[~Nik*Re~]

How can parents deal with criticism of their parenting?

Every parent tries to do the best he or she can to love her child. It can be very difficult for any parent to be criticised about his or her parenting practice. It is important not to criticise others about their parenting. The following are suggestions about how to deal with criticisms of your parenting:

• Try to focus on how important your parenting approach is to you. Remind yourself that nurturing your child will help to create a happier child and a happier world. See What are the benefits of attachment parenting?
• Surround yourself as much as possible with friends and family who value what you are doing. Parents practising attachment parenting may also be a great source of information about how to deal with criticisms about parenting. See our list of attachment parenting support groups and attachment parenting online discussion groups.
• It may be helpful to explain to the people who are criticising your parenting the reasons why you are doing certain things to help them to understand.
• In some circumstances, explaining to people about the reasons why you are doing certain things can make you feel more vulnerable and stressed. It may be better to simply say “it works for us”.

Robin Grille has written an interesting article about this kind of criticism.

Here is the link to the page I found this Home

I really hope this can help some of you that are dealing with the ongoing critisism of family and friends, to you all.

[mom2myJo's]

Thank you so much for that link....It helps to have support, especially when you cannot get support from family .

[ItalySarah]

Thanks for that. Do you think we should resticky the thread about handling criticism?

[broxi3781]

No matter what you do as a parent, someone will disapprove. Since I can never please everyone, I have decided just to make my own family and myself happy.
I know its really hard, especially for new parents, but all I can say is follow your own heart and do what is best for your family. god gave us maternal insticnts for a reason!

[Jacobbbsmommy]

i really enjoyed that link. thank you. it really helps to feel like you are not alone and you are not crazy! (which is what most of my family tried to convince me of with my parenting methods, such as co-sleeping and not vaccinating)