Parenting is for most people the journey of raising a child into an adult who isn’t a jerk. Of course a long the way it’s nice to have a child who may be academic, maybe sporty, attractive. I think ultimately we want our children to be respectful, to contribute to society, to succeed.
Parenting is our journey, it is different for everyone. What works in my family, most probably won’t work for yours, and vice versa.
The problem now in society is that we have been told that there are ways to parent right and if you aren’t doing it that way, rather than just being different, you are doing it wrong.
The parenthood journey is the constant ability to make decisions. Natural child birth vs Caesarean. Breast milk vs formula. The list goes on, disposable nappies vs cloth nappies, dummy vs no dummy, cows milks vs goats milk vs camels milk? Public schooling vs private schooling. Still it continues.
We are forever making decisions based on what we think is best for our children, to only be told that we are doing some of it wrong.
At what point did we stop cheering for one another and instead start finding flaws in everyone else’s ability to parent.
Destination raising your child to not be a jerk is your journey to take. If you decide to do that by taking the bus while someone else takes a plane. That is absolutely ok. At the end of the day we are heading to the same destination, just different means of getting there.
Don’t get me wrong for each of my children I might change my method to suit the child, but again doesn’t make it wrong – makes it different.
Lets start lifting each other back up and working on our own journeys rather than criticise those around us who may do life a little differently.
