Every time I go on a parenting website or social media I am confronted with new parenting trends. I like many others feel pressure from those sources to conform to that parenting style. Many of these trends require 24/7 dedication from the parents and as a working parent its just not feasible. Why do other parents put so much pressure on others to parent the same way? We focus so much on diversity and being yourself as a society; why don't we feel the same way about parenting styles?
On many occasions I have been made to feel like less of a mother because I can not follow these trends. I can not hold my child all day, as I am away from him 9 hours a day and when I am home I still need to get household chores done. As many childcare providers do not assist with things like potty training my options there are limited as well. My decision to exclusively nurse or to breastfed via pumping or formula feed was directed for me as well. Exclusively nursing would not be a option as I would not be with my child to nurse. For a long time I felt very guilty about these decisions I felt were being made for me until my son got a little older and was able to start appreciating how parenting worked for us.
No child is perfect and by no means no parent is perfect. I have been able to see, however, that my inability to follow with the new parenting trends didn't hurt my child and in some instances helped my child. I believe society should stop putting so much emphasis on what is the correct way to parent now. Many parenting trends of the past were found to be actually very harmful to the child, I have to wonder how many things that we are doing now going to hurt our children in the long run? I have come to believe the things that I feel guilty about not being able to do are things that my children will never remember when they are older. Isn't whats really important is if our kids are happy not if we're following the popular trends?
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