Yahoo! Parenting

Let’s define our terms:

Yahoo — a rude, noisy, or violent person.
synonyms: redneck, boor, lout, oaf

Parenting — being or acting as a mother or father to (someone).
synonyms: raise, bring up, look after, take care of

Put those two together and you get a rude, noisy, violent parent. Not exactly the kind of parent you want to be taking advice from.

My first association with the word yahoo was back in my high school days while reading Gulliver’s Travels. For those unfamiliar with Jonathan Swift’s Yahoos, he described them as resembling human beings with filthy and unpleasant habits. The main character of the book, Lemuel Gulliver, preferred the company of the calm, rational horses, the Houyhnhnms, to the Yahoos.

I found it humorous when, in 1994, a new search engine came on the scene that had chosen the name Yahoo!. It is fitting. The very nature of the internet can be seen as an avenue where rude, boisterous noise has found a home. Yahoo! has become not only a search engine but a source of information for news, sports, financial advice and apparently, parenting.

Imagine my surprise when I saw an article this morning from a website called Yahoo! Parenting. I took the bait. I read a couple of articles from the site. They were typical articles that you can find just about anywhere about the typical things our young moms and dads are reading these days about taking care of their babies and young children. The pages are full of cherubic faces that just make your heart smile. The articles are somewhat informative but the first one I read was one of those “Your Baby Is Going To Die If You Don’t Follow This Advice” type of article. You know the kind. The articles that get shared and shared again spreading fear to a generation of parents whose main goal seems to be to protect their offspring from ever experiencing pain, discomfort, rejection or failure.

Many websites share similar articles so I’m not just talking about Yahoo’s parenting site. I only pick on them because the name was so fitting. Through the years, I have read all kinds of articles, even back in the old days when what we read was carefully edited and screened before being delivered to our front doors in slick looking magazines. Some are helpful. Some are not. Some are harmful. Some are just foolishness.

There was a brief time in my life when I was expecting a baby, had a toddler, a couple in elementary, one in middle school and another in high school. My children covered the whole gamut of age ranges for these types of parenting sites/magazines. I would read them, consider their advice and then go on my way. I was not inundated with them continually, even daily, as the young moms are today. They might see a friend share an article about something to fear about raising the baby (today’s article was on the dangers of kissing your newborn), and then see another friend share it, and another, and another. It begins to take root in their minds and the next thing you know, as in the case of this morning’s article, no one can kiss the baby.

I remember an article I read several years ago, in one of those snail mail parenting magazines, that told young moms the dangers of their kids being around the grandparents. These young moms were told that their own mothers would need to be taught the proper way to handle the new baby because the methods used today were so much different from what her mother had used. Really? The women who raised their children without the internet do not know how to handle a newborn? It is a scare tactic designed to increase the young mother’s insecurities. If her own mother cannot help her, she must turn to the professionals for all advice concerning her baby.

It’s important that young parents learn all they can about raising their babies, but it is more important to consider the source. The Creator of all should be the first source. We should be spending more time studying His Word, His parenting manual, than reading articles written by people we do not know. Our Creator gives the second source — older women. Yes, God tells young women to look to older women for advice — those very women the article I read said I should NOT listen to.

What advice should the older women give? God describes that as well. The older woman is to teach the younger woman to love her husband, to love her children. She should demonstrate this in her own life. She should be willing to share her advice on how she put this into practice day by day. She should seek out the younger women. She should make herself accessible to them. She should retain the ability to relate to them and their needs.

What’s in it for the young mother? She has a real live human being, many times several of them, who have “been there, done that”. They have seen the end of the process. They know what mistakes they made, what successes they had. They have had years of experience that helps them weed out the good from the bad.

How does all this happen? God has provided homes, families for these kinds of real life situations to be observed and experienced in a safe environment. God has provided the local church for a wider variety of experienced women to come in contact with. The wisdom gained by these associations provide common sense, simple, intelligent, time-worn wisdom that will give the young mother the confidence she needs to be a mother who is relaxed, firm, consistent and loving.

Should young women stop reading all these articles found on the internet? Not totally. They need to be read with the understanding that they are written by strangers who may or may not have the same love for God as you. Who may or may not know what they’re talking about. Who may or may not have the best interest of you or your children at heart. Take their advice with a grain of salt.

What advice do I have for young mothers?

Keep your eye on the goal. Raise children who love God and have the strength and courage to do His will.

Trust yourself. God made you intelligent. He gave you the precious baby in your arms. He trusts you to raise him.

Listen to your mother. She’s been there. She understands what you’re going through.

Love your baby. Enjoy him. Raise him to know God.