From the moment a woman learns she is pregnant, she is bombarded with a litany of warnings, unsolicited advice and well-meaning recommendations on what she should and shouldn’t be doing, eating, etc. Make sure to take your prenatal vitamins! Don’t eat anything with nitrates! Register for a co-sleeper — it literally saved my life that first week! Don’t drink caffeine! Get all the sleep you can! The list goes on and on…..
Pregnancy, however, is just the tip of the iceberg. Once you give birth, as you cradle this innocent, helpless little being that relies COMPLETELY ON YOU, it’s hard not to feel a huge responsibility as a new parent. You want to protect this amazing bundle and do everything in your power to raise a happy, healthy child.
You have purchased The Ecologically Correct organic bedding, you have stocked up on The Obligatory Outlet Covers. You prepared the nursery with a coat of The Nontoxic Paint. You even have a full array of The Natural Skin Care Products.
Parentnoia. It is a strong force. Despite that nagging voice in the back of our heads that says “I did fine despite not having a sleep positioner”, we soldier on, purchasing products we may or may not need and agonizing over how we are doing as parents.
I’m not sure if this phenomenon is magnified for stay at home parents who have made a choice to put aside career to raise their little ones, or if it’s a function of all the information constantly coming at us from the news, friends, the Web or social media. Or, is it that we have more disposable income to put towards children, particularly as many of us have children when we are in our thirties?
Granted, as your child grows older and you see that she did survive despite watching more than the American Academy of Pediatrics-recommended allotment of TV a day, you learn to relax a little and adjust your expectations. But, there is always some worry lurking at every age.
As children start school, you want to discuss stranger danger with them. As Catherine’s post yesterday pointed out, you may worry about tweens and their internet use. Then of course, there will be dating as they get older.
How do you quiet the forces of parentnoia? Does it ever disappear?
* Kudos to LiveMom contributor Shannon for coining this term.
Written by: Nicole Basham




















