Grandmothers vs Parenting Experts: Why Grandmas Give Better Parenting Advice

Mothers of this generation often depend on professional advice, especially in child raising. In fact, family psychologist John Rosemond recently wrote about a grandmother who asked "Dear Abby" why young mothers are having a bunch of issues over parenting.

Young Moms Agonize Over Parenting?

One of the things that Rosemond detailed in his article in Arkansas Online was a grandma's observation over young moms whose parenting styles are largely dependent on an expert's advice, citing the problem in today's breed of mothers where they find it hard to choose between their kids and husband as their top priority. That's why many young mothers agonize over raising their children.

Women Are The Only Gender Qualified To Parenting

Rosemond also highlighted the common and popular belief that women were the only gender qualified to become good parents, as depicted in several books. Hence, women or mothers felt the futures of her children depend entirely on her and their success was a benchmark of being a good mother.

Why Grandmothers Give Better Parenting Advice That Experts

According to Rosemond, grandmothers give better parenting advice because experts tend to make those fundamentally simple things very complicated. He also noted that experts sometimes turn fairly laid-back moms into "stressed-out, anxiety-ridden and child-focused micromanager."

Even though today's generation is much more complex than our grandmothers' generation, female ancestors didn't agonize over their children. Instead, they made their husbands better partners in parenting.

"There's no historical evidence that, as the world became more complex from generation to generation, mother anxiety steadily increased," Rosemond wrote. "In other words, the world becoming more complex isn't new, but moms agonizing over their children is. The new mom believes proper parenting is something she does solely for her child. Not so. Proper parenting is an act of love for your neighbor."

Meanwhile, grandmothers are also great in giving parenting lessons that have been tested through time and generations, Grandparents.com notes. While experts based their advice on science or scientific approaches, grandmas gave advice based on experiences.

Grandmothers Can Give Wrong, Outdated And Dangerous Advice

On a contrasting note, grandmothers can also give outdated, wrong and downright dangerous advice, confusing and exhausting the new breed of moms more, Parenting reports. Even though they have plenty of great advice to offer, sometimes their suggestions are best to be ignored.

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