Becoming a new parent can be exciting and a little overwhelming learning how to take care of a baby. There are some common words of advice that seem helpful, but some pieces of advice should be ignored, and we break down advice to ignore.
Many parents pass on the advice to sleep when their baby sleeps as many new parents are sleep-deprived adjusting to the new sleeping and feeding schedules of their baby. This might seem helpful to catch up on missed sleep, but this will decrease your productivity and it’s recommended to use this time to get other things done like cleaning, catching up with friends online, watching some TV, and taking some time for self-care.
It’s commonly recommended to prepare to take maternity leave a week in advance of your due date that sounds smart but can backfire if things don’t go according to plan. There are unexpected things that can happen when planning around the due date with many moms wishing they had more time of maternity leave towards the end to spend more time with their baby before returning to work.
It’s actually suggested to wait as long as possible to start your maternity leave because if your pregnancy is delayed this can waste days of maternity leave. Another suggestion is advocating for paid parental leave for additional assistance for parents to spend more time with their baby and have time to adjust to their new lifestyle of being parents.
Parents often give the advice to spend every waking second with newborns as they are precious moments, you’ll never be able to get back which is true (to some extent). It is important to spend time bonding with newborns but it’s also important for parents’ mental health to spend some time away from their baby as a mental refresher with a moment to unwind. This can help reduce stress for new parents with a break from parenting and they enjoy time with their baby more after being away for a while.
Another common misconception is that new parents should start babyproofing their home before the baby is born when it’s something that should be done later. Newborn babies mostly sleep for the first couple of months with minimal movement around the house and are mostly held during these first couple of months.
Once a baby is starting to show signs or reach milestones such as crawling is when you need to consider babyproofing. It’s recommended to consider getting rounded furniture such as tables as opposed to square or rectangular that need to be babyproofed on the corners.
Most parents say picking your child up too much will spoil them which is utter nonsense as studies have indicated children who are cuddled are proven to be happier, healthier, and can form positive attachments. This doesn’t mean parents have to be physically attached to their baby all the time and parents should be open to others close to them picking up the child.
