Everyone has met a parent who thinks they know it all. Aren’t they the most irritatingly pretentious people you have ever met in your life? However, parents sharing advice is vital for overcoming a range of issues that you may encounter no matter how old your child is. Especially for new parents who are still finding their feet. However, you sharing parental advice doesn’t need to come off in such a negative way. Below are four tips on how to share parenting advice without being annoying.
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Be Friendly About Giving Parenting Advice
Nobody likes a parent who storms in and starts barking orders and advice to other people. This is no way to get people to respect your opinions, and it will only hinder relationships between you and other parents. Instead, approach any advice giving like a friend. They will not care about how much you seem to know if you don’t first demonstrate to them that you do in fact actually care. People will always take advice from friends better than strangers, and building relationships will ensure you create a superb parenting network.
[ Read: How to be There for a Friend in Need ]
Ask Questions, But Wait to Be Asked
There are very few people who accept unsolicited advice, especially when they don’t even know you that well. It’s always better to wait for someone to ask for your help rather than offering it without a prompt. Whether the questions relate to the benefits of a leading fertility clinic, or how to get their child to sleep, it’s always better to wait. However, once asked, asking questions will help you give a more thorough answer as you learn more about context.
[ Read: 7 Tips for Being a More Confident Mom ]
Only Share Your Experiences as Parenting Advice
Too many parents tell stories of friends of friends that dealt with specific issues in specific ways. But this can quickly become like a game of Broken Telephone. Further down the line, the point of the message is lost. While it’s okay to reference friends who had similar parental struggles, you should only offer advice that you have experienced. Otherwise, you may miss out on critical details, or fail to grasp the nuances of what made something a problem, or even why the methods were so successful to begin with.
[Read: 50 Simple Ways to Help Others]
Respect Other Parenting Methods
Everyone has a different parenting method. Some are overly positive, some are negative, but most find a healthy balance between the two. Regardless of how you parent, you should still make sure that you respect other parenting methods. For the most part, you don’t know anything about the other parent or their children, and you have no idea about their personal lives. Every family is unique, and each situation is very different.
So, while you can share general ideas and provide your thoughts about common issues, judging other parents for doing something that you wouldn’t do by saying ‘Well, that’s not how I’d do it, but…’ is not beneficial for anybody. Instead, show support for other moms in the community, and respect that they have a reason for doing everything.
Helping Others
Helping others with parenting is the very least you could do, but you must do so by respecting their parenting techniques as well as other individuals. There is no right way to parent. But there are plenty of ways to work alongside each other to ensure success for the parents and the child.
For more on this topic, check out the full Helping Others collection
