Most parents agree that training a child can be arduous; the methods of priming an infant into a responsible young adult are where most parents differ.
While this reality is unavoidable, specific approaches to culturing and weaning children can be outlandish, unsafe for the child, and lack of sound reasoning. Therefore, we do not recommend or condone these pieces of bad parenting advice.
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1. Push a Child Down To Delay Walking
Bordering the extreme, a mother says “pushing over her baby whenever he tried to walk” was a friend’s advice to catalyze her child into taking her first steps. “Someone once told us if our baby started trying to walk to push them over because once they walk, your life gets harder.”
2. Safety Pin for Teething Child
“Someone advised me to have an old lady use a safety pin to precut my son’s gum,” one mother recalls. This was supposed to help the teething process fast and less painful. Another mom who had had a similar experience says her grandma told her to do so too.
She finds the idea very painful and cruel and says, “this is the worst parenting advice ever!” Finally, one added they had someone tell them to do it with a razor blade and then to “rub whiskey” on the gums afterward. DO NOT do this.
3. Moms Know Best
One shared, “Probably being told by multiple “mamas” to ignore the input of our doctors and nurses regarding our child because “they aren’t mamas. Mama knows best!”
Often, they are wrong and do stupid things like attempt to diagnose their children through a Facebook mom group. A nurse and mother discussed how difficult this perspective is as a pediatrician. “Even as a mother and a nurse, I still seek knowledge where I am lacking.” And not from strangers on social media.
4. Mother and Child Anxiety Control
A perplexed user didn’t know becoming a mother was supposed to grant the superpower of keeping her hormones in check. She states how horrible it made her feel when her mom told her she needed to “keep her anxiety under control” as the hormones going into the breast milk could make the baby restless through the night.
5. Ignore a Child To Build Self-Dependence
Have you ever been told to ignore a child in a bid to make them less dependent? An older woman advised a first-time mother to ignore her child to turn on their self-dependency. However, she chose to ignore the advice and love and nurture her infant.
6. Tie Them Down
One parent says she was advised to tie her child down. “An old lady instructed me to tie my toddler with a belt to his bed.” Many moms in the thread agree, “people like her are the reason why child protective services exist.” Good grief. Don’t tie your children down.
7. Your Child Needs No Seatbelts
Here’s a ridiculous take that undermines your child’s safety. A mother-in-law advises her daughter-in-law that children need no seatbelts. Another mom confesses her aunt told her a baby carrier is as good as a car seat.
8. Never Apologize
Several moms disagree with this bad advice, “Don’t apologize. You’re the adult. Apologizing to a child would undermine your authority.” One mom highlighted the wrongness of this parenting view on the psychological health of a budding child.
9. Say Goodbye To Your Cats
“Cats and babies can’t co-exist,” according to one know-it-all coworker who informed a mother that she would need to rehome her fur babies before her real one arrived. For two months, this mom’s coworker hounded her daily about why she needed to get rid of her cats of eight years. Finally, however, she shared that her kid and cats have co-existed perfectly fine for three years.
10. Cuddling a Child Makes Them Gay
Finally, an older woman told one first-time parent that cuddling a child could change their sexual preference. This is a dangerous view with disastrous consequences. This claim is scientifically unfounded and should be discarded on sight.
We do not condone or advise these terrible recommendations.
