Why would I say Parenting magazine is anything but expert advice? – It could be because of a recent article published in the magazine entitled “20 things Moms should never feel guilty about.” (and many others they publish along the same line)
The list starts out somewhat OK, but once it rolls past #10, it gets really, uhhhh, twisted… here are some examples:
You should never feel guilty about…
12. Telling your partner you’re going to the doctor for a checkup when you’re actually going for a massage, pedicure, or to have your hair highlighted (it’s not like he’s going to notice anyway).
13. Paying cash for your massage/pedicure/highlights so he won’t discover the credit card charge.
14. Refusing another mom’s invitation to a playdate because you can’t stand it that she can leave crystal on her coffee table and toilet paper on the rollers and her baby doesn’t bother any of it.
15. Feeling a twinge of delight when the above mom’s baby still isn’t saying any words and yours has a vocabulary of six!
16. Putting on the Baby Einstein DVD for the third time before lunch so you can apply some makeup because that cute landscaping guy is due to come by and cut your grass sometime this afternoon.
So let me get this straight…
This is a magazine that endeavors to help parents be better parents. Is that right? Yet it is encouraging parents to be the kind of people they would NEVER want their child to be.
My translation of the points above…
You should never feel guilty even though you…
12. Lie to your spouse so that you can go out and do what you want to do without him knowing.
13. Practice deception to cover up your lie.
14. Be unsociable toward someone of whom you are jealous so that you don’t have to face your jealousy.
15. Take delight in the developmental delays of a BABY because of your own jealousy toward the baby’s mother.
16. Indulge in lust and fantasy… even though you have a baby lying in the next room.
See what I mean?
Parenting magazine is anything but expert advice because it misses one of THE fundamentals of good parenting… the power and importance of a good example. That is what parents are first and foremost.
by 
I walked past the end table in our living room and there sat some copies of “Parenting Magazine” that someone gave my wife to pass on to our youngest daughter who is expecting her child, our third grandchild. And said to myself “I wonder what kind of “worldly advise” could be hiding between it’s covers. Because we don’t need the world’s advice, we need Godly Advice. And even then we will find ourselves weighing THAT advice to see if it lines up with our beliefs. And my search for a Parenting Magazine with a Christian perspective stems from seeing that “Bert and Ernie” might just have “come out of the closet”. I don’t know if this is true. But in light of what is going on in our country RIGHT NOW, that whoever is in charge of the message of these characters, they might want to show that they are inclusive, diverse or whatever. And we want our grandchildren to have Godly role models, so thus the search for God’s perspective.
I really hope I communicated that correctly !!! To have communicated my heart in love ! And I truly don’t hate gay people, I just don’t agree with them.
Then again, in response to an 2011 online petition calling for Bert and Ernie to tie the knot, the Sesame Workshop’s Facebook pagehttps://www.facebook.com/note.php?created&¬e_id=10150290119497855&id=13759741267:
“Bert and Ernie are best friends. They were created to teach preschoolers that people can be good friends with those who are very different from themselves. Even though they are identified as male characters and possess many human traits and characteristics…they remain puppets, and do not have a sexual orientation.”
This is from the article what I was referring to that can be found in “New Yorker Magazine”. It doesn’t deter me from introducing my grandchildren to “Christian Characters”.
steviedoug8 – You are right… we have to evaluate everything according to God’s word… that’s my main point. Just because the publishers have labeled their product “Parenting” doesn’t mean what it advocates is right. Christians should look more deeply than that.