+34
'We put enough pressure on ourselves as it is; we don't need the pressure of believing everyone else is watching.'
trying to negotiate her way into a cellphone, thinking it was her insistence that was most hilarious. I didn't mention my reasons for disagreeing with her desired phone timing, nor did I say anything meant to disparage another parent's choices.
I merely shared the story of her persistence. I expected people to laugh at her determination, but what I got instead was my comment notifications blowing up with other parents frantically explaining why they got their own kids phones at young ages."We have too many kids going in too many different directions . . .""Don't judge. You don't know our circumstances." We're all so afraid of being judged in parenthood, we jump to explain ourselves and our parenting decisions, even when we shouldn't need to.The thing was, I hadn't been judging. Not even a little bit. I had simply declared that my youngand laughing at her refusal to accept that fact. It was everyone else who had taken someone making a parenting decision different from their own as a reason to jump in and explain themselves. When those explanations hadn't been in any way expected. After an entire comment thread of my responding to multiple people,"I wasn't questioning anyone else's choices, I was just sharing a parenting story — you do you!," I started to think about this phenomenon I'd witnessed of parents feeling the need to overexplain themselves in the face of another parent making different choices. And it occurred to me that we have a tendency of doing this with a lot of things. We're all soIf one mom talks about how much she'sand how thankful she is to be able to provide her child with those benefits, 20 other moms will inevitably jump in to explain why breastfeeding didn't work for them. Should one parent rave about how much they've loved cloth diapering, anyone who didn't cloth diaper suddenly seems to feel the need to explain why.
Scratch the next story
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News: You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Amazon's Wellness Section Is More Affordable Than You ThinkAmazon's wellness offerings allow you to live your best life without breaking the bank. Here are the best affordable buys to shop now.
Read more »
What Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis Think About Demi Moore's Tell-All BookWhat Ashton Kutcher And Mila Kunis Think About Demi Moore's Tell-All Book
Read more »
Manufacturing Struggles Matter More Than You ThinkManufacturing activity is sputtering in the U.S., which matters more to the broader economy than many assume.
Read more »