| | The 10 Most Irritating, Least Helpful Parenting Tips Ever | |
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Chris Chamber Admin.
Join date : 2010-01-30 Location : Oak Park, Michigan Posts : 23201 Rep : 330
| Subject: The 10 Most Irritating, Least Helpful Parenting Tips Ever Sun Mar 06, 2011 8:27 am | |
| - Quote :
- The 10 Most Irritating, Least Helpful Parenting Tips Ever - Parenting on Shine
I have nothing against friends and family offering advice when you come to them with a dilemma. It's the people who pipe up, unbidden, because they see you with a child and assume you have no idea what you're doing. Too often these people are elderly great-aunts. Fortunately those ladies are afraid of the Internet, so I can rail against them and they'll be none the wiser! Thanks, ladies.
1. "Sleep now, because once that baby comes you'll never sleep again." Technically this is a pregnancy tip, of course, but I'm shoving it in here anyway. Yes, Great-Aunt Hildy, I will sleep throughout my entire third trimester. Because I am part bear.
2. "Sleep when the baby sleeps." Everyone gives you this one — annoying relatives, pediatricians, the cashier at the drugstore where you were buying newborn diapers. Are these people all robots, capable of instantly dropping off to sleep whenever their child is unconscious? Do they not have other things to do, like bathe, or simply relish the rare moments of silence you get when you have an infant?
3. "I think your baby's hungry." Whether you're nursing or bottle-feeding, everyone assumes you don't know how to feed your child. And every time your child cries, whines, grimaces, or squirms, they are going to assume you are starving your poor baby and you need reminders to feed it. Lest you forget! This advice is especially maddening when they turn out to be correct.
4. "Relish every moment of your baby's first years, because they'll be grown before you know it." You mean, time only moves forward? I had no idea! I thought we'd be like this forever and ever! This sort of advice, obvious and innocuous as it seems, always put me on the defensive, as if I had just been carrying my baby under my arm like a football, muttering, "Grow up already, why don't you. Just GROW UP."
5. "I hope you're sleep training that child. Do you WANT him to be spoiled?" Oh, distant relative/person whose aisle I shared at the supermarket, I'm so glad you know exactly my child needs. And that you know, from your years of scientific research, that any child not allowed to cry it out will be a horrible waste of flesh! (See #6 for this parenting tip's counterpart.)
6. "I hope you're not doing that 'crying it out' thing. It's so barbaric. Enjoy your baby all through the night!" Again, kudos to you, whoever you are, for knowing what's best for our unique family situation! I will be calling you at 4 a.m., so you can enjoy our baby as well.
7. "Why are you bringing your child outside when it's so cold out?" It never ceased to amaze me that, no matter what my child's age, total strangers will express alarm and revulsion that I dared expose him to the elements. "And WHY ISN'T BE WEARING MITTENS? He's going to get consumption!"
8. "Your child isn't really sad/angry/injured. He's just manipulating you." There's no doubt that children can push our buttons as if they've had professional training in it, but the notion that my kid's authentic feelings are in fact manufactured to elicit a reaction really chaps my hide. If that were always true, he'd be a pint-sized sociopath. I'm pretty sure that's not the case.
9. "Schools are just glorified prisons. If you loved your child, you'd homeschool." Oh, if only I loved my child enough to abandon my livelihood, tear him away from the community he so enjoys, separate him from the professionals who have dedicated their careers to childhood education, and forced him to stay home all day with me, where we'd be at each other's throats for hours! If only! Please note: I am not opposed to homeschooling, at all — in fact I wish it would work for us, but it would not.
10. "If I were you, I'd just—" OH NO YOU DON'T. I know where this is going. Listen, unnamed distant acquaintance who last parented in the 19th century (it's true — I often get my unwanted advice from ghosts) you don't know diddly about my kid, and our relationship, and what works for us. | |
| | | Forgiveness Man …is a Chamber Royal.
Join date : 2010-06-25 Location : Chilling on your sofa Posts : 6657 Rep : 153
| Subject: Re: The 10 Most Irritating, Least Helpful Parenting Tips Ever Sun Mar 06, 2011 10:06 am | |
| People actually SAY No. 9? She lost her credibility with me when she put that on the list. Why? Because NOBODY we knew at that age would even ACCEPT homeschooling, let alone promote it. Sorry, but she blew her creds IMO. | |
| | | Supernova The Book Chamber
Join date : 2010-06-22 Posts : 11954 Rep : 182
| Subject: Re: The 10 Most Irritating, Least Helpful Parenting Tips Ever Sun Mar 06, 2011 10:58 am | |
| - Forgiveness Man wrote:
- People actually SAY No. 9? She lost her credibility with me when she put that on the list. Why? Because NOBODY we knew at that age would even ACCEPT homeschooling, let alone promote it. Sorry, but she blew her creds IMO.
I second that. | |
| | | Alan Smithee ...is a 20G Chamber DIETY.
Join date : 2010-09-03 Location : 40º44’18.33”N 73º58’31.82”W Posts : 25792 Rep : 381
| Subject: Re: The 10 Most Irritating, Least Helpful Parenting Tips Ever Sun Mar 06, 2011 11:44 am | |
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| | | Shale ...is a Chamber Royal.
Join date : 2010-09-27 Location : Miami Beach Posts : 9699 Rep : 219
| Subject: Re: The 10 Most Irritating, Least Helpful Parenting Tips Ever Sun Mar 06, 2011 11:51 am | |
| 8. "Your child isn't really sad/angry/injured. He's just manipulating you." There's no doubt that children can push our buttons as if they've had professional training in it, but the notion that my kid's authentic feelings are in fact manufactured to elicit a reaction really chaps my hide. If that were always true, he'd be a pint-sized sociopath. I'm pretty sure that's not the case.
BTW, be ready for a Scorpio child, who after you beat his behind, will go into the bathroom, get a stiff hairbrush and rub his bare ass with it, then come out and show you what damage you did to him.
IDK how old I was but I remember doing that. | |
| | | Marc™ …is a Chamber DEITY.
Join date : 2010-01-30 Location : Michigan Posts : 12006 Rep : 212
| Subject: Re: The 10 Most Irritating, Least Helpful Parenting Tips Ever Mon Mar 07, 2011 12:25 am | |
| - Quote :
8. "Your child isn't really sad/angry/injured. He's just manipulating you." There's no doubt that children can push our buttons as if they've had professional training in it, but the notion that my kid's authentic feelings are in fact manufactured to elicit a reaction really chaps my hide. If that were always true, he'd be a pint-sized sociopath. I'm pretty sure that's not the case. Ummm....children are impulse driven monsters who have almost zero moral compass until they get older. Of course they're manipulating you. | |
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