Thoughts on getting parenting “advice” from other parents and how I’m going to deal with it moving forward. 

At a recent gathering with friends and our little ones, someone made a comment about my parenting. It was harmless – I was cutting Theo’s food for dinner and my friend said, “Are you going to chew it up for him too?”. Outwardly I replied with something about parents needing to support one another other than judging each other, but inwardly I was hurt. Hurt enough to write a blog post about it, apparently.

I’m still trying to figure out why I was so hurt, and why weeks later I’m still letting it bug me. Sorry I don’t want my child to choke on their food, my bad. After becoming a mom and doing all the things I told myself, pre-children, I’d never do, I’ve learned that as parents we have to give ourselves grace. But more importantly, as parents we shouldn’t be judging the parenting styles of other parents. It’s unnecessary and it needs to stop.

Aren’t we all just tired and trying to survive? I know I am, so receiving parenting advice, as harmless as it may be, still stings and strikes a nerve. Even as a mom with 5 years under my belt. Instead, shouldn’t we be standing together, supporting each other and championing the parent next to us? I’m sure they’d appreciate it, I know I would!

I’m taking the “critique” on my parenting as a lesson. A lesson for me to work on not letting snide comments get the best of me. But I want to encourage other parents to basically keep any and all comments to themselves, LOL, especially when it deals with someone else’s parenting. Whether my kid is using a pacifier at the age of 2 and your’s is not; whether I rock my kids to sleep at night and you don’t, whether I decide to feed my kids organic or not, if it doesn’t affect your kid, keep it to yourself. Can we just put things into perspective for a second here? Are our children safe? If the answer is yes, then just rest assured that our parental instincts are steering each one of us in the right direction. We’re all doing our very best so just leave it at that.