Everyone’s a Parenting Expert… Except for the Fact They Aren’t

I’m just going to come right out here and say it. We don’t believe in parenting experts.

I know that might sound like a funny thing for someone in the child behaviour realm to say, but I’m suspicious of anyone who calls themselves an expert on parenting. There are a few reasons why I think this…

There is a lot of advice out there for parents from so called “experts”, and it is difficult to know what advice to listen to and what not to listen to.

So how do you know if someone is actually a parenting “expert”? Is it someone who has kids? People who study child development? Teachers? Nurses? Doctors? Researchers? Psychologists?

We agree that all the above professionals know a lot about kids. They probably know a lot about child health, development and behaviour. But do they have all the answers? 

Probably not.

We think most “experts” know a lot of about their area of interest, and they have probably seen a lot of different examples of parenting. They may even be well experienced in what to do and what not to do (in theory at least).

The problem is, the likelihood that an “expert” completely understands your personal situation and what works well, or doesn’t work well in your family is not likely.

What we do believe is that you are the expert on your family, your situation and your child’s behaviour.

You are the only person who can determine what suits your family, your lifestyle, fits well with your beliefs and feels right for you.

So… what would we do if we had a parenting dilemma and needed some “expert” advice? Well, chances are, we would find out what the “experts” had to say, decide whether their “expert advice” suited our situation and apply what we believed worked well for our family from there.

How about you? Do you believe “parenting experts” exist? What do you do when you have a parenting dilemma? 

Look forward to hearing your thoughts!