(image by Shalina)
We’ve given Marta this week off from her usual (and fab) Friday Finds. She’ll be back next week with some rockin’ handmade goods so stay tuned!
Thea’s article this week has had me thinking, the 5th birthday of my first born is rapidly approaching and I find myself taken back in time to that chilly afternoon. The anticipation of his birth was exciting and scary. The anticipation of what came after the birth is another story.
The baby books we get during pregnancy can be both fun and daunting. So many experts will tell you to do this, not to do that. We have these tiny babies and think that the toddler and preschool ages are so far off, only to wake up one day and realize that little one who once nestled in your belly (or awaiting adoption!) is now a walking, talking, person. I struggled so much those first few years with worries over my parenting choices. My mom’s mom’s mom did it this way, yet the mother at playgroup wouldn’t be caught dead doing that with her baby. There is book bashing, expert bashing, and general other-mom-bashing going on and it can be down right scary!
It took about three years for me to realize that even if I agreed with a bashed book, or perhaps didn’t do what my mom’s mom’s mom did that I really was an okay parent. At the end of the day, I have happy and healthy kids. I’m seeing now as I take our son to preschool, there are so many different backgrounds coming into that tiny classroom. Children raised on Babywise, some from Attachment Parenting, Dr Sears, the Ferber method, the list can go on. When they are in that classroom they aren’t speaking of such, they aren’t judging one another on their parent’s choices when they were tiny – why should we?
I’m certainly no expert in the area, but after nearly five years of raising these two boys I know that the world could use more acceptance and encouragement. Being a new mom can be a beautiful and scary thing. Advice is thrown at you from all directions. Take it with a smile, do your own research and simply do what works best for your family.
Okay now I’m stepping off my soap box ; ) I’m curious, can we brain storm some ways to show kindness and acceptance in our own little groups? How can we love each other without judgment?
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