relax, it’s just parenting.

Parenting is terrifying, fact. No one really has any idea what they are doing, especially the first time around, and the rules change year to year. Parents who are not confident they are doing the job right typically become overbearing, and actually hinder their child’s development, rather than help them along. I learned that little tid bit from Deborah Carlisle Solomon’s parenting resource Baby Knows Best: Raising a Confident and Resourceful Child, the RIE Way. RIE stands for Resources for Infant Educarers, an organization that helps parents live and let live, basically allowing their children to develop at their own pace rather than hovering over them all the time trying to do things for them.

In this resource Solomon discusses the competence of babies and their ability to help themselves. She also discusses how being overbearing can actually mess with your child’s self-confidence, once you start handing them their toys they’ll expect everything to be handed to them. If you want to be a more confident parent, and have a more enjoyable experience in general, look into RIE and Baby Knows Best.