Parenting experts are a whole special breed.  From attachment parenting (Don’t put that baby down!) to tough love, you can find a confident source of advice and an $18.95 book to go along with it.  But what exactly makes someone a parenting “expert”?  Experience?  I’ve met a lot of experienced parents and have yet to meet an expert, self-professed or otherwise.  After all, it’s hard to master a “subject” that’s only constants are temper tantrums and hormonal changes.

In my humble opinion, what’s right for your family is what is working for you…today.  My family’s approach to balanced nutrition is to regularly keep the junk out of the house and then allow gleeful splurging on special occasions.  We’re on vacation, kids, have a bag of Cheetos!  Is this the “right” way?  I doubt it, but it’s kept the incessant begging and my sweet tooth at bay so far.

If what you are doing right now is working (whatever your goal du jour), then it is right.  If it’s not working, and you’ll know it’s not by the increasing amount of tears and that persistent knot in your gut, then it’s time to consult the real experts: friends, family, Internet forums, colleagues, teachers, and willing strangers.  Mingle all that with your own common sense to customize a new strategy.  Then line up your ducks, get a good night’s sleep (!), and start anew in the morning.

 So eat when you are hungry, brush and floss your teeth, and once in a great while forget to wear to sunscreen.  We’ll survive, despite our best efforts to nurture stress-induced ulcers, and so will our kids.

A common saying is that a sign of a crazy person is someone who does the same thing over and over and expects a different outcome. Whether you are crazy or consistent is in the eye of the beholder and the quality of your results.

 Cheryl Baltes