Hey, you're new! I love new people, welcome.

You may want to subscribe to Baby-Log via RSS feed or via email. Thanks for visiting!

Free parenting advice
If you are a parent or will become one (really) soon, chances are that you’ve been offered parenting advice even before your children were born. Sometimes it is useful, and sometimes it is useless, silly and annoying.

But every time someone makes you feel bad about choosing not to follow their advice, here’s why you really shouldn’t:

1. It’s your party.

It’s your life and you do what’s best for your family. The choices that you make are for you to live with and bear the consequences of. That’s why you probably do the research and minimize chances of messing up, understanding the huge responsibility on your shoulders, while other people don’t give the things that important to you THAT much thought.

2. Every family is different.

Every family has different morals, values and goals, which is a fancy way of saying this: we all are heading in different directions, so advice from other people won’t necessarily help you get where you’re going. If you’re trying to raise a vegetarian, then advice like “Babies must have meat at least once a day” isn’t really going to help.

3. Parents are different

All people are born equal, but different, and things that some parents feel fine about raise eyebrows in other couples. Of course, most people feel that their way is the only way and will try to “sell” it to you – but it you’re aware of the reasons why they do it, dealing with this phenomenon will be easier.

4. There are no “one fits all” solutions

This isn’t new; everyone knows that things that work with one kid not necessarily do with another, even in the same family. And if you have run out of ideas of your own and someone suggest another approach that sounds reasonable to you, try it. But nothing can guarantee that your mother’s, sister’s or neighbor’s suggestion will work – you probably have learned by now that there are no guarantees in parenting. You have every right to your doubts whether or not the suggested techniques will work and if you don’t feel like experimenting with your kid – that’s absolutely fine.

To put my money where my mouth is, here’s a real life example: I felt fine disregarding my in-law’s advice, because most of their suggestions were based on what they have “heard people are doing” and others were replaced by the exact opposites (!). When Eric got sick with the flu at 9 months, Rob’s mom suggested dripping some honey down his throat (which I didn’t because honey is likely to cause allergies for babies less than 12 months old). A couple of hours later she left a message on our phone saying “I hope you haven’t used honey, it’s bad for babies”. I rest my case :).