With all the self-help, parenting, and expert advisors out there, it can be challenging for a parent to know where to turn. I think we often turn to official “experts” when what we really need to do is dig in and realize that WE should be the experts on our own child…
The truth is, no one knows your child as well as you do. Or at least, that is how it should be and if you are a caring, involved, attentive parent—that is likely the way it is. Since parenting is such an inexact science and not a one of us knows if we are doing things “the way they should be done,” we tend to acquiesce to experts and hope that someone out there can tell us something about our child that we don’t already know. We’re never sure if we are really doing a good job or not!
BUT, while there may be plenty of caring professionals and others who know children out there—teachers, doctors, coaches, etc.—they are not our child’s parent. They may know children in general, and they may understand child development and other educated specifics, but they don’t know our child as intimately as we do. Of course, I know for a fact that I don’t know everything and my child is still a separate individual, but I’ve been here, close to them, longer than anyone. So, even if you don’t always feel like the knowledgeable expert and your child is constantly surprising and baffling you (that’s the way it should be)—you are the expert when it comes to your child and as your child’s chief advocate. Even if you take advice and such from others, try to remember that you are the expert on your own child (or children).
See Also: Parents, You ARE the Experts
Listening to Your Inner Voice and Trusting Your Instincts