I’ve been thinking a lot about parenting lately. A few months back I was reading a book called The Diaper Free Baby. The main idea is that parents can learn to read and communicate with their children to have them Diaper Free much earlier than the 2 or 3 years old most American’s go with. The author states that one of the biggest arguments against this method is that people say you are training the parent and not the child, therefore it doesn’t work.
I’m not going to get into having a Diaper Free baby (except to say my 10-month old will cry his eyes out if you try to put a diaper on him when he needs to pee or poop). No, my beef here is with people who believe that parenting is all about training a child.
Yes, as parents, we are teaching our children things all the time. But we are not perfect, which means we are all constantly changing and refining our ways. Noticing what other parents do that work or don’t work. Recognizing that a punishment for one child doesn’t work with another. We modify how we respond to a fall or a misbehaving child. Our tolerance for noise changes. We don’t start day 1 of parenting knowing all the answers. We may not be experts in the field but we are training ourselves to be the best parents we can be. Training ourselves to choose our words wisely. Training ourselves to put our children’s needs before our own. What is wrong with training ourselves along with our children? In my opinion….absolutely nothing – it’s the way it should be.
