Parenting Courses: Instinct Isn’t Everything

There was an article in the Daily Mail last year, the title of which just made me shake my head in disbelief. It read:

“This new fad for parenting classes is crazy… mothers just need to trust their instincts”

That’s a pretty bold statement coming from a publication with a substantial following, but it’s also a statement that is nothing short of blind to reality.

In an ideal world, we would all have had a calm, loving upbringing, but this is certainly not an ideal world. Far from it.

Ask yourself just which “instincts” you are supposed to draw upon when your entire childhood and formative years was filled with emotional or physical abuse, lacking any of the love necessary to successfully nurture a child. Just what parenting skills would you gain as a child when your parents are both working 60 hour weeks, while you spend all of that time away from them in day care?

And while you’re at it, why not take a walk down to your local shops and speak to one of the inevitable groups of teens that are congregating outside. One minute speaking with these youths will undoubtedly leave you asking the question as to just how their upbringing could have and should have been improved. The Daily Mail is wrong. Very wrong.

Parenting classes are not a fad. These days they’re fast becoming nothing short of a necessity.

The tools many of us develop through our own upbringing may be enough to pass on to our own children, and then from them to theirs, but what if they’re not? We’ll be passing on the same negative traits from generation to generation, and that should be enough to worry even the most cold hearted.

It’s true, we all have instincts, but some more so than others, and everyone could do with a little guidance. It’s naive to believe you’re already the best parent you can possibly be.

The bottom line is thus. My advice to anyone agreeing with their article would be simply to open your eyes. You owe yourself that and you owe it to your child.