Science

13216 readers

5 users here now

Subscribe to see new publications and popular science coverage of current research on your homepage

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS

From sleeping in separate beds to their children to transporting them in prams, Western parents have some unusual ideas about how to raise them. (www.bbc.com)

submitted 8 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

7 comments fedilink hide all child comments

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago (6 children)

Great, I love a good article that shames me for all the parenting I’ve been doing “wrong”.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (2 children)

Denormalizing Western parenting habits and looking at science as well as other cultures isn't shaming. What's shameful is putting your fingers in your ears and telling yourself the way my parents raised me was right, I'm right to do it even if it's not the best for my kids, and everyone trying to educate me as to potentially better methods is trying to 'shame me for being wrong'.

i.e. It's not shameful to not know any better. It's shameful to continue when you do.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago (1 children)

So my hundreds of hours researching and thousands of dollars of hiring professionals, and the dozens of people in my community with whom I consult is shameful? I’m not raising my kid anything in the way my parents raised me.

I’m just sick of labeling western methods of parenting as bizarre or unnatural. Parenting ideologies are filled with giving a stink eye for doing something that you didn’t do.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Did you read the article or just kneejerk at the title? Sleeping in separate beds increases the risks of SIDs, for example. It is weird that western parents continue doing this to 'instill individualism' when it literally kills our children and slows down parent/child bonding in primates. Shit, we still circumcise most male babies because the Korn Flakes guy thought it was dirty for boys to touch themselves. We are weird!

If you prefer to feel ashamed rather than learning something when you encounter new information because of a clickbait article title, well, I can't stop you. Or even blame you.

But the shameful part isn't doing something weird out of ignorance, but continuing once we have better information. Putting our pride ahead of our children. That would be a shame.

load more comments (3 replies)