Was it the Internet that completely changed the way we parent? That ability to not only look into everyone else’s lives, but also to mask what everyone sees about your life–posting, pinning and publishing only the happy times, the highlights and beautiful moments, creating the facade that those define all our lives.
Add to that we now read every horror story, every bizarre accident that happens, we know about every strand of bacteria and how many things could possibly hurt our children. As if we didn’t already worry about that.
Our moms didn’t deal with this. And consequently, they parented differently. Much differently.
Relax and Find Your Joy.
What Would My Mom Do resonates SO MUCH with my childhood. Of course I don’t necessarily advocate every single word. I don’t think we can let our children rove around the neighborhood all day anymore (nor would I let them if it were safe.) But the gist is spot on. We need to take the parenting stress down about 10 notches.
You’ll be glad you read it.
“My mom says that she and her friends just raised us, while my friends and me “parent” (these are sarcastic finger quotes). And honestly? She’s right. They didn’t worry endlessly, interfere constantly, safeguard needlessly, or overprotect religiously. They just raised us. And we turned out fine….
Could it be that we are simply too precious about parenting? Have we forgotten the benefit of letting our kids fail? Figure it out? Work hard for it? Entertain themselves? We put so much undue pressure on ourselves to curate Magical Childhoods, when in fact, kids are quite capable of being happy kids without constant adult administration. I would argue that making them the center of the universe is actually terribly detrimental.”
What Would My Mom Do? (Drink Tab and Lock Us Outside)
3 comments
Love this! I have a semi-neglected Pinterest account, but I can see where in the age of the internet, it’s easy to get so caught up in what others are doing that we can just stress ourselves out.
I love the positive side of being able to find useful information and communities of like-minded folks online, but as with everything, I guess it’s only good with discernment and moderation.
Love it! I’ve actually used that Cruise Director phrase. “We’re bored! What can we do?” says a visiting cousin. To which I reply, “I don’t know. I’m not your cruise director. Go figure it out!” I felt very grown up.
Annie,
LOL!