Mother's Intuition

I teach special education, and each year the kids have the vocabulary word "intuition". When discussing this word with my students, I used "mother's intuition" as an example.  It was always the first thing that came to mind.  I understood the definition of mother's intuition. What I didn't understand was the value it held.

As a parent, there are so many decisions to be made: Breastfeed or use formula; Cry it out or don't cry it out; Sleep in parent's room or sleep separately; Vaccinate or don't vaccinate; Hold often or don't hold too much - the list goes on. And when you love someone so much, it makes these decisions that much harder. Before, when I made decisions, it primarily affected me. But now I have my child counting on me to make the "right" decisions.

When I was pregnant, so many people reminded me, "There is no baby manual for her." And they were right. There is not one book that has all the answers. No baby manual. Yes, there are hundreds of baby books, but they all focus on completely different problems giving completely different solutions.

So with no baby manual, I was forced to learn quickly. If my intuition says something, I follow it. Nine times out of ten it is right. Every time I ignore it; I always regret it later.  And with all the decisions required in raising a child, you have no choice but to follow your intuition.

So maybe some would suggest I do things a different way, but I can't worry about that. I have to do what I feel is right, and maybe sometimes that is the best answer of all.