One of the hardest things I've had to learn and deal with as a parent is that when it comes to anything to do with the raising/teaching of my child - whatever path I take, whatever I choose to do - it is completely and utterly WRONG.
Co sleeping? Makes them overly dependent on you and you'll never get them out of your bed again.
Leave them in their own room? You're a monster and they're never going to be able to form healthy attachments to anyone.
Formula? You're poisoning your baby. It doesn't matter that your baby can't latch properly and is shredding your nipples with every feed, you'll get it if you just TRY hard enough.
You get the idea. It can be an absolute trial to FINALLY find something that works for you and your baby only to have another well-meaning parent tell you that your child is going to develop irreversible psychological damage (or something) as a result.
So now basically whenever I have someone tell me that what I am doing is 'wrong' or I come across an article on the internet or whatever, I try to just take it with a grain of salt. I know the advice is well-meant (usually) and comes from someone wanting to share their experience in the hopes I find it useful.
But no two babies are the same, so what works for one may have the completely opposite effect on another. As an example, most babies enjoy being swaddled before naptime as it makes them feel snug and secure. Every time I tried to swaddle my daughter, she would scream the house down until she was free. She was NOT having a bar of that.
So disagree with my parenting style all you want. Offer advice, sure. But please don't be offended if I tell you just where to stick those words of wisdom. This may be my first time in this particular race, but I think I'm picking up the pace just fine. My daughter is a happy, social baby who may have been slightly slower on the crawling thing than her peers but is still meeting her milestones.
When she smiles at me, even if it's been a heck of a day where she's wanted to be constantly in my arms, I know I'm doing ok.
We're all doing ok.
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