"Biblical" Parenting
Wouldn’t it be great if as Christians, we could raise our children (homeschooling, public schooling, private schooling, unschooling, consent-based parenting, authoritarian parenting, screen time, no screen time, breastfed, bottle fed, free-range, super-involved) by respecting different methods that are not your own, and not claiming one way as “Biblical” and the rest as unBiblical? Many of us are parenting purposefully, after lots of research, prayer, and trial and error. Please stop branding the “other” as un-Christian, just to make your own way feel more validated.
While we are on the topic, here are some other “arguments” that super irritate me:
Calling my way illogical without trying to understand it. If you don’t understand it, don’t read a meme, or look up a news article which utilizes name-calling and only interviews the most extreme examples. Talk to a friend who is parenting that way. Calmly and kindly ask them questions. Listen to their answers.
Making comments about how a certain style or movement is “trendy” or taking pride in not being “cool” and instead standing by your “Biblical values.” It’s extremely pretentious.
When you give me an example of your kids doing something incredibly kind and sweet, or polite or well-behaved, then tell me that that only happened because your parenting technique is effective. Often I have an opposite technique and can point to an exact instance where my child was kind and thoughtful in the exact same way. This is just further proof to me that we can go about things in different ways and still have super awesome kids.
I will respect you. I will honor your decisions as your own. I would love to answer any questions about my faith, my parenting, and my politics if you are genuinely curious. I love to ask other people about their reasoning and motivations, as long as they are open to that. I’m just begging you, please stop with the ridiculous self-righteous posts.
P.S. This easily applies to politics, denominations, and basically any other life decision.