Expectations
12 articles
When Night Wakings Are Considered Normal
Parents are frequently told that infants "should" be sleeping through the night by six months, or three months, or even earlier. These expectations ar...
Age-Appropriate Games: Why Not to Rush Development
The market for "advanced" toddler products is enormous, and most of it sells one promise: your child can be ahead. They can read at three, do basic ar...
Why Traditional Time Management Doesn't Work With Kids
You bought the planner. You read the book. You did the morning routine. Two days in, the toddler had a cold, your nap window collapsed, and you ate th...
When to Reevaluate the Expectations You Set for Yourself
The expectations you carry for yourself as a parent did not arrive by accident. They were assembled — from your own childhood, from a decade of curate...
Why Perfect Parenting Doesn't Exist
The idea that perfect parenting is a thing you can fail at quietly does more harm than almost any actual parenting mistake. It produces guilt for ordi...
The Pressure to Be a Perfect Parent
Always patient. Always present. Always knowing what to do. Always with a snack in the bag. The list of things a "good" parent is supposed to be never...
Communicating Expectations Clearly to Young Children
A 3-year-old hears about 8 to 12 words per sentence before their working memory starts shedding the older ones. So "be good at the store" doesn't just...
How to Avoid Conditional Love Without Losing Expectations
Conditional love almost never sounds like "I'll love you if you behave." It sounds like silent treatment after a tantrum, a colder voice when grades d...
Why Balance Is Not About Equal Time Distribution
The phrase "work-life balance" set parents up to feel like they were failing at math. Eight hours work, eight hours family, eight hours sleep — that a...
How Expectations of Motherhood Shape a Woman's Emotional State
The version of motherhood you absorbed before becoming a mother — from movies, your own mother, social media, friends who only posted highlights — alm...
How Adult Expectations Influence Child Behavior
The expectations you carry about your child's behaviour are doing more work than they appear to. When a parent expects a 14-month-old to share willing...
Why There Is No Universally 'Perfect' Daycare
The daycare your friend raves about may be wrong for your kid. That sentence catches most parents off guard, because the search starts the same way ev...