Doing it all wrong

It amazes me how many people are "experts" at parenting.  When it comes to parenting the only thing I am an expert in is messing up.  I often wonder if I should be saving for college or saving for therapy.  But I figure that even though I am screwing things up on a regular basis that for the most part things are good if we both make it through the day alive.

Before Ladybug even came home I was being told I was raising her all wrong.  I didn't even have her yet and I was screwing up.  Practice makes perfect...I guess. 

Some of the things I have messed up with (world according to others):
I didn't get her a crib.  She was almost 2 years old at homecoming.
I wasn't planning on taking a stroller with me to Ethiopia to pick her up.  
I planned on co-sleeping.  She would get too attached.
I went back to work when she had been home for only 5 weeks. I would be faced with attachment issues later (Oops -- that one might be right).

And the list goes on and on and on and ...

I don't understand why people feel so qualified to tell me (the generic me) that what I am doing is wrong.  It might be.  But is there only one way to raise a child?  Is this a black and white science?  Or an art made of various forms of gray?  Why do you feel comfortable giving me definitive, absolute parenting advice when you don't really know me or my child? 

I just think maybe we (as parents) need to find a way to be supportive of other parents without being experts.

Just saying...

Mean Mama