It’s fascinating. During pregnancy, tons of people feel the need to comment on your body. As soon as you have a baby, everyone feels obliged to serve you advice without asking. Infinite. Lots. Advice – or better: almost orders. We briefly interrupt the background noise and tell you which of these pieces of advice you can immediately switch to pull-through with a friendly smile.
5 Common Parenting Advice That You Can Ignore
Keep trying – breastfeeding will definitely work at some point
Breastfeeding is great. The healthiest diet for babies, it strengthens the bond. But unfortunately, there is also pressure on mothers. There are women who cannot breastfeed. Others experience pain and find it uncomfortable. To suggest to them again and again that breastfeeding is the only way to be a good mother to your baby plunges these women into sheer desperation. They feel defective, insufficient. Please keep in mind: Breastfeeding has advantages. But they don’t define you as a mother. Promised.
Sleep when the baby is asleep
When exactly? In the time when you could finally hop in the shower? Or should you quickly shove a meal? Even if you have been woken up every 45 minutes for the past 48 hours, it is not possible to level your REM cycle in such a way that your eyes close just the second that Little Leo finally crumbles away. In addition, to baby and sleep, there are unfortunately a few other things that have to be taken care of. So if someone thinks they have found the Holy Grail of Slumberland with this advice: Laugh three times.
Join a mothers group
Don’t get us wrong: It can be wonderful to meet up with other mothers when there are no moms in your circle of friends. But it’s not for every woman. Some of us just don’t feel like doing a baby talk and building up a new circle of friends whose most important binding agent is diapers. Having children is not a criterion for friendship. If you’re not in the mood for breastfeeding groups and the like: keep meeting your BFF, who may tip a gin and tonic instead of the smoothie. Or the colleague who keeps you up to date on the rumor mill from the office. Believe us: a mental break from everyday baby life can be quite refreshing.
Enjoy every minute! It passes so quickly …
This well-intentioned piece of advice is for some of us … well: Not entirely applicable. Maybe you mourn your old, self-determined life now and then (and that’s totally OK!), You have deep lines under your eyes because you are missing sleep, you panic when your baby has the hiccups (“Does it choke?” ) or don’t even remember the last time you washed your hair? Enjoyment feels different. And to be honest: “It’ll pass quickly …” doesn’t quite apply if you’ve already read all the classic children’s books – and it’s only 11 o’clock.
Cook your own baby food – it’s super-healthy and super-easy
First, please take a leisurely stroll to the farmer’s market and choose the perfect organic pumpkin there, cup the seeds at home, chop and boil the meat, emulsify it in the new three-part steamer set for baby food and freeze the leftovers in small portions? What better way to spend your afternoon? This is exactly why baby food in jars was invented. If you have time to cook for the dwarf yourself: Great! Thumbs up. But don’t let the competition force you to be a perfect mother if you can do everything yourself.
