I really, honestly do not care how you raise your kids

I was watching a repeat of one of my favorite families on TV.  The Duggars.  They were being asked questions about how they view the response of the public in regards to how they raise their family.  Their answers were all done in a way to defend the decisions they had made and would make in the future.  All I could think was "who cares."  Seriously, who really cares?

I guess it stems from the point that I don't care how people chose to raise their kids.  At the end of the day, what matters is that you love them, care for them and do what you feel is best.  And really, each child and each household is so incredibly different that there is no universal right answer on anything.  Years and decades from now, the only parenting decisions I have to answer to are the ones made in regards to my own children. 

In the land of message boards there are always the same debates, you'll find them on face book, myspace (is that even still up?) and anywhere you get together 3 or more moms.  In the end of it all I really don't care if you chose to formula feed, breastfeed, nurse in public, nurse in a bathroom, put huge hair bows on your daughter's head, put your boy in pink polos, spank to discipline, let them watch TV, ban all high fructose corn syrup, never discipline, give your kids soda, only allow organic foods, do pageants, ban make-up forever, put your kid in dance, enroll your kid in chicken roping lessons, let them sleep until noon every day, give them a chore list at 3, only buy clothes from Walmart, insist your kid wear designer labels, always let them walk around filthy or never let them get dirty and on and on and on.  None of those decisions are going to anyway affect me or my family, and if they did, then there is a whole different story going on lol.

One of the biggest lessons I learned through Kaitlyn was never say never.  Dusty still teases me because I said Kaitlyn would be a vegetarian and not know what McDonald's was until she was 10.  HAHA, that is so not how it happened.  But, you know what, she's fine.  She's healthy, she's active, she's in great shape!  The next was to be flexible.  What worked great 6 months ago may not work so great now and the decisions I make today might be totally different than what I chose to do next year.  And I feel absolutely no need to defend the decisions I make to anyone.  If someone wants to try and decide that their way is better, please go out have a kid and take a whack at it ;)  You might be right and you might not be. 

So people, leave the Duggars alone, ignore the parenting decisions of your neighbors just because you don't agree with it or wouldn't do it that way and enjoy your kids.  Before you know it, they'll be parents and we'll be questioning every single parenting decision they make ;)