Parenting 101

This was my comment on a post from a new blog I recently found, the question was “Can ‘parenting’ be taught?”
When my husband and I came home from the hospital with our newborn daughter, we can only look at each other with the “now what?” look in our faces. It’s when the reality sinks in that the fragile tiny human being we brought home will be solely dependent on us for her survival. That’s a HUGE realization. Without anyone(his parents and my mom passed away, other family members far away, our friends didn’t have kids).. we didn’t have the luxury of having women folk to pamper us, much less guide us on how to have a good latch-on for breastfeeding, how to bath the baby, etc. It’s a pretty daunting task for 2 people who have no experience on taking care of a baby.
Thanks to books and online resources we didn’t have to go to “parenting classes.” I might have considered going to those classes if other resources aren’t available. I would have wanted to equip myself with some knowledge on how to keep our baby alive and healthy. Armed with the bits and pieces of memory of my own mom taking care of my younger siblings, instinct, common sense and knowledge learned from an immersion on how to take care of a baby, we were able to survive so far.
If someone never took care of a baby and have no one to show them the how-to’s , “parenting classes” may come in handy. Some people may need to attend those classes and prevent stupid mistakes that can cause injury or worse. Baby sitters here are required to take baby sitting and infant first aid training, so why not the parents if they aren’t sure of what they are doing? Maybe they just need to change that word “parenting” to “infant care.”

The different aspects(emotional, mental, psychological, social etc.) encompasses a parent’s whole being, it cannot be taught in a short term class because it takes a lifetime learning process.