From Pregnancy To Child

It starts the moment you announce you are expecting. Unsolicited parenting advice is the burden all new parents must carry. Strangers on the street, well meaning friends, and concerned family members seem to come out of the woodwork with all sorts of parenting advice whenever a new baby is on the way.

Some days you will even find that the parenting advice you receive in the morning will be in direct conflict with the parenting advice you get that very same afternoon. How do you weed through the flood of parenting advice that comes your way? Learn how to weed through the good and the bad and figure out what is best for you by following these simple tips.

Understand That All Children Are Different

While many people will have tons of parenting advice based on their own parenting experiences to give you, it is important to remember there is no other child in the world like your little one. What worked for one child just may not work for yours, simply because your child has a unique temperament and personality.

Don't beat yourself up because you followed to the letter, your sister's potty training plan, yet find your three year old still needs pull-ups. Just because your niece was potty trained by two in a half doesn't mean that your own child should be. Children develop at their very own pace and need to be dealt with according to that pace.

Understand That All Parents Are Different

Your personality is as unique as your child's, so trying to take the parenting advice of someone with a completely different temperament than yourself, rarely works. If you are a very structured person, you will have trouble taking your carefree and unorganized friend's parenting advice because most likely it just wouldn't fit your personality style. The key is understanding that everyone has different parenting styles and you probably shouldn't take advice from people that don't sync with the style you are most comfortable with.

Understand That Ultimately You Are Your Child's Parent

At the end of the day, you are the one that tucks your child into bed. All of the parenting advice is just that, advice. You don't have to follow any of it. You are the parent of your child and you have to make the decisions on how you plan to parent that child. No matter how overbearing your friends or even your mother-in-law is, the final decision on how to raise your child belongs to you. So take parenting advice with a grain of sand. Weigh it thoughtfully and use what works for you.