Unsolicited Parenting Advice

Posted by Vulnadia on Sep 21, 2009 at 07:32 AM Found this on another thread the original reads as follows: "Of course you know as soon as you get that positive pregnancy test everyone loves to tell you how to raise your child. It amazes me that total strangers will come up and start telling you how to do your job and what is going to work for your kids. What's the worst parenting advice you've ever gotten? Here are some of mine: - My son should be potty trained by 1 - I should force him to eat Then there's this one which isn't so much bad advice but bad delivery/timing. I was meeting a neighbor for the first time when we moved. I was struggling to get our car seat in the car and he asked where the baby was and I said in the house. His eyes got really big and he asked "alone?" I said "No, he's with my husband" the guy said "Good, because you shouldn't leave a baby alone like that." Way to question my parenting skills total stranger. Although he did have a point." This of course hits close to home for me! I get all sorts of interesting things said to & about my kids, not to mention how I should be handling them! It's easy to spew advice, especially from people who don't have children, or in my case people who have absolutely no idea what it's like to have triplets, much less more than one child to begin with! My personal favourite bit of sage advice was that I should begin potty training in infancy to save money on diapers because we must use soo many & afterall, it's bad for the environment... I mean come on, if they knew what a task it was just to bottle feed 3 babies at once, & the literal juggling that I went through, they NEVER would dare to assume that I should be caught dangling squirmy tiny babies over a porcelain potty in hopes that they would actually learn what to do up there... I mean, bathrooms are habitually hard floored...not cushy padded carpet to begin with... What if I dropped someone on accident? What if they FELL IN??? What sort of emotional scarring would occur over that? Then there is the obvious humor at the thought of my assembly-line dangling tiny infants over the potty...that in itself warrants at the very least its own you-tube video! What sort of bad advice have you been given by strangers or family about how to raise or deal with your children in situations? Share! i also used to love being told to put em on leashes when they couldnt walk yet!!!! that was always fun...cause our stroller just didnt fit in most places...too big!!! but they didnt walk til they were 18 months or so in 2 cases so it wasnt an option!!! & you cant safely carry 3 & shop or do anything really out & about!!! ~Mimi