AIBU in thinking parents don't always know what is best for their children?

[crunchymint]

Increasingly I see comments on this site arguing that parents always know what is best for their children. But I can think of so many examples I know of loving parents who did not always know what is best for their child, and indeed sometimes professionals did know better. Sometimes parents do know what is best for their child; but as a blanket statement this strokes me as incredibly unhelpful and just plain wrong.

I think most people have the capacity to use the Idiom on a case by case bases.

I don’t disagree OP but historically there have been many instances where governments, institutions, religious orders, scientists, medical professionals, teachers, etc have “ known better” and the outcomes have been tragic or shocking.

Alan Yes that is true. It has led to some atrocities.

YANBU. There is no ‘always knows best’ for either parents or professionals. It’s case by case.

I sometimes wonder if the ‘parents know best’ brigade have any response though to cases where parents quite literally and observably do not know best. From parents who can’t see that their child is overweight and keep feeding them rubbish in huge quantities, right through to awful cases of unintentional neglect.

Parents are just people with their own views, someone deeply enmeshed in a religious cult will no doubt ‘know best’ in raising their children in the same way, the stories told by adults once they’ve grown up and escaped tell a different story. Some parents think it’s ‘best’ to pass on racist views. To always spoil their child rather than show them what it’s like sometimes to deal with not getting your own way.

So no, it’s obvious parents don’t always know best. People are fallible.

I fostered
Op you are correct
Many parents have no clue

It's one of those subjects that divides opinion. I think it's a scary concept for some, that they aren't in total control of their children.

However, Professionals make mistakes, as do Parents. The need to respect "The Family" is enshrined in Law, because generally, it works, as well as anything.

Well parents often know better than others what is best for their children by virtue of their intimate knowledge of their children but thus becomes less true in situations where professional who know children well such as teachers are concerned or where child and parent are not very close.

What happens when parents disagree about "what's right"? Which parent "knows best"?

It is wrong as a blanket statement but 'professionals always know best' would also be wrong.
What is important is that parents are listened to and not dismissed as just the parents.
Parents won't always know what is best for their child but they frequently know their child best.

I can only speak for myself but giving birth doesn't seem to have made me into a perfect person.

Well, there are degrees of it aren't there?

For example, I think vaccinating your kids is not a matter of 'parents knowing best', you vaccinate your damn child!

But 'letting your 9 year old walk half a mile to school' is a thing that I think might be fine for some kids and other people might think is not appropriate for any 9 year old.

It has its place. New parents are bombarded with opinions from every direction, and many do need to be reminded that knowing them best counts for something.

There’s a lot of nodding and smiling at professionals as a parent and it takes a while to perfect that b