Decisions, decisions...

So, today I was thinking that I hope that Brighton grows up and learns to follow his own beat and I realized that as parents, we have to do this ourselves. We have to learn not to care what others say about our parenting types and decisions we make. We make the decisions (I along with my husband Chris who is Brighton's daddy) that we believe are in his best interest or sometimes because we think its how he is going to want things in the future and then we try to stick to our decisions. We make each one out of true love! These days, parenting is so different from when I was a little girl. Now, I have grown to appreciate just how hard each decision was that my parents made, but also, I have developed my own opinions on things I want to do differently than they did. The pressure to make decisions started even before my son was born and still continue to stress me out today and already ones that I know have to be made later on in his life cause me stress just knowing  they are coming. Not only are their little everyday choices, like what to feed him in today's world of GMO foods, there are which diapers, wipes, detergents,and when we had to start supplementing him with formula, what formula and baby bottles? I moved past the decision of when to start cereal, solids and juices pretty quickly, but I had Brighton's ever curious taste buds to help me with that! He was reaching and crying for my foods at 4 months old!  Then more worrisome questions, like to be a "crunchy" parent or not, and one decision we still struggle with, to vaccinate or not? So far we decided to not, and like this decision, some are scary no matter which way you pick to go. In just a few short years there will be others, the next car seat, what places to take him and friends to allow him to have (while he will still allow us to decide that for him) and then what to do about school and how to pick one. My point to all of this is that making all of these decisions is hard enough, but more and more I see parents criticizing other parents for not making the decisions that they think are right. Two really hot subjects are circumcision and immunizations or vaccinations which I think are the two that are really most personal and no other parent should dare step in and tell another they are wrong for which ever way they decide to do things! I would like to remind each parent how much thought and love they put into every decision they make for their little ones, and ask them how they would feel if they were attacked and told they were wrong for how they choose to do things. Nothing is right for every family and each set of parents must live with the decisions they make regarding their child or children and the consequences of them. In a perfect world we would all get along and live in harmony and maybe even all decide the same ways, but since that is not the kind of world we live in I urge you to only give advice on another parents decision making when asked by that parent to do so, and no matter how hard you find it to do, support every parent for loving their LO(s) enough to make hard decisions. If you are a parent I say to you be careful what you are getting yourself into when you ask others for their opinions or advice and my advice, if you would like it, is to read as much information on both sides of the decision you are going make and then make it on your own with your SO and don't worry or even listen to what others think of your decision. Only you and your SO (if you have one) know whats best for your LO and your family and why make things harder by worrying about what others think of your decisions? Hear your own beat and dance proudly to it!