Celebrate your instincts as a mum & #ParentOn

49,100,000 …that’s how many content articles there are on Google for ‘parenting advice’ - This website alone has much to answer for.

Yet what makes me more qualified than you to dish out parenting advice?

NOTHING.

I’d say I spend at least half my day either fretting about my kids, or else sat in my kitchen practicing deep breathing and fighting back the tears. Parenting is bloody hard work and I have as many of the answers as the next mum.

I’m never embarrassed to cry or hold my hands up. I’m infallible, I’m human, I’m a Mum. I’m also the first to offer a fellow mum a sympathetic smile in Tesco when I see her chasing her child up the chocolate aisle, child smothered in Cadbury’s with purple foil littering the floor in their wake. I don’t judge, I don’t smirk, I don’t raise my eyebrows. Next week, that child will be Dexter and it’ll be me that eventually sobs in the front seat of my battered old Ford Focus having finally loaded it full of carrier bags and children.

It’s too easy to flip open your laptop and panic-type “Toddler Parenticide” as your temples throb with stress. Yet too often we’ll do just that. That’s the modern way after-all. Google becomes your bessie mate for everything from identifying a rash, to telling you what the tooth fairy’s going rate is.

It works both ways. As much as we’ve come to rely on the internet for advice, it preys on you too.

Parents are bombarded with advice whether they seek it out or not. This starts from the very second you flip over your Clearblue stick. Pregnancy tracking sites and online baby clubs appear to have identified you before you’ve even broke the news to your husband, and in weeks, your inbox will be groaning under the strain of their emails.

And so it begins, a deafening dirge of parenting advice, both solicited and unsolicited, and often conflicting, that will muffle your own instincts and have you questioning every move you make. Did I wean her too soon? Should I have introduced a dummy? When should she be able to say “Mummy”? There’s unnecessary fear-mongering, opposing opinions and critical judgements - enough to make your head spin.

For 50 years, Tommee Tippee have made products that are smart and simple. Innovative and intuitive. Through this time they’ve helped parents parent the way they were made to. Because through all the glorious highs and smelly lows of parenting, you can only do what parents have done since time began.

This is why Tommee Tippee have now created a new global platform (www.parent-on.com) that unites, encourages and empowers parents to trust their instincts and share their ‘Parent On Moments’ using the hashtag #ParentOn.

“When Tommee Tippee started 50 years ago, there were no search engines for parents to turn to – only common sense and gut instinct. We’re using our new platform and campaign creative as a rallying cry to empower and unite parents all over the world in a positive, fun and inspiring way” Tommee Tippee Head of Marketing UK, Jonathan Brougham

Yet this campaign needs mums everywhere to run with it and make it a success. They need us to call out some of the myths that the internet has given the vaguest whiff of credibility to. My favourites include:

BRIBERY IS BAD

(Erm bribery is entirely necessary if you want to survive the early years with your sanity intact)

BREASTFEEDING IS ESSENTIAL FOR BONDING WITH BABY

(Nope a cuddle is far more important)

YOU SHOULD NEVER ARGUE IN FRONT OF THE KIDS

(My name isn’t Angeline Jolie, and He is most definitely not Brad Pitt. Adding a new child here and there to my household will result in the odd fracas)

They also need us to share moments where our parenting instincts have paid off, where we’ve soldiered through an episode that ought to have led to us being committed, where we’ve stumbled upon the ultimate distraction technique to stop a tantrum in its tracks.

If goodwill isn’t enough to get you sharing your #ParentOn achievements, failures and hacks - then perhaps bribery will. Simply by writing up your experience you could win one of 5x Tommee Tippee Complete Starter Kits (RRP £120) to either keep or giveaway on your blog!

So come on, #ParentOn with Tommee Tippee and let’s show this internet thing that we’ve got it covered on our own!