Should non-parents be allowed to give parenting advice?
Should this practice stay or go?
Something very distinct happens when you become a parent.
It's like a switch that just turns on when you realise that you are a parent. Some people always envisaged how they would be one day as a parent, knowing exactly how they would parent down to the parenting style and whether or not time out was going to feature.
But there are those parents who have had to go with the flow and learn as they go. Nothing wrong with that.
At the crux of it all is that each parenting style will differ from one family to another.
This brings up a question that many have touched on in the past, 'Do you think non-parents should be able to give unsolicited advice to parents?'
Stacey and J Sbu are asking KZN if this practice should stay or go and we can only imagine what everyone has to say on the topic.
In 2016, the ladies on 'The Real Talk Show' addressed this question and with a panel of both parents and non-parents, we thought the discussion went over quite well. Check out the video below, courtesy of YouTube.
For the most part, it is a general rule of thumb that if you are not a parent, you shouldn't be handing out advice to a parent.
But it seems that some people don't have filters and aren't able to read the room. The thing that most parent bloggers have said online is that non-parents make parenting sound so easy.
For instance, daddy blogger on ScaryMommy.com said that he gets a lot of unsolicited advice from non-parents and if it were up to him, this is how he would respond.
*Please be warned, the below contains profanity.
Non-parent: "Don’t let them eat in the car. Then it will not be a mess. Problem solved."
Dad: "Listen, dipshit. Have you ever driven more than 20 minutes with a crying hungry toddler? Imagine yourself in a mobile sweaty hell with little screeching demons whining for graham crackers and constantly touching each other and bitching about it. Now imagine doing that everyday for a few years, and you know what, you will do anything to keep the peace so you don’t drive your minivan into oncoming traffic. Sometimes it feels like the backseat of my car is a prison yard and I’m doing what I can to keep inmates from revolting, and if that means handing out fruit snacks that will most likely be wedged into the seats, so be it."
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Contrary to popular opinion, Megan Peterson, a working mom, shared a piece on Huffpost saying that non-parents have valid viewpoints and she needs parenting advice from her non-parent friends.
"Maybe non-parents can’t relate to the everyday chaos and brain drain that is parenting, but they do have a legitimate point of view from their own experience. Parenting qualifications are as much about how much life you’ve lived (which may not correlate with age) as they are about child status." (Huffpost)
It is clear that there are two sides of the fence and on either side there are people that hold their opinions, let us know how you feel below.
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