I admit that I am only a partially-evolved person—particularly when it comes to my parenting. I DO let myself worry sometimes what other parents think—think of my children’s behavior, my housekeeping, my single-parenthood—even though I can usually talk myself out of it and through it, I have felt the self-consciousness of wondering what the other parents on the sidelines were saying about one of my children…
I don’t think this makes me a bad or overly sensitive parent. In fact, I think it makes me pretty normal. We are all doing the best we can and even the most seasoned parent can often wonder if he or she is really doing a good job. One never knows for sure. That’s why we form such good friends with other parents, take classes, read books, and chat here on Families.com. We want to do a good job and we want to know, to some extent, how our efforts are measuring up with our peers and others who are also in the trenches of parenting.
I think the trick is, like most things, to keep things in balance. While we may care a bit and wonder what other parents are thinking—we’re still the parent of our child or children and we still have to make the choices and decisions that we think are best. Our parenting has to occur regardless of what we think other parents might be thinking or what other parents might be doing. This can mean making unpopular decisions or doing things as parents that don’t seem to fit in with the “culture” or norm of our neighborhood or peer group.
Alas, part of the evolution of life as a parent is that we become incredibly thick-skinned. I may wonder a little what other parents might think, but I no longer really worry about it. How about you?
See Also: Have You Ever Been Scolded in Public?