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 4.51 (Highly recommend) from 9 votes (56 Visits) |
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Don't believe everything you hear - choosing what's right for our families! |
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by taranicole  (November 1st) (rank 500+) |
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When my first child was born I ONLY wanted to give him the best. He ONLY wore designer labeled clothing and had multiple pairs of shoes before he could even walk! I only used huggies nappies and Johnson and Johnson bath products and wandered the streets in my way too expensive pram. When he was 3 months old I attended a course on “teaching your baby to read” and looked into “baby sign language”. I bought into EVERYTHING I saw, heard and read whether it was a product or advice (even if it didn’t work for me!) as I really wanted to give my child the best of everything.
By the time my second child was born, I was slowly learning that my boys were a little “different” to the norm – there was nothing “wrong” with them but they just didn’t respond to famous sleeping/settling books or discipline techniques the way other kids did. The advice wasn’t working and neither were the products. I couldn’t be bothered dressing him in outfits in my sleep-deprived state and his eczema seemed to flair up everytime we used the bath products. I was slowly realizing there wasn’t a one-size-fits all approach or product when it came to babies or kids and I had just blindly followed our consumerist society without even so much as a question. I just went with the flow and then wondered how I got there! Three children later and I still consider myself a normal, mainstream mum but have a lot of questions and aren’t as quick to go with the flow and buy into advertising – I even wonder whether there are times when we need to go “against” the flow to find what’s right for us. So I guess we can ask ourselves – How can we make better or make sure we make the right choices for our families and not get sucked in by clever marketing and advertising?
1. Consider where they are coming from - motives?
I think a great example is nappies. Disposable nappy companies have done a great job in making sure that cloth nappies are considered alternative or hippy and generally unappealing to mainstream mums. The marketing of disposables is hard to resist as we are constantly bombarded with advertising. These big companies use very clever marketing strategies to tug at our heart strings (to the extent where they employ psychologists) in order to convince us their product is best. The sad reality is that these companies don’t really care about selling us a product that is best for our babies – their main goal is to make a profit. Another example is the well-known example of Nestle’s unethical marketing of baby formula in third world countries which as resulted in millions of unnecessary deaths for the sake of profit. Ref: http://www.breastfeeding.com/advocacy/advocacy_boycott.html
Therefore, I think it’s important when considering parenting information or products to question – what are the persons or company’s motives in giving me this information?
2. Is what they are selling (products, advice, info) in line with your value system or parenting style?
Having two (and more than likely three) very strong-willed children and boys for that matter, I’ve had to filter through advice given to me about sleep, feeding, discipline etc. I’ve learnt that my parenting style is to acknowledge my kids individuality so I won’t prescribe to a particular book or theory as I don’t believe in a one-size-fits all approach. I also have Christian values that I won’t compromise so anything that goes against my value system can be easily dismissed. Another value that is important to me is caring for the environment as best I can so I try and consider that in the choices I make (e.g by choosing cloth nappies) and also try to buy fair trade products where possible. What marketing and advertising tells us is the “best” isn’t necessarily so and we need to trust our intuition even if it is going against the flow. So...I've learnt that we shouldn't be afraid to go against the flow!
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| ADVICE RATING |
4.51 (Highly recommend) from 9 votes |
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Re: Don't believe everything you hear - choosing what's right for our families!
With you on this, one size does not fit all,LOL.
I was not so much into the "Designer Brand" culture, but did wish to be as chemical free as possible, good ! Yes! No. I had a baby who had severe reactions to plant based enzymes, the type you find in almost all natural, organic and biological products, from nappy soakers, washing powders, shampoos and some creams, arrrrgh.
They tested the poor girl and came up with a list of "Do Not Use" enzymes that were practically everywhere, sheesh. So we had to resort to using some standard Non Biological and Chemically processed products, yuck.
Then along comes second girl and she is the exact opposite,LOL Try stopping two laughing kids tumbling into bed on Sunday morn with you, because no matter which washing powder you have used, one of them is going to react,ugh. Still we found a way, we just boiled and rinsed a lot,:(
Great thing about kids though is they are so individually unique and teach us so much on the path of parenthood and life : )
Thankfully both girls are building tollerances as they mature, but I feel for parents who's children never do.
Luv.Winnie.xxxx
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Re: Don't believe everything you hear - choosing what's right for our families!
Couldnt agree more!!!
My girl is.. very strong willed!
The pretty packaged products do NOT Stop her gettin excma (for sensitive skin my butt)
AND baby sorbelene cream has too much alcohol for it to work on her i now buy the cheap ugly adult hydroderm its the best for babies
Aldi nappies and no name nappies work just as well as huggies :D although i still buy snugglers cuz they look so pretty hahaha ( i look through to find the nicest design) Huggies arent that good at all!
We got EVERY natuaral thing to settle her n non of it worked one bit!!!
EXCEPT for the cough relief thats pretty good (for us)
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Related keywords: consumerist, families, individuality, mum, mums, nappies, parenting, strong-willed, style, unethical
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