Raising Each Child Differently

Let your child cry it out to sleep. Get in there and don’t let them scream. You have to breastfeed your child. They’ll be fine on a bottle. Teach your child to use the bathroom in a single day. Take your time and use pull-ups to teach your child to use the bathroom. It seems like you’re always receiving and finding conflicting information about how to raise your child, and that’s because you are.

As a new parent, it can be really overwhelming to try and figure out who is telling you what is right and who isn’t. Should you let your child cry themselves to sleep or should you not? Should you let them nap a few hours before bedtime or not? Why does one person tell you one thing, and someone else tells you the exact opposite? Can’t we all just agree on the right way to raise a child?

Unfortunately, that’s not going to happen. There will always be differing opinions on how to correctly raise a child. There are a few reasons that this is the case, but perhaps the biggest reason is that there are more than one way to raise a child. Just because one method works well for your child doesn’t mean that another method won’t work either. There are multiple ways to do things and they can all be right.

Furthermore, every child is different. One method for doing something may work really well for one child, and it may not work at all for another child. Even among your own children, you may have one child who responds really well to one method while another simply won’t react or take to the method that worked for the first child. You really won’t know until you try it either - you’re learning along the way.

That’s really what it comes down to as a parent. You’ll read and learn about different methods of raising your child, but at the end of the day you’re going to have to try those methods and figure out how they work for you and your child. It may be that you have to modify how you had planned to do something for your child or you may have to completely rethink it. You’re learning as you go along.

Of course you should have certain standards that you have set for yourself that you’re planning to stick to - you don’t just try anything and everything. You have your core beliefs that will help to guide you as well as your common sense. You shouldn’t try things that are dangerous to you or your child. If you’re unsure, then check with your doctor as to what they recommend - they will know the science better than you.

Raising a child really is an experiment. You’ll try something that you believe will work and you’ll learn that it does (or doesn’t work). You’ll then modify as necessary and try again. Over time, you’ll begin to learn things that will work. You’ll begin to understand your child and it will be easier to find what works for both of you - there will be less guessing. But you’ll still find yourself modifying your parenting strategy along the way.

Every child is different. As such, there are multiple recommendations on how to correctly raise your child. Some will work better than others.