Parents are paranoid about anything and everything, it seems. I post a simple video of my son in his new car seat on YouTube and all of a sudden I'm a terrible mother for not rear-facing him. I was told by three different moms, who I'm sure meant well, I'm sure, that I should keep him rear-facing in his new car seat as long as I can - one even suggested until he was four or five years old!! I was told I was putting him in risk because he was facing forward, although I'm following Idaho law and making sure that my child is confortable and safe. Many rattled off a bunch of outrageous statistics for survival, so I explained (even though I shouldn't have to) that he grew out of his infant seat so we really needed him in his new seat and that our new seat won't fit in our car because it's too big. One of the moms jumped all over that by lecturing me that parents in Sweden have to keep their kids rear-facing until they're five and the size of my car is no excuse because they have smaller cars than us. What??? Who cares what they do in Sweden??? Long story short, I ended up deleting all the comments and disabling the the comment feature on my video before it got worse.Moms have enough to stress over as it is, but many choose to stress over ridiculous statistics which soon turns into absolute paranoia. It all starts from conception - don't eat this when you're pregnant! Don't touch this when you're breastfeeding! Don't do that when potty training! If you're one of those moms - stop it. Stop trying to bubble-wrap your children and use that wasted energy to DISCIPLINE your children instead. (Seriously. It would make my trips to the grocery store much more pleasant.) I know I'm still a new mom, but I know there's only so much we can do to protect our kids and then it's in God's Hands. Stop freaking out and use your common sense.
It's a wonder I survived childhood, using nothing more than a pad of foam to sit on, just so I could see over the dashboard of my grandfather's pickup.
**DISCLAIMER: These are random, scary, internet moms that lurk the 'net aiming to harass us newbies - no one that I know personally.
