The Right Way is YOUR Way
As a parent, we all have to ask ourselves:
- When to start solid foods?
- Rice or oatmeal?
- When to introduce peanut butter and honey?
Not to mention, diapering.
- Cloth or disposables?
- How tight?
- What brand?
- How often?
And that’s just diapers! Then there are car seats.
- Which one?
- When to make the switch from back to forward facing?
- When to switch to the next step?
SO WHICH WAY IS RIGHT?
I can’t help but wonder, is there a “right” way?
Thanks to social media, we are bombarded and I mean BOMBARDED with the how-tos on life. If you wonder anything as a parent, look no further than the opinionated internet!
I personally feel I grew up just fine. Dan often says I grew up under a rock, but I honestly would not change much of anything about how I grew up. If I could replicate my parents parenting, I sure would feel “successful” as a parent. But life looks nothing like it did back then. Life and parenting are different. Thanks to research and technology, there are standards to meet and expectations to follow, and I feel for the most part, in a positive way. But when it comes to all the medical advances, you can find research to prove a point on just about anything.
So again, which way is the RIGHT way?
With the bombardment of Pinterest telling you how to play with your toddler, with instagram and facebook reminding you of what you are NOT doing, all it does is create insecurity. And as women, one thing we are the BEST at is being insecure. One of the reasons we are so good at it is because we are constantly searching for the “right” way to do things.
And it comes from good intentions, I truly believe. All we want is what’s best for our child(ren). All we want is for them to grow up in loving and caring homes, and secretly hope they are successful in life.
Think about all of the books, articles, and how-tos that we read or glance through each day. Think about what social media avenues you peruse through on a daily basis. Do you find yourself comparing? Comparing parenting? Comparing kids? Comparing ourselves? Comparing physical appearance? All while wondering what the right way is?
What we need to do as parents is stop guilting our fellow mothers and teammates into failure mode, if they are not doing what you would do. We are all in this together, people! Humans have been parenting since the beginning of time and if we are real with ourselves, we can guarantee that NO ONE has parented the same. Even if I tried to replicate my parent’s parenting style, I would still fall short because I am not them.
I know that we fear as mothers. We fear the worst, we fear making a mistake, and we fear not doing things the “right” way. But all that does is send us into insecurity mode.
What if we believed that God created EACH of us for our specific child.
Fill in the blank: God created YOUR NAME specifically for YOUR CHILD’S NAME.
God created Kristin specifically for Mazy Grace.
Those are powerful words, my friend. I am Mazy’s mommy. When I own those words, they give me power, knowing that God has a grand and I mean a grand purpose in all of us. Those are powerful words because they are filled with grace. Grace for each moment. He has set us free from the bondage of comparison and of worrying about doing things the right way. When we ask HIM for wisdom in parenting, He will grant it to us.
Now don’t get me wrong. I am ALL about educating ourselves and listening to those who have gone before us. But we will run ourselves to the ground and forget to actually LOVE our child first, if we constantly are wondering if we are doing it the “right” way.
So let’s all come together, as teammates, and support each other as we walk this road together!
