Raising Your Children The Way You Feel Is Best
I remember a number of years ago whenever my wife and I were expecting our first child, we had to stay at home for Christmas, and we weren't able to be with our families like we had hoped to be. We were several hours away from home, and since my wife was almost 8 months pregnant, I didn't want her to be traveling. We had sent off a few gifts that we had bought for our niece and nephew, to her sister's house, and we were pretty excited about the things we had chosen for them. The kids were pretty spoiled by their parents and grandparents, so we were hoping that they could open our gifts on Christmas Eve, so that they could really appreciate them. We knew that once they started to open the other gifts on Christmas morning they would be overwhelmed and not really know when we had gotten for them.
So my wife called her sister's house, and when our nephew answered the phone, she asked if he wanted to open the gifts, he of course exclaim that he did. However, my brother-in-law was staunchly against doing this and told our nephew that had to wait until morning, which we thought was pretty odd. This of course started a big fight between my brother-in-law and my nephew, and both my wife and I felt guilty about calling. We then discussed how we thought his decision made no sense to us, but I told my wife that we had to respect his decision, because it was his child.
We learned after we had our own child, that there were always people giving us advice on how to raise our child, and telling us what was best for her. However, while we appreciated the advice, we slowly started to understand what my brother-in-law was thinking that day, and how you have your own specific reasons for why you make decisions for your child. People don't necessarily have to agree with them, but you don't want them to undermine your authority, or show you up in front of your children. This is why I say that you always have to hold steadfast about your beliefs for raising your child, and never let anybody make you doubt your own parenting skills. We all have parental instincts, and the worst thing you can possibly do is to ignore them and think that someone else may know better than you how to raise your child.
About the Author
William is a freelance writer living in Kitchener with his wife and baby daughter. He currently publishes a helpful baby product site based on his experiences with his own baby at http://babydollstroller.net/
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