Amazing Parenting Advice

I have only been a parent for 14 months so I don't have much to offer in terms of advice. Most of the time, I am just hanging on for dear life hoping that I don't do anything that permanently scars Anna. :-)

However, I am not sure that everyone feels like I do. It seems like from the moment I announced that I was pregnant it people were constantly sharing advice (mostly unsolicited) on pregnancy, childbirth and parenting. Advice like:

"Be sure to put your newborn on the potty right away so that you can potty train them by six months."

OR

"You should breastfeed your child until they are 12 so they never are sick a day in their life."

Well, when you have a Type A personality like mine, all this advice can become a little overwhelming because I always want to do the "right" thing. So in the midst of this onslaught of advice, I have found 3 pearls of wisdom that have been really helpful to me.

1. Enjoy every stage that your child goes through. The person I heard this from actually wasn't even giving advice. It stemmed from a conversation with someone who was getting ready to send her youngest child to college. When I asked her about how she felt about having an empty nest, she talked about how excited she was for the opportunity her son was about to have and for the person that she would see him become because of it. She then talked about she has thoroughly enjoyed every stage that her children have gone through from the up all night newborn stage, to the rebellious teenage stage, to the adult child entering the working world.
2. It is not my job to shape my child into what I want her to be. Rather, my main job is to point her to the God who created her so he can shape her into who she was created to be. When I heard this at MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) meeting, it was so freeing to me. Knowing my job is to introduce Anna to God and let Him be the one who shapes her sure takes a lot of pressure off me to make sure that I do everything "right."
3. Don't listen to people's advice. Most people don't have a clue about raising kids anyway. This just makes me smile and helps me know that lots of other people are hanging on for dear life just like me.

So when someone throws a piece of advice out there like: "You should start teaching your child algebraic equations at age 1 or she will never get into college." I remember these three pearls of wisdom (especially number 3.) :-)