Your Mother's Advice.

My mum came on Friday to spend a week with Steve and I. She is going to paint the nursery for us so we thought that was real nice. On Friday night we got into a conversation about best positions for babies to sleep in, and my mum started saying all her four children slept on their sides, but I said nowadays Doctors, and midwifes advise that children sleep on their backs. This started a whole one sided debate, where my mum was adamant that her mothering experience over ruled any professional advice, and that "half of these midwifes do noy have any children anyway".

In the end, I told my mum that we did not want our child lying on their sides, and that people may have done that 35 years ago, but that research has now shown that lying babies on their sides is not good. I asked my mum if she felt it would be difficult for her to accept our wishes, and if it was then we would have problems. My mum was a little upset and she said she was just offering her advice to which I replied that we very much appreciate people giveing us advice , but that ultimately, Steve and I will make the decisions for our child. I know my mum means well, but to think something she did 35 years ago is necessarily correct now is rather naïve. To be fair, my mother understood and agreed that we do not have to accept anyone’s advice because we are the child’s parents.