As the saying goes – children don’t come with a manual. And nothing prepares you for the amazing feeling that being a parent brings.
However, with no training in this very important role, you can sometimes feel like you’re not doing the best job you can – especially when it’s your little one’s causing havoc in the café.
At a glance
- Ignore judgmental comments from competitive mums
- Focus on what you're doing right
- Remember, you know your little one the best
Remember, it happens to us all and it’s not unusual.
To help give you the confidence you deserve when it comes to raising your little one we’ve put together some top confidence boosting tips.
Treat your parenting approach as though it was a film
If parenting was film acting, we’d all be perfect as we’d have lots of ‘takes’ to get it just right – oh, and probably a Brad Pitt or Bradley Cooper boyfriend too.
And there’s nothing to say that you can’t take this approach with parenting. After-all we perform for an adoring, forgiving audience and in their eyes you’re their mummy who they love. It may take a few ‘takes’ to get them to drop that tantrum but you’ll soon be a pro.
Focus on what you’re doing right
It’s so easy to dwell on what we don’t do perfectly – maybe you forgot to switch on the baby monitor and didn’t hear your little one calling, or you rushed your tot through brekkie because you were running late for work. However, in that hour of rushing around you probably stopped more than enough times to give your little one a cuddle or answer that very important question…Altogether now… ‘Why?’.
Take what people say with a pinch of salt…
We all know someone who has something to say about our parenting, whether it’s that competitive friend, mum-in-law or your partner.
In fact, a recent survey by Nurofen for children found that 68 percent of the 2,000 parents surveyed said they felt judged about the decisions they made when it came to their little ones.
Half of all mums said they were worried about what people thought when it came to their approach on diet and nutrition and 43% of parents said that they felt judged on their parenting style.
And a further 33% of parents said that they sometimes felt judged on their child’s behaviour.
See, we told you – it’s completely natural! But that doesn’t mean it’s right.
Our advice? Ignore the judging comments and remember what works for some people won’t work for you and vice versa.
Develop some selective hearing
As a mum you’ll always find the best ways to help your little one develop. However sometimes we could all do with some supportive advice. The key is to learn to filter out the useless stuff and keep what can really help you.
Pick one or two people whose advice you'll consider strongly – whether it’s your BFF or mum – they may have some words of wisdom that could help you out.
The TV isn’t always the enemy
Sometimes there’s just some things we need to get done and that means leaving our little ones to play on their own for a bit. However, as all mums know, this isn’t quite as easy as it sounds and this is where the third parent comes in.
Don’t feel guilty. After all, the days of Tom & Jerry teaching children it’s OK to chase each other with rolling pins are long gone! These have been replaced by programmes all aimed at helping your little ones to learn. So while you hoover your little one will more than likely be learning to count!