Parent shaming: the one thing others should refrain from doing

parent shaming

Most of the parents take care of their little one’s in the best possible ways. They see to it that their child gets the best of all the things. Sometimes the parents do not even care for their financial status while caring for their kids. They take loans or sell their valuable possessions to get the best for their kids. Every parent has the right to raise their kids in a way which they feel is suitable for themselves and their kids. This is the basic right of the parents and no one including the relatives has the right to do Parent shaming. No one has the right to belittle the parents in any possible way.

What is parent shaming ?

Criticising the parents now and then for the way they are raising their child is called “Parent shaming”. The parent shaming may involve a lot of aspects and activities of parenting like giving food to the child, breast feeding, potty training the kid, and lot more. Parent shaming also has a direct impact on a parent’s confidence level for upbringing their child.

Examples of parent shaming?

A personal example

I remember it was my daughter’s second birthday and I was parent shamed by one of my relatives. The reason being my daughter had some chips and she choked a little on it. She got scared and started crying. My husband had just left to drop  his parents to the bus stand. One of my relatives got adamant on calling my husband back. I was pretty sure that my daughter will calm down. In order to calm her down, I had to increase the volume of my voice. And my relative was like. You are shouting on your daughter. If you shout on your daughter, your daughter will walk away from you in her life.

The relative had not even become a parent. And if she could not be of any help then what right have the relatives got to behave in a rude manner.

Not only normal people but, celebrities also go through parent shaming. The best example of that is of David Beckham. It is a clear issue of parent shaming on social media.

Why do they do parent shaming?

A lot of people do parent shaming for a variety of reasons. Some of the reasons are as follows.

Feeling of superiority

A lot of people are jealous of others and have the feeling of insecurity towards others. So, they resort to parent shaming to demean the other person. Shaming someone helps these people to feel secure.

Fear of mistakes

Sometimes the other person is scared that he or she will be going through the same thing when they become the parent or they might be afraid of the mistakes that they have done with their kid. So, in order to be on the superior side they want to parent shame.

Competitive parenting

A lot of parents now a days go through competitive parenting, they constantly want to do things for their kids, what other parents are doing. Some parents also want to prove that they are doing the best for their kids as compared to other parents.

How to stop yourself from parent shaming?

There are ways in which you can stop yourself from parent shaming.

Things can also happen to you

You should know that the things that you are parent shaming the other parents can also happen to you. If you are a parent you know about a lot of these things and if you are not a parent mind that these kind of things will happen to you in future.

Empathise

Have empathy towards other parents and try to help them out in their weird situation. Your helping hand will be more than welcome.

How would you feel?

Try to look into yourself and think that how would you feel. If someone parent shames you.

Being judgemental towards other parents achieves nothing. Parent shaming may lead to a rift in your relationships with the baby’s parents.