10 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT RAISING A DIFFERENTLY WIRED CHILD

3: YOU ARE THE EXPERT IN YOUR CHILD Transcript

Depending on where you are on your journey with your child, you may be getting lots of advice. You may be in touch with experts who are sharing what they believe is going on based on their professional experience, and what they think is the best course of action moving forward. And I know that this can feel incredibly overwhelming, because suddenly we have other people, other people, other people with letters like PhD or MD behind their names, who often have very strong opinions about who our child is — this child that we have spent years and years caring for, nurturing, feeding, comforting, playing with, and loving with all our heart. And yet, we can be filled with doubt about what we know to be true about our child when we start getting information from other people who believe they know better than us. 

Now, I want to be clear — it’s really important to find and access people who can support us through this journey, and I’m actually going to talk about that on another day of this series — but it’s also really important to remember that you are the most important expert on who your child is. 

No one will ever know your child like you. And because we are the expert in our child, it’s important that we trust our instincts, and that we work to tune into our intuition and our inner wisdom when it comes to navigating this path. Because when we give our power away to other people, or we trust their advice against our own better judgment, we may make decisions regarding our kids’ education or therapy or other interventions that aren’t actually in alignment with what we believe and know to be true. 

And so it’s really important that you know that these words are true: You are the ultimate expert in your child. There is no thought leader or author or a parenting coach or therapist who knows better than you what’s right for your child. So trust yourself. And trust that you have what it takes to support the child that you are raising. 

And if you’re feeling overwhelmed with decisions you have to make or you’re having trouble accessing your intuition, go back to the first day of this series, and remember that you have time. You can take a pause. Slowing down and taking that pause can give you space to get clearer on your thinking and what feels right for you.