Guilt and parenting

I hate the way that society has shaped our beliefs about guilt. We feel guilt all the time and we really shouldn’t. You should only feel guilty if you are purposely doing something to hurt someone.

And when it comes to parenting, the guilt just goes into over drive.

Guilt about the amount and quality of their sleep, the food they eat, the baby class/ activities they do, breastfed, bottle fed, having a dummy, childcare, working, staying at home, screen time, the age they are walking, talking, toilet trained, reading. The list really is endless.

The important thing to note here is that you can never win. No matter what you do, there will always be someone out there who has a different opinion to you and is ready to tell you that what you are doing is wrong.

And while we are on the subject of being told you are doing it wrong, you need to be really careful of what you are saying to yourself as your inner voice becomes your reality. If you keep telling yourself that you are letting your baby down and that they deserve better, then that is what you will believe.

No one gets it right all of the time. Even with all of the knowledge in the world we still make mistakes. After all, we are only human. All we can do is our best and the greatest thing about life is that every second is a new chance, a new beginning. Ok, so today the baby spent far too much time watching TV but tomorrow is a new day. Take them to the park, play together, bake with them. You are continually getting the chance to learn from your past experiences and make changes.

You can only fail when you stop trying. As long as you are trying new techniques and approaches, then you are still learning and on the journey to achieving whatever it is that you want to do. This not only applies to parenting but to life generally.

#guilt #parentingguilt