Parenting involves numerous skills differing greatly in their complexity. The parenting experience can also vary immensely, requiring different skills to get through a cesarean section versus natural labor, breastfeeding versus exclusively bottle-feeding, and authoritative versus authoritarian parenting.Â
Many childbirth classes cover most of what you need to know in a day or weekend, while others run five to ten weeks. Lactation classes also can range from a day (most typically) to several weeks in length. Meanwhile, most infant and pediatric CPR classes teach you what you need to know over the course of a few hours. Whether you wish to supplement these classes with books or videos is entirely up to you, but as with learning any skill, many factors affect the length of time it will take you to learn parenting. Read on for more information about how to learn parenting and tips to help you speed the process along.
What is Parenting?
Parenting is the raising and nurturing of a child. Biological and adoptive mothers and fathers are the most common individuals to require parenting skills in their daily lives, but grandparents, nannies, and others involved in caretaking will also need similar knowledge during their time with the child. While parenting encompasses all aspects of caring for a child through their daily life, individual skills such as childbirth, diapering, and keeping the child safe online are specific to one or a few stages of child development. Parenting skills such as first aid, soothing, and healthy communication are useful for every family, but your choice of parenting style will require determining some of the strengths and abilities you’ll need to build to meet your goals in raising your child.
Benefits of Learning Parenting?
An investment in your parenting education is an investment in your family, relationships, child’s future, and ability to be confident and present in your daily life. Classes like NYC-based Birth Day Presence’s Finding Your Core & Pelvic Floor, Pre and Postpartum allow new moms and other birth parents to keep their bodies strong and healthy through pregnancy, birth, and the postpartum period.
Studies of mothers who have taken childbirth classes report significantly increased confidence in their abilities to give birth and communicate with their caregivers in the hospital. Of course, parenting classes cover countless topics beyond childbirth, including the virtual class hosted by the Penumbra Foundation, Little Sips of Selfhood: Professional Practice. Designed for creative parents at any stage of their journey, this class offers parents a way to reconnect with themselves, nourishing their personhood and creativity so they don’t lose themselves in parenthood.
Average Time It Takes to Learn Parenting
Parenting is a continuous learning process with no fixed timeline, so it’s virtually impossible to name the average time it takes to master. You might say it takes a lifetime, though you can learn some specific skills in a fixed amount of time.
Childbirth is one aspect of parenting with a set span of learning time, and many expecting parents study labor and delivery throughout their pregnancy. Childbirth classes range from a day to ten weeks, with HypnoBirthing classes, like Sakinah Birth’s HypnoBirthing (Online), including five two-and-a-half hour sessions.
Infant first aid and CPR classes are typically one-day affairs, with most—including Infant Safety & CPR, offered by Birth Day Presence in NYC—teaching you all the basic skills you need to know within two hours.
Other Factors
While learning parenting is a lifestyle, several factors can affect how long it takes a person to feel confident in their daily life as a parent or to master individual skills involved in the journey.
Prior Experience
Your prior experience as a caretaker of children can determine how long it takes for you to learn parenting skills. Previous experience as a babysitter, nanny, teacher, or even as an older sibling can give you a considerable head start in your confidence in raising your own child. If you’ve ever worked in a childcare career, you may even have first aid and CPR certification and already know many other foundational skills of parenting.
Support Network
It takes a village to raise a child, and a strong village can considerably increase the speed of your parenting learning journey. A support network including a partner, family, and friends is one of your greatest assets when learning everything from childbirth to being a respectful parent of an adult child. When you take a childbirth or parenting class, you strengthen that community even further by adding the mentorship of a knowledgeable instructor to your support network.
Child’s Needs and Personality
Every child is different, and learning to parent some will be easier than others. Some infants take to breastfeeding easily, while others have tongue ties that require surgery or, at the very least, a lactation consultant to coach you through the process. Others are anxious sleepers, but the right parenting classes can help you learn to meet your child’s unique needs.
Parenting Resources and Education
Your access to parenting education is another important element in estimating the time it will take you to learn parenting. You can choose from many resources, including books, videos, coaching and consultations, and in-person and online classes. When guided instruction is accessible, most find it one of the fastest ways to learn any skill.
What to Know Before Learning ParentingÂ
You can learn any parenting skill with time, patients, and dedication, but some are harder to master than others. Sometimes it’s not the actual difficulty level but the mysterious nature of unfamiliar skills like childbirth and lactation that make them so challenging to learn. Also, many elements of maintaining the health and safety of a child are significantly high-stake skills, which means you’ll want to be careful and intentional in your study of childbirth, feeding, first aid and CPR, and safe sleep.
Learning childbirth and other parenting skills requires few, if any, prerequisites. The primary things you need to know as you consider taking a parenting class are your personal values and goals when it comes to birthing and raising your child.
Luckily, learning parenting requires few materials beyond those needed for your specific classes. In-person classes typically provide these, while online courses are more likely to require you to purchase them yourself. These may be anything from a birth ball to yoga blocks to curriculum materials like books or audio files. The class price will usually be the most you spend when it comes to learning most aspects of parenting, though some will require ongoing purchases to apply in your daily life such as baby formula and diapers.
Can I Learn Parenting for Free / on My Own?
You can learn some parenting skills for free via library books and YouTube videos, but a formal class will help you master virtually any aspect of parenting faster and more thoroughly. Medical studies show that childbirth classes help birthing parents by reducing their anxiety, helping them feel more empowered throughout the laboring process, and reducing their reliance on pain medication and medical interventions. While some can learn to feed, bathe, diaper, and swaddle their newborn on their own, many feel far more confident—especially when it comes to keeping their baby safe—when they incorporate a class like Lamaze International—DC Chapter’s Infant Care + CPR into their preparation for parenting.
Key Takeaways
- Parenting is raising and nurturing a child throughout their life and requires mastering many different skills throughout the journey.
- Learning to parent is a lifelong endeavor, but factors like a support network and classes can speed up your mastery of individual skills.
- It’s helpful to have a good idea of your values and goals in parenting before deciding on the classes and other resources you’ll use to learn the skills.
- You can learn many parenting skills on your own through books and videos, but formal guidance is helpful, especially in areas like childbirth, infant care, and CPR.
- CourseHorse’s catalog of in-person and online classes can jump-start your parenting journey, or you can sign up for their private group workshops to learn at your own pace.