfeed your child until he or she is two years old, more power to you. But that “power” does not include the right to look down upon someone who couldn’t, or didn’t, for whatever reason. Their choices are their own, just as your choices were yours.

Everything in parenting is a choice, and everything comes with a price. What one parent can afford has no bearing whatsoever on what anyone else should do. Unless you want to take the 3 a.m. feedings, the diaper explosions, and the eventual payments for college tuition, keep your unsolicited opinions to yourself and let me raise my own child my own way.