Parenting Experts

I recently have been researching potty-training boys, getting children off the bottle and sippy cup, as well as other "tasks" I need to have my family accomplish and ran into many authors claiming to be "experts"...and now I need to vent. Be warned...

The glut of parenting "experts" irritate me to no end. At the beginning of my parenting journey I paid some attention to them, but it didn't take me long to reject their "advice" which often reaches a fever pitch of social pressure to conform.

I hate parenting magazines, those spreaders of dubious conventional wisdom, those would-be trend setters, those holier-than-thou receptacles of parental perfection.

I don't believe in parenting experts. Experts in any field are incredibly rare, but experts in social science fields, those that study human behavior, are non-existent. This is so because humans are such complex and unpredictable creatures. If people always behaved logically it would be possible to study, analyze and come to conclusions. People are far more emotional than logical, however. Even people who cultivate their powers of logic and pride themselves on being unemotional decision makers are still creatures of emotion.

As for parenting experts, their case is laughable. First parents are told to lay their children on their stomachs to sleep, then it's the back only, then the side is best . . . the penalty for non-compliance is the death of the child.

At one time parents were encouraged to be strict and to use corporal punishments when necessary, then any parent who would think of hitting a child, even a swat on the backside, is considered horrible and lawmakers contemplate legislation making spanking a crime.

Parents are told that kids must not watch TV, then told that without the aid of computers a child cannot learn. The proper way to teach a child to read has flip flopped dramatically over the years. The case for affection toward children has evolved more rapidly than the proverbial common moth. We're supposed to shelter them , then it's, no teach them to be tough in a tough world. First, kids must listen to classical music to be intelligent, then we're told that all that doesn't really matter. First it's indecent to allow a little girl to experiment with make-up, then we're told it's an important part of growing up. What's a harassed parent supposed to think?

How about a little common sense. It'll help a lot if parents just stop listening to the experts and start using their own powers of deduction. Every parent is different, unique in personality and approach. Every kid is different as well. There is no universally correct method to raising a child.

That's not to say that one should never listen to others advice about parenting. My mother has given me valuable advice, I have bounced ideas off of friends, and I have read parenting books and gleaned valuable knowledge. However, I never consider any earthly source a perfect infallible receptacle of wisdom. I take it all with a grain of salt and implement the things that work for me in my own home, while rejecting the rest.