An Apology...

I'd like to issue a formal apology to anyone to whom I gave unsolicited parenting advise over the years. I'm sure phrases such as "you need to", or "you should" have rolled off my unknowing tongue. See, as a psychologist I know what I SHOULD do for Zoe but really, all that goes by the wayside when it's your kid. When the amoxicillin hurt her belly and she wouldn't eat...I knew I should only feed her in the high chair (she'll eat when she's hungry) but no...since she's my kid and I was worried it was perfectly acceptable to feed her while she stood standing in the refrigerator :) Hey, anything to get her fed and keep up her weight. So to everyone without kids who has uttered the words "you need to", or "you should" to me over the past three months...I know you mean well, but talk to me when it's your own kid who's struggling :) I now completely understand when the parents that I work with occasionally used my least favorite phrase in meetings "Do you have kids?". Before I thought it was irrelevant...now I know it's the most relevant question they could ask. My answer, of course, used to be "No." Now it will be, "Yes, I understand.....and you still need to not let them set fires :)