Parenting wisdom and information come from all various types of sources. Recently, a Washington mom shares her biggest parenting advice based on her own experience — "Go easy on yourself." For this mom, life is too short to focus on being a "perfect parent," so she advised fellow parents to just enjoy the whole journey of parenting.
Holly Schumacher became a parent for the very first time in 2006. For her, it was the most meaningful and breathtaking moment of her life, just like all first timer moms all over the world. However, it also got complicated along the way.
Nowadays, parents are pressured to reach an invisible standard to achieve a "good parent" status. There's the pressure from social media and the people who have several inquiries that make parents think if they are doing everything right hence parenting these days is never easy.
Schumacher, however, believed it should not be that way. Learning from her own experience, she realized that parenting is not difficult at all as parents can learn from their own experience and then adjust to some changes that they feel are important.
In Scary Mommy, Schumacher said parents don't always get it right but it is the willingness to learn, live, adapt and make changes that are important. Schumacher also admitted that parenting is indeed hard, in which some parents even get knocked down, but she said they have to pull themselves up and learn from the experience.
With that said, Schumacher advised parents to ditch the negative thoughts. She also reminded parents to find and have confidence within themselves, knowing that whatever choices they come up with, they should make their family and kids' interests a priority.
Ultimately, Schumacher wants to remind parents, especially first timer parents, that everyone has some bad days. However, it does not mean that they are bad parents.
Donald Winnicott, a pediatrician and psychoanalyst of the Changing Minds, has learned that there are no such thing as "perfect parents" but only "good enough" ones. Hence, Schumacher's biggest parenting advice is for parents to take it easy and stop stressing on how to reach the status of a "perfect parent."
