Are you following the latest parenting recommendations to ensure your child grows up to be a well-rounded and stable adult? I’ve gathered some scientific markers milling about social media that are indicative of being a good mom.
Go ahead and print this off, grab a pencil, and see where you fall on the BarMometer.
Place a check if:
- You didn’t drink coffee during pregnancy.
- You didn’t eat deli meat during pregnancy.
- You opted to decline pain management resources during childbirth.
- You exclusively breastfed.
- You supplemented with formula.
- You breastfed until your child self-weaned.
- You hand-blended all of your infant’s pureed foods.
- You participated in baby-led weaning.
- You used cloth diapers.
- You stay-at-home.
- You work out of the home.
- You work from home.
- You don’t send your kids to daycare.
- You only allow family to babysit.
- You never get a babysitter.
- You don’t feed your kids hotdogs.
- You only prepare organic, whole-food, paleo meals for your family.
- You co-sleep.
- You sleep train.
- You forbid screen time.
- You have 2 kids.
- You have 3 kids.
- You have 4 kids.
- You have 5 kids.
- You have 6 kids.
- You have 7 kids.
- You have 20 kids.
- You have multiples.
- You raise them by yourself.
- You raise them with three other people.
- You homeschool.
- You make it to every single lesson, practice, recital, game, and performance.
Got your tally?
Great. Now, throw it in the garbage with the next dirty diaper.
Checking any one of those boxes doesn’t make you one bit more of a mom than a woman reading this on another screen who may choose to parent differently than you.
There isn’t a list of conditions or qualifiers you can check off to bump up your mom status.
A mom is a mom is a mom.
I’m in the early days of motherhood but one thing I’ve spent the past two years discovering is that you don’t get extra points. It doesn’t matter if you handcraft your child’s birthday party and cook a five-course meal, or if you order pizzas and invite family over.
What matters is how you spend the time you have with your children.
So ignore the mom-hype. You are the best mom for your kids. Just keep doing you.
