I think I knew this before, but maybe not as much as I do now… the world of parenting is full of landmines. There are So Many Decisions to make at every turn, all of which seem to have EXTREMELY DIRE CONSEQUENCES. Sleep? Stressful. Eating? Stressful. Play??? Stressful. Every time you make a choice it’s like you’ve picked a side somewhere and now have an entire online community of enemies lurking somewhere. The minute they sniff that I (am/am not) sleep training… attack!!! Even me posting this picture will show which types of toys I buy for my kid and which shirts he wears and that I let the cats fully put their butts on all of his toys etc etc etc. I feel like every little piece of information I leak out about my parenting journey just adds up a little wall to the box I’m supposed to exist in as a parent (for the sake of this metaphor let’s pretend that’s how boxes work). It makes me uncomfortable and it makes me stressed because it seems like it’s very hard to find a neutral ground. I heard a mantra a long time ago that I think I need to bring back- there are a million ways to be a good parent. There are!! I have done so much research and care so much about the specific ways I’ve figured out how to go from day to day raising a kid, but I have no vested interest in anybody else choosing my exact system because everyone is unique!!! Obviously we don’t/can’t all raise our kids exactly the same. Basically what I’m thinking is I’m glad I’m not an *~influencer~* because then everybody would yell at me all the time about why my baby choices will be terrible for my kid and maybe I’d lose this sense of chill. Not sure where I’m going with this but I have just been mulling this over and figured I’d put it out there somewhere. Also nobody has been pressuring me I think I’ve just been seeing various TikTok moms being thrown to the wolves and it’s stressed me.
