I had a great conversation with Jonathan from Crosslife about why so many modern parents feel overwhelmed, and what we can do to help ourselves. We talk about how to deal with issues like busyness, “keeping up with the Joneses” and perfectionism.
Listen to our conversation on the Conversations for Life podcast here (scroll down to conversation 11.).
As a mum, I know how easy it is to fall into the trap of seeing other mothers as competitors. When we meet another mum, we immediately start making comparisons; we want to know how we “rank” against her in different areas: our parenting, our appearance, our children, our cooking, our job etc.
If we think we’re doing better than that other mum—if we rank higher on the scale—we congratulate ourselves and feel proud. If we think we’re doing worse than her, we feel guilty, inadequate, and envious.
Why do we judge other mums like this? And how can we move from competition to collaboration?
Modern parents are pioneers, bravely going where no parents have ever gone before: the land of the internet experts. We live in a swirling sea of information and advice—it’s like there’s a little parenting expert sitting on our shoulder all day, commenting on our every move. We suffer from a bad case of information overload.
In previous generations, parents simply did their best with the limited information they had. There were only one or two parenting books to consult; parents worked the rest out themselves through observation and experience.
Raising children in the age of information is a completely different experience. Of course, it’s great to be able to Google “What rash is that?” or “Which car seat is safe for four-year-olds?” at any time of the day or night. But having access to unlimited information can actually make parenting harder.
Watch my interview with the ladies from At The Table here:
You can watch the full episode here:
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