The most important parenting advice

... Can be found on a nifty new website called raisedtolove.com

Tamara El-Rahi | Aug 23 2016 | comment

Image from https://snapshot.raisedtolove.com/

I’ve only been a parent for 11 weeks (well, plus nine months of course!), but I can tell you that something which comes thick and fast is the advice. It’s beautiful – because every parent empathises and wants to offer words of wisdom – but it can be overwhelming when there’s already so much adapting to do!

Right now, the advice we’re getting is about dealing with everyday things like sleep routine and soothing. But what about later, when it’s the really important stuff that we need help with - like building character and teaching virtue? I already have one trick up my sleeve: a new website called raisedtolove.com.

The gold on this website is the Parenting Snapshots, one-minute videos and handy hints on a particular topic. They make a big thing (like teaching resilience) seem less scary by transforming it into something achievable through practical pointers.

The videos are great because they are a simple: they show an everyday couple talking about the way they teach a particular lesson to their kids. That alone is wonderful – it reinforces the (sometimes forgotten) fact that bringing up kids works so much better, and successfully, when both parents are on the same page. It also brings the lesson to life instead of making it seem like a nice idea in theory, but impossible in reality.

The internet is full of advice about how to make your baby sleep well and eat well, but at the end of the day, are these the things that are going to matter? In my opinion, they certainly don’t matter as much as whether they’re decent human beings who contribute to the world.

Check out this FamilyEdge article to see a recent Parenting Snapshot on parental unity.

Carolyn Moynihan interviews an expert on obesity, Dr Michelle Maidenberg, in our lead story today. Her analysis of the problem speaks for itself:

The United States is home to the highest number of overweight and obese people in the world. In the U.S., 70.9 percent of men and 61.9 percent of women are overweight or obese, compared to 38 percent of men and 36.9 percent of women worldwide. Childhood and teen obesity has grown to epidemic proportions in the United States.

It contains some very helpful advice for concerned parents.