No matter how much you read and educate yourself about health whether it’s nutrition, medical modalities, parenting styles, education choices, detoxing, vaccines, etc. there always seems to be more to learn. It is a steep learning curve and a lot of people are put off by it. It’s a lot easier to believe what you are being told by “authorities” and not take into consideration the amount of resources that go into making sure certain stuff is mainstream and other stuff really has to be searched for. As holistic parents, this is an all too common theme no matter what you are researching.
With this comes a certain amount of being second guessed by others because they believe they are very educated and your views and knowledge have never even entered their radar. Are they not educated? Are you more educated? Really, it would be nice to say that you are “more” educated wouldn’t it? Some of the time that is the case, some of the time it’s not. Just because your knowledge base is different doesn’t mean that they aren’t educated. There are a lot of mainstream parents that do a lot of mainstream research. Mainstream is the key word here. As holistic parents the tendency is to look over, under and around that mainstream research, to peal away the layers. We do this because something happened in our journey to this point that changed our perspective. Perhaps made us a little untrusting of the “professionals” as a homogenous group. Perhaps we just aren’t comfortable putting our children’s (our families) health and welfare into someone else’s hands without doing our research first. This is all okay. Everyone has their individual journey’s and their individual triggers that bring them to the point they are at. Mainstream research is still research even if at times you are left wondering how, logically, a friend or loved one could believe something that you have found to be wholly untrue or disproved (or something that is obviously being written/reported by those with a serious conflict of interest).
The Webster Dictionary defines education as: “the action or process of educating or of being educated; also : a stage of such a process.” It is all part of the process. Never stop educating yourself and if a friend or loved one is on the complete other end of the spectrum from you, approach it with an open mind. Many of us as holistic parents advocate constantly for choice. Choice to feed your child what you know to be the healthiest and most nourishing foods. Choice to educate your child in the way that you see fit. Choice to vaccinate or not. Choice to keep company with those that have similar experiences or are on a similar path.
You are educated, you are making your choices from a place of love and compassion and with the best resources you have found up to this point. Your friend who has read all the mainstream studies is also educated and making those same choices using their resources. As naive as it may seem, it is their choice and their path. Their choices are being made from the same place yours are, love and compassion. Perhaps if they are open to it you can introduce them to being a holistic parent. If they aren’t open to it that doesn’t mean they are any less educated and if this friend or loved one is important to you, tread lightly (a friendly suggestion from someone that can be a bit too passionate sometimes).
As holistic parents we advocate and live for choice. We are educated and constantly learning more. That’s why we are here, to learn, make the choices that work best for our families and develop a network of like-minded individuals locally. Holistic Mom’s Network facilitates this. Hopefully we will see you at our September 21st meeting where there will be yet another opportunity to learn something that may make you better equip to make choices that resonate with you and it may also give you new tools to reach out to others if the opportunity presents itself.
You are at a stage of the process of educating, or being educated. Life is a lesson.
Be Well.
Annapolis Holistic Moms Network 