A Sydney Paediatrician has shared a message to celeb parents who portray unrealistic lifestyles.

Dr Scott Dunlop shared on his Facebook page, Kids Consult, how he rarely dares to express opinion on this page, but was driven to do so out of exasperation.

He wrote: “One of the key skills I try to impart to new parents in particular is to back their own judgment, not listen to what most other people are saying, strive to be confident and maintain a normal life balance between parent/husband/wife/individual. Kids Consult is part of my attempt to impart knowledge and educate parents in confident parenting.

“This is because everywhere you turn, there is someone telling parents how to be, what to do, when to do it, etc etc.

“I’m sure many of you know the “My Day on a Plate” column in one of the Sunday papers. I’m not here to criticise the nutritional advice offered, although it could be said that when you’re sleep-deprived, irritated and frustrated by life (read: kids) the last thing you really care about is the protein and fibre content of your lunch.

“What irks me the most is so-called “celebrities”, especially the mummy celebrities (and there are many) waxing lyrical about their perfectly curated diet of acai, soba noodles and liquorice tea. Really??? The mums I see in the real world don’t have the time or the energy (or the interest) in fabricating such perfect household lives when in fact life is pretty chaotic.

“The mums I see would love to sit down at the end of the day with a bottle of red and a block of chocolate, some peace and quiet, and a minute or two to themselves. It’s highly unlikely they’re preparing their own organic lunch for the next day, and equally unlikely they have even thought that far ahead.

“But is this really a problem? Should we all be aspiring to be treating our bodies as temples and our lives as a little school project that scores full marks? If you want to do that, good on you. But the thing that worries and amazes me is that the celebrity mummy is by definition female, and completely undermines their fellow mothers’ own confidence by continually sprouting how perfect their own life is.

“So on the one hand, I’m trying to tell parents to be confident and back their own judgment most of the time, yet they have to do that in the face of fake information that can only undermine the very confidence I’m trying to instil.

“So if the B-graders kept their publicity-seeking “my life is so perfect” lives to themselves, the real mums’ life would be so much better for it.

Dr Scott Dunlop
Consultant Paediatrician

This post originally appeared on Kids Consult, Facebook page

We recently shared how Doctors are becoming so concerned by mummy bloggers and the products/messages they promote, that they are now vetting the websites prospective parents view. Read more on that here.

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