Modern Motherhood sucks. Part #2: A million ways to do ‚the Right Thing‘

Part #2: Abundance of options and a million ways to do ‚the Right Thing‘

Our approach towards pregnancy, childbirth, and raising children has significantly evolved within the past century. Our babies and children are the healthiest they have ever been, prenatal and postpartum care are constantly improving. Understanding what children need and how they learn and develop allows us to create a variety of solutions for just about every aspect of parenthood. Natural Birth or C-Section, breastfeeding or bottle-feeding, co-sleeping or that cute little crib, disciplining strategies, screen time, nutrition, education — you name it. On the plus side, this abundance of approaches allows new parents to find a way that fits them and their family best.

Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/CF1VWMaD3RK/

Now let’s talk challenges: Abundance also means there is more than one ‚right way‘. And the more ways there are to do something, the more missionaries will feel the need to make their ‚right way‘ the ‚only right way‘. Now, there have always been missionaries in the world of motherhood (think about the pampers vs reusable diapers in the 90ies). The issue today is that, through modern time media, those missionaries are a lot more visible, their views amplified, their world views almost cult-like. Again, for the most part it might be another side-effect of modern motherhood to fight off the occasional Strollers-are-the-WORST or How-can-you-feed-diary-to-your-child parent in the park. The danger lies in these groups becoming a primary source of education to new parents. A missionary type of opinion backed by a large enough group of like-minded people often suggest more legitimacy to a concept than it actually deserves.

Just because the internet has produced and connected enough people to support a specific parenting approach, that doesn’t mean this approach is medically or scientifically proven.

So much for that. As if us Mamas were not already busy enough fighting old Gramma over her put-seven-pairs-of-socks-on-him-because-that’s-what-we-did-back-in-the-days advice.