Parental Wisdom® by Tina Nocera

A baby is God’s opinion that the world should go on.
Carl Sandburg, biographer & poet (1878 – 1967)

A friend called today with a tremendous amount of excitement and just a touch of exhaustion in his voice. He was sharing the joyful news that his wife had just given birth to their second son.

We tend to think that babies are a miracle, but the real miracle is that we can find additional love in our hearts for another baby.

As friends and family are starting their own little families, my children prepare to leave the nest and move to college. Everyone has told me that you blink, and all of a sudden your children are grown up. It is so true, and I loved every minute of it – even the rough spots.

I don’t need to look at the thousands of pictures we’ve taken at celebrations, holidays, school and sporting events; they are all clearly etched in my memory. The best times though are the ones that don’t call for a ‘Kodak moment’ but instead, the rather uneventful moments where we sat around the dinner table and laughed about nothing special.

So along with all the unsolicited advice new parents get, here is mine. Don’t be too hard on yourself. There are no perfect people, so there are no perfect parents – and our children don’t mind one bit. They are wonderfully resilient and root for us. They look to us for our love and our best intentions. As long as we have the right motivation, and are consciously parenting, we will all do just fine.

IF you are expecting a baby or your love ones, we recommend you to check out this baby shower gift ideas, it will be a great help to surprise the parents and give something useful.

To all new parents, enjoy your journey.

Did I miss something?

There is a war in Iraq, millions of Americans are without healthcare, and our Educational system needs a complete overhaul, but California legislators are taking on the topic of parenting, making it illegal to spank a child under 3 years of age.

The proposal includes penalties of up to a year in jail and fines of as much as $1000 dollars. Assemblywoman. Sally Lieber (D) Mountain View who proposed the legislation says “Children that are three years old or younger are really sitting ducks in terms of the force, size and speed of an adult who would beat them.”

In my opinion spanking children is a bad idea since the lesson is that bigger guy wins. Children are more likely to be aggressive since they are very good at modeling the behavior demonstrated by their parents.

But where will the legislation of parenting end?

We know that nursing is far more beneficial to an infant than bottle feeding, so should we fine mothers that choose not to nurse? Should we imprison parents that allow bike riding without helmets? Don’t we know that parents who continually discourage their children, and speak harshly destroy their child’s self-esteem; should they too should be fined? Where will we house all these law-breakers?

One of the earliest and sharpest cultural commentators to investigate the twentieth-century American family, Christopher Lasch argues in that as social science “experts” intrude more and more into our lives, the family’s vital role as the moral and social cornerstone of society disintegrates – and, left unchecked, so does our political and personal freedom.

Perhaps it might be a better idea to prevent the mistakes in judgment in the first place. Prevention and education should be prerequisites to legislation.

We could educate parents, explaining the benefits of certain disciplines, and let parents raise their children. After all, our parents are the ones who taught us to parent.

Whether you agree or disagree with this topic may depend on a number of factors including where you live, according to ABC news.

The bottom line is that you are raising your children and should be considered the expert. But as often happens, we deal with situations that we may not know how to respond to. There is help and hope – please visit Parental Wisdom, a patented parenting website free to all parents. There you can anonymously ask your parenting questions and you get to choose which advice from the experts works best for your child.

I would love to hear what you think about this topic. Please leave a comment.

While the objective should be to raise a good person, it might be helpful to think about how you do the opposite.

This is a wonderful list put together by the Houston Police Department.