Top Ten List of Worst Parenting Advice

It’s the year end, and we are close to little guy’s 1 year birthday. I thought I would put together a post of all of the worst pieces of advice I have encountered over the year. Here is my list of the least helpful things that people said to us. I feel the need to point out that our baby had colic early on, so a lot of this advice was in response to that situation.

Top Ten List of Worst Parenting Advice

10. Strollers – Get the Travel System! My sister-in-law insisted that this was the stroller for us. However, she lives in the suburbs not the city. It was a giant, unmanageable, sidewalk shark in my little narrow city. I told my wife if we ever have another, we are getting the Maclaren.



9. Use a sling. This is not a crack at baby wearing in general, which I think is terrific. Just the sling. I’m a smart girl, I swear. I’m going to law school. My wife works in neurosurgery. We couldn’t figure this contraption out for the life of us. The guy in the picture is our Manny - just kidding.



8. Put baby cereal in the bottle, he’ll sleep better. This is advice that older people give a lot. It’s a terrible idea. The cereal gets stuck in the nipple. So then, you cut holes in the nipple to try and get it flow easier, but the milk squirts out everywhere. You then forget about the deformed nipple, and for months afterwards aggravate your baby with it.


7. Give him gripe water. This was in response to the colic. Useless.


6. Give him water. This was also in response to the colic. Again, useless.


5. Don’t let him watch TV. If my pediatrician reads this, I’m going to get it. But TV is the best invention ever. Need to run to the bathroom? Turn on the TV. It gives you a good 5 minutes before disaster strikes.


4. Put him on a schedule. Good luck with that.


3. Don’t ever give him a pacifier or a bottle. I think this is done to encourage breast feeding, which I fully support. But a bottle is just fine. No nipple confusion that we could see.


2. Don’t let him sleep in your bed. This was on of the few things that did work when he had colic. We got a little lecture from the pediatrician about this, but it worked well. He no longer sleeps with us, and I really miss him at night. Here are some safety tips on sleeping with your baby:

http://www.askdrsears.com/html/7/T070600.asp



1. Don’t let your baby cry – ever. I think this attachment parenting advice is a call to respond to your baby’s needs. I totally support it. But if your child has colic and is screaming constantly, this simple refrain can feel like an axe to the head. I think it should be reworded to say, “Try to respond to your baby’s cries as best and as in a loving manner as possible. However, if you think you are going to lose it, it’s ok to put the baby in a safe place, and take a break.”

Next post – the 10 best pieces of advice we received over the year.

Until then, another picture