You are so right about parents being easily judged according with some high standards. Or it might be just me the one who when saw the title of this article I w

You are so right about parents being easily judged according with some high standards. Or it might be just me the one who when saw the title of this article I was thinking: "Great, another article which will show me how bad I am at parenting" When my child was born I did an extensive research about what kind of books should I read which are baked by science and will teach me how to be a good parent and I read most of these books. Then I found that - at least for me - it is very hard to apply what they are suggesting. Then I started to feel bad that I am not doing enough. I even paid time to talk with a paediatric psychologist to make sure that I was understanding the science of child development in the right way. And after a couple of sessions which were mostly going like this: I was going with a list of studies I read and questions I had about how to apply them and she explaining the big picture and where does fit or not. Until one day when she asked: "Did you watched your child? What does he want? What does he enjoy? Is he ready for this?" And then (months later) I realised that by trying to apply all this things I was not myself and in the same time I was actually not paying attention to the child's own needs. I put a lot of stress to myself to the edge of burnout by reading and thinking all the time about this good parenting stuff. He is a full person which his own desires and forming his personality. Does not matter what I want him to be. I should offer the best that I can but in the direction that he wants to explore. Now we go for a bike ride. Or play outside. Or read. Or do a paper rocket. Sometimes I help him dress, sometimes he wants to do it himself. But I don't have a plan of how the day will be. I still struggle with questions about my parenting style. But I try to be more aware of his personality.