bizarre unnavigable part of being a parent is that there is no way to reveal the information that you dont give your kid any screens without making other parents upset. even if you intentionally set out to not tell them, if they dig enough, and find out, they then become upset.
you can laugh about it, or blame it on any reason, or pad it infinitely with how much you love screens, or how youre just an idiot and dont know anything about parenting and are just winging it: doesnt matter. people just become upset at the information. its upsetting information
a weird parallel is the home birth thing. im self aware enough to not flex about something my wife did or to make other people feel like i know what medical decisions they should make. but if i need to mention it in a conversation, people likewise take it as a type of challenge.
not everyone, but a large percent of people then basically somewhat aggressively explain why they personally could not have done that. which is interesting because, then they actually are asking me to assess and validate their medical decisions - my exact goal is to not do that.
all of this made me realize how much being around people involved validating their paradigms, all the time, in thousands of ways, constantly. if someone says βi could never do the laundry without letting my kid watch TVβ, and you do that without watching TV, youβre stuck. caught.
to agree is to imply that you do that - or that you agree. to say nothing isβ¦ weird? to disagree is aggressive. even if deep down you literally donβt care what this person does at all. you might not even know them. this is one example but it may apply to all possible decisions.
oh yeah i have Official(tm) certified parenting advice
Loading suggestions...