As a parent, it's so easy to get lost in the stack of instructions; how we're supposed to speak to our babies, interact with our babies, nurture our babies. But somewhere along the way, we the parents get lost [1]. We get caught up in measuring ourselves and our babies, and subconsciously taking note of how much more able-bodied, well-read, or developmentally astute some other child is, and it all manifests into a self-serving murky broth of blame, topped with negative self-talk and, when we're at our absolute lowest, outward-facing judgment.
I'm incredibly guilty of this. I don't judge other parents, but I judge myself [2] constantly. If their younger kid is doing something mine isn't yet, I must be doing something wrong. And my words — my harsh and sometimes even cruel words — affect me the most.
And that's why this above Similac ad is so powerful. It highlights that, according to a new survey, 72 percent of parents say it is the responsibility of parents to stop parent-shaming, and seven out of 10 parents report feeling judged by other parents. But the ad has a simple message we can all follow: to support all parents. The ones you don't know, and the ones you know the best.