Hey everyone, welcome back to My Weird Prompts. I am Corn, and I have to say, that audio from Daniel really hit home today. Hearing little Ezra in the background, making those happy sounds while simultaneously trying to eat a fiber optic transceiver... it is a perfect snapshot of the beautiful, terrifying chaos that is early parenthood.
It really is. I am Herman Poppleberry, and I have been thinking about this ever since Daniel sent that voice note over. It is amazing how fast Ezra is growing. Six months already! But Daniel brings up such a profound point. We are sitting here in Jerusalem, a place with a very high birth rate and a lot of emphasis on family, yet the path to actually learning how to keep a tiny human alive is surprisingly fragmented.
It is the driving license analogy that really got me. Daniel mentioned that in Israel, the requirements to get behind the wheel are incredibly rigorous. You have the theory test, the minimum number of lessons, the internal exam, the external exam... it is a whole ordeal. And yet, when you bring a baby home from the hospital, they just kind of wave you off and say, good luck, try not to break it.
Exactly. And let us be clear, we are not suggesting a parenting license. That is a philosophical and ethical minefield that leads straight to a very dark place. But the question of why the education isn't a standard, subsidized part of the healthcare package is a fascinating one. We have subsidized vaccines, we have subsidized prenatal scans, but the actual skill set of parenting? That is often left to the individual to figure out through trial and error or, as Daniel found, the overwhelming avalanche of the internet.
So, let's dig into that first part of his question. Why isn't this standard? Why isn't a first aid and safety course for parents as fundamental as a standard check up?
I think there are a few layers to this, Corn. The first is historical and cultural. For the vast majority of human history, parenting education was communal. You lived in multi generational households or close knit villages. You saw your sisters, your cousins, and your neighbors raising children long before you had your own. The education was baked into the social fabric.
Right, the village. But we have largely traded the village for the nuclear family and the individual apartment.
Precisely. And the healthcare systems we have today are largely built on a medical model that focuses on pathology. Doctors are trained to fix things that are broken. They are great at diagnosing an ear infection or a heart murmur. But parenting education falls under the umbrella of wellness and social support, which has historically been underfunded compared to acute medical care. There is this unspoken assumption that parenting is natural or instinctual.
That is a huge misconception right there. The idea that because we are biologically capable of reproducing, we are biologically programmed with the knowledge of how to perform infant cardiopulmonary resuscitation or how to identify a safe sleeping environment.
It is a dangerous myth. There is a huge difference between the biological drive to care for an infant and the technical knowledge required for modern safety. For example, look at the history of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome guidelines. For decades, the advice was to put babies on their stomachs to sleep. It wasn't until the Back to Sleep campaign in the early nineteen nineties that we realized that putting babies on their backs reduced the risk by over fifty percent.
And that is still evolving. I was reading that even though we have known this for thirty years, the National Institutes of Health actually announced last year, in April twenty twenty-five, that they were stepping away from leading that specific campaign. It is being left to non-profits now, which makes the messaging even more fragmented for parents like Daniel.
It is a worrying trend, especially since a study in J-A-M-A Pediatrics just showed that sleep-related infant deaths actually jumped by nearly twelve percent recently. That isn't instinctual; that is data driven safety that requires constant, clear communication.
And that leads into the second reason for the lack of subsidization: the cost versus the perceived return on investment for the state. Governments and insurance companies are often very short sighted. They look at the immediate cost of providing a four hour first aid workshop for every new parent and see a massive line item.
But they are missing the second order effects. If you train parents to recognize the early signs of respiratory distress or how to handle a choking incident, you are potentially saving millions in emergency room visits and intensive care costs. Not to mention the lifelong societal impact of preventing a tragic accident. The M-I-H-O-P-E report released in late twenty twenty-five confirmed that for every dollar spent on these early support programs, the long-term return to society is estimated to be between two and six dollars. Some studies even put it as high as twelve dollars when you factor in future earnings and reduced social spending.
That is a massive return. So why is the needle moving so slowly?
I think liability is another factor, especially in places like the United States, though it is less of an issue here in Israel or in the United Kingdom. If a government body or a public health service mandates a specific parenting course, they are, in a sense, taking on a level of responsibility for the outcomes. If something goes wrong despite the training, there is a fear of litigation. It is much easier for the system to say, we provided the medical care, the rest is up to you.
It is interesting that Daniel mentioned his sister in London and the National Health Service. The United Kingdom actually does have some of this integrated through health visitors. After you have a baby, a nurse or a trained professional actually comes to your house several times to check on the baby and the mother, and to offer basic safety and feeding advice.
Yes, and in Israel, we have the Tipat Chalav clinics, which literally translates to a drop of milk. These are family health centers where you go for regular growth checks and vaccinations. They have actually been modernizing lately. They launched a new app called Tip Up in twenty twenty-five that lets parents track growth and access professional articles directly. They even just added a free dental cavity prevention service for infants starting this year. But even with these updates, the clinics are often very time constrained. You might get ten minutes with a nurse who is trying to see thirty babies that day. It isn't always the deep dive into safety and first aid that parents are craving.
And that brings us to the second part of Daniel's prompt. When the system fails to provide that clear, subsidized path, parents turn to the internet. And as Daniel described, that can be a nightmare. He called it an avalanche of information.
The YouTube problem is real. The issue isn't a lack of information; it is a lack of curation and the presence of conflicting incentives. If you are a content creator on YouTube or TikTok, your goal is views and engagement. Often, the most sensational or fear based content gets the most traction. You end up with these hyper clinical, eighties style videos that feel dated and scary, or you get the influencers who are more concerned with their aesthetic than with evidence based safety protocols.
I have seen those. You search for how to help a choking baby and you have to sit through a thirty second ad for a V-P-N, followed by a three minute intro about the creator's morning routine, before you get to the actual life saving information. In a real emergency, that is worse than useless. It is dangerous.
And then you have the S-E-O problem. Search Engine Optimization. The articles that show up at the top of Google are often there because they have the right keywords, not necessarily because they have the most accurate medical information. This creates what psychologists call the paradox of choice. When you are presented with too much conflicting information, you either become paralyzed with anxiety or you just pick the one that sounds the most convincing, regardless of its validity.
So let us talk about the alternatives. If a first time parent like Daniel is looking for reliable, verified information without the digital noise, where should they actually go?
The first place I always recommend is the official bodies of pediatrics. In the United States, that is the American Academy of Pediatrics, or A-A-P, which runs a website called Healthychildren dot org. It is an incredible resource. Everything on there is vetted by actual pediatricians. It is evidence based, it is updated regularly, and it covers everything from car seat safety to how to handle a fever.
Does Israel have an equivalent?
We do. The Israel Pediatric Association has resources, and as I mentioned, the Ministry of Health has been beefing up the digital library on the Tip Up app. But you have to be proactive. It isn't always pushed to you.
What about the physical, hands on training? Daniel mentioned he and his wife did a first aid course that they organized themselves. That seems like a high barrier for a lot of people.
It is. But there are organizations like Magen David Adom here in Israel, or the Red Cross and Saint John Ambulance internationally. They offer specific infant and child first aid courses. The key is to look for courses that are certified. You want a course where you are actually practicing on a mannequin. You can't learn how to do back blows for a choking infant just by watching a video. You need to feel the pressure and the rhythm.
I think there is also a great value in community led, but professionally moderated groups. There are organizations that facilitate new parent groups where a professional, like a lactation consultant or a pediatric nurse, leads the discussion. It provides that social support Daniel was missing, while still keeping the information grounded in reality.
That is such a good point. We actually touched on some of the psychological aspects of this back in episode two hundred twenty seven, when we talked about parenting in the age of A-I. One of the things we discussed was how technology can either isolate us or connect us. If you are using an app to track every single diaper change and milliliter of milk, it can actually increase your anxiety because you are constantly looking for patterns that might not be there. But if you use technology to find a local group of parents who are meeting in a park with a trained facilitator, that is a game changer.
It is about moving from data to wisdom. The internet gives you data, but the community and the professionals give you wisdom.
Exactly. And I think we need to push for a cultural shift where we view this education not as an optional extra, but as a basic right of every child to have a safe environment. Imagine if, as part of the standard discharge process from a hospital after birth, every parent was given a voucher for a subsidized, local, hands on first aid and safety course.
That would be incredible. It would normalize the idea that learning how to be a parent is a process, not an instinct. It would also help bridge the socio economic gap. Right now, the parents who have the time and the money are the ones taking these private courses. The parents who are working multiple jobs or struggling financially are the ones most likely to rely on whatever free, unverified content they can find on social media.
And those are often the families at the highest risk for preventable accidents. It is a classic example of how a lack of public investment exacerbates inequality.
So, let's get practical for a minute. If someone is listening to this and they are expecting their first child, or they have a little one like Ezra at home, what is the step by step approach to building a reliable knowledge base?
Step one: Start with the heavy hitters. Bookmark Healthychildren dot org or your local equivalent, like the N-H-S website in the U-K. Make these your first stop for any medical or safety question. If the information isn't there, be very skeptical of where you find it elsewhere.
Step two: Sign up for a physical first aid course. Do not rely on YouTube. Find a local Red Cross, Magen David Adom, or hospital led workshop. Make sure it includes infant C-P-R and choking protocols. It is a four hour investment that could save a life.
Step three: Vet your social media. If you are going to follow parenting influencers, look at their credentials. Are they a doctor? A nurse? A certified safety expert? If they are just a parent with a nice camera and a lot of opinions, take everything they say with a massive grain of salt.
Step four: Find your local community health resources. Whether it is Tipat Chalav here or a community center elsewhere, find out what free or low cost services are available. Often, there are lactation consultants or sleep specialists who run group sessions that are much more affordable than private consultations.
And step five: Trust your pediatrician, but also be an advocate for yourself. If you have a safety concern, ask them. Don't be afraid to take up their time. That is what they are there for.
I want to go back to something you mentioned earlier, Herman. The idea of the Finnish Baby Box. For those who don't know, for decades, the government of Finland has given every expectant mother a box filled with essentials: clothes, bedding, toys. And the box itself has a small mattress at the bottom so it can be used as the baby's first bed.
It is a brilliant piece of public policy. But the most important part isn't the stuff in the box. To get the box, the mother has to visit a doctor or a municipal prenatal clinic before her fourth month of pregnancy.
Right! It is an incentive for engagement with the healthcare system. The box is the hook, but the real value is the medical checkups and the education that come with it. And it is spreading! Scotland has a similar program now. By the end of twenty twenty-five, they had delivered over three hundred sixty thousand boxes. It is estimated to save families about four hundred pounds per child, but more importantly, it ensures every family has a safe sleep space.
And look at the results. Finland has one of the lowest infant mortality rates in the world. It is a direct refutation of the idea that we should just leave parents to figure it out on their own.
So why hasn't this model been adopted more widely? Is it just the cost?
It is cost, but it is also a different philosophy of the role of the state. In many countries, there is a strong resistance to anything that looks like the government telling people how to live their private lives. There is this idea of the home as a private sanctuary. But when it comes to basic safety and health, I think that argument falls apart. We don't think it is an overreach for the government to tell us we have to wear seatbelts or that we can't smoke in public buildings. Why is providing life saving education seen as a burden rather than a service?
It is a strange double standard. We have no problem with the state regulating the safety of the toys we buy or the formula we feed our infants, but the moment we talk about educating the people who are actually using those things, it becomes controversial.
I think there is also a bit of a gendered component here, if we are being honest. Parenting has historically been viewed as women's work, and therefore, it has been undervalued and seen as something that women just know how to do. By making it a formal, educated skill set, we are acknowledging the immense labor and complexity involved in raising a child.
That is a deep insight. It is about professionalizing the most important job in the world.
Exactly. And when you professionalize something, you fund it. You create standards. You create paths for success.
I am curious about your thoughts on the role of technology going forward. We talked about the downsides of the YouTube avalanche, but do you see a world where A-I or more curated digital platforms could actually solve this problem?
I do, but it requires a shift in how we build those tools. Imagine an A-I assistant that is trained exclusively on the database of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the latest peer reviewed research. Instead of a general search that gives you five million results, you get a direct, evidence based answer that is tailored to your child's age and development.
Like a digital Tipat Chalav nurse in your pocket.
Precisely. But the key is the data source. We have to move away from the ad driven, engagement based model of the current internet. We need public interest technology that is funded by healthcare systems, not by selling our data or showing us ads for strollers.
It is interesting because we are seeing some movement in this direction. There are apps now that are being prescribed by doctors for things like postpartum depression or managing chronic conditions. Why not a prescribed parenting education app that is verified and subsidized?
That would be a fantastic start. But again, it can't replace the human element. You still need that physical course to practice the Heimlich maneuver. You still need the pediatrician to look your baby in the eye and make sure they are hitting their milestones. Technology should be the scaffold, not the entire building.
I think about Daniel and Ezra again. Daniel is a smart guy. He is tech savvy. He is a researcher. If he is feeling overwhelmed by the avalanche of information, imagine how someone feels who doesn't have those skills or resources.
It is a massive failure of our current system. We are essentially gaslighting parents. We tell them that their child's safety is the most important thing in the world, and then we give them no clear, reliable, and affordable way to learn how to ensure that safety. We leave them to navigate a digital wilderness filled with misinformation and fear.
And then we wonder why parental anxiety and burnout are at all time highs.
Exactly. The mental health implications are enormous. If you are constantly second guessing yourself because you read three different things on three different websites, you are living in a state of perpetual stress. That stress impacts your ability to bond with your child, it impacts your relationship with your partner, and it impacts your overall well being.
So, the argument for subsidized parenting education isn't just about physical safety; it is about mental health and societal stability.
It really is. It is a foundational investment in the future. If we want a healthy, resilient society, we have to start by supporting the people who are raising the next generation.
You know, we have done over four hundred episodes of this show, and we often talk about these complex technical or philosophical problems. But this one feels so fundamentally human. It is about the gap between our biological reality and our modern technological environment.
It is the ultimate weird prompt, isn't it? Why do we make it so hard to do the most natural thing in the world?
It really is. And I think the answer lies in that historical shift we talked about. We lost the village, and we haven't quite figured out how to build a digital or institutional replacement that actually works.
But we are starting to see the blueprints. Whether it is the Finnish model, the N-H-S health visitors, or the emerging field of digital therapeutics, the pieces are there. We just need the political and social will to put them together and fund them.
I hope Daniel and his wife keep up that proactive approach. It is inspiring to see them taking it into their own hands, even if they shouldn't have to. And little Ezra... well, if he is already interested in fiber optics, he is definitely a Poppleberry in the making.
He is going to be a genius, that one. Just keep the transceivers out of his mouth for a few more years.
Good advice. Well, I think we have covered a lot of ground today. From the driving license analogy to the economic return on investment, to the dangers of S-E-O driven parenting advice.
It has been a deep dive, for sure. And I think the main takeaway is that parenting education is a vital public health issue that deserves to be treated with the same seriousness as any other medical intervention.
Absolutely. And to all the parents out there listening, if you are feeling overwhelmed, you are not alone. The system is currently designed to be overwhelming. Take it one step at a time, stick to the verified sources, and don't be afraid to ask for help.
Well said, Corn. And hey, if you have been enjoying My Weird Prompts and you find these discussions helpful, we would really appreciate it if you could leave us a review on your podcast app or on Spotify. It genuinely helps other people find the show and join the conversation.
It really does. We love hearing from you, and your feedback keeps us going. You can find us on Spotify and at our website, myweirdprompts dot com. We have a full archive of all four hundred twenty nine episodes there, including the one we mentioned today about parenting in the age of A-I.
And thank you to Daniel for sending in such a thoughtful and timely prompt. It is always a pleasure to discuss these things, especially when it involves a new member of the household.
Definitely. We will have to get Ezra on the show for a guest spot once he starts talking.
I can't wait to hear his take on the state of the fiber optic industry.
Me too. Alright everyone, thanks for listening to My Weird Prompts. I am Corn.
And I am Herman Poppleberry.
Until next time, stay curious and stay safe.
Take care, everyone.
