As the saying goes, “behind every great kid is a mom who is pretty sure she is messing it all up.”
No doubt, this parenting gig is the craziest job you'll ever have, and it’s really hard to know if you’re even doing it right most of the time.
Are you feeding them right? Are you teaching them well? Is your environment clean enough? Should you let them play in the dirt more? Do you hover too much? Do they need more of your attention? Do they have enough? Do they have too much? Are you making the right decisions? Do you have any idea what you’re doing at all?!
Such a self-doubting internal monologue tends to lead parents to get advice from the “experts.” Dive into the plethora of parenting advice out there and you'll find an astonishing array of ideas that totally contradict one another.
There’s advice on everything, from sleeping habits to nutrition, from exercise to screen time, from education to play, and on and on. For every expert that tells you to co-sleep, there is another that says co-sleeping may lead to death. For every expert that tells you to set strict limits, there is another who says children should roam free. For every expert that advises on disinfecting everything, there is another who says kids need exposure to bacteria to survive.
It can be maddening.
The things to remember are that every kid is different, every parent is different, and every family is different. What works for one family might not for another. What one of your children needs, your other(s) might not.
