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You might not know this, but I’m a parenting expert. Really, you can ask me anything on the subject of raising kids and I’ll not only tell you how to do it, but also why it’s the best technique and when you should implement it. I know everything about turning small monkeys into decent human beings. No topic is too hard for me to discuss and no method too hard to master. Whether a child is two months old or 16 years old, I always know how to handle them.
And I’m not alone. I know a bunch of other parenting experts and we are often dismayed at the way so many people raise their kids.
We are called: People Without Children and you’d better ask us your questions now, before we become parents and forget everything we thought we knew.
It’s true though, isn’t it? People without children really do have this annoying tendency to think they’d do a better job of raising kids than anyone ever did before them. It’s a mixture of intense hubris and downright cluelessness that’s to blame for this and it’s akin to those couch potatoes who haven’t held a cricket bat in ten years but are still convinced they’d do better than AB de Villiers on the field.
Not that I’m saying all parents are AB quality. There are some truly awful parents out there who abuse, neglect, belittle, ignore, pressurise, hold back and basically ruin their children’s lives, but I’d like to think that most people try to be decent parents.
Thing that I’ve observed about parenting from my safe, childless perch is that it’s pretty damn hard. It’s constant. It’s mostly thankless. You never get to take leave. It’s expensive. It’s tiring. It’s permanent.
But then I look at the way my siblings with kids look at their kids, and I see the way my parents look at me and I suspect it’s all worth it.
I know when I have kids one day I’m going to make mistakes. Everyone does. But I hope my children will know that I did my best and I hope they understand that I didn’t know everything. No one does once they hold that helpless bundle for the first time and realise they’re responsible for raising it.
Until you become a grandparent of course. Then you suddenly know everything again.
Follow Lili on Twitter
And I’m not alone. I know a bunch of other parenting experts and we are often dismayed at the way so many people raise their kids.
We are called: People Without Children and you’d better ask us your questions now, before we become parents and forget everything we thought we knew.
It’s true though, isn’t it? People without children really do have this annoying tendency to think they’d do a better job of raising kids than anyone ever did before them. It’s a mixture of intense hubris and downright cluelessness that’s to blame for this and it’s akin to those couch potatoes who haven’t held a cricket bat in ten years but are still convinced they’d do better than AB de Villiers on the field.
Not that I’m saying all parents are AB quality. There are some truly awful parents out there who abuse, neglect, belittle, ignore, pressurise, hold back and basically ruin their children’s lives, but I’d like to think that most people try to be decent parents.
Thing that I’ve observed about parenting from my safe, childless perch is that it’s pretty damn hard. It’s constant. It’s mostly thankless. You never get to take leave. It’s expensive. It’s tiring. It’s permanent.
But then I look at the way my siblings with kids look at their kids, and I see the way my parents look at me and I suspect it’s all worth it.
I know when I have kids one day I’m going to make mistakes. Everyone does. But I hope my children will know that I did my best and I hope they understand that I didn’t know everything. No one does once they hold that helpless bundle for the first time and realise they’re responsible for raising it.
Until you become a grandparent of course. Then you suddenly know everything again.
Follow Lili on Twitter
