Once upon a time, the home was the classroom, doctor’s office, church school, and primary gathering place. Now, too often, it is none of those things. There are many factors that play into this societal shift: the misinterpreted “village” mentality, the disbursement of the family with the Industrial Revolution, and the lie that we are unable and incapable without governmental and “expert” input and guidance. We’re calling BS — Mama, trust yourself!

This is not to discount the good work done by non-profits, the policies that have helped struggling families, or the medical advances that have improved life overall. Instead, we’d like to call out the state of mind that tells people, specifically moms, that they are wrong. That she should ignore her instincts, research, and generational familial advice to bow to that of people who know nothing about her and her family—and care nothing for them.

Gaslit Motherhood

We’ve heard from many mothers who say that their doctors swear up and down that babies do not get fevers from teething. But what mother on Earth has not experienced that very thing? She’s not insane. You’re not insane. Trust yourself.

Mothers of days gone by knew that fevers break in the middle of the night, the herbs that soothed coughs, the prayers that steadied a trembling heart, the hug and simple words of wisdom that could steady an unsure mind. Fathers taught arithmetic at the kitchen table, discipline through work and self-control, fixing what’s broken, and the meaning of honesty around the supper table. Grandparents passed down remedies, recipes, and rituals with a quiet authority that came from a life well-lived.

This did not magically disappear, we were told to get rid of it. But it’s still there. In your heart, soul, and mind you have a God-given intuition and an intellect that allows you to learn. Somewhere along the way, we were told we weren’t qualified, and we believed them. We were told to ignore our deepest instincts, we were gaslit into believing what we felt and knew was wrong.

The Quiet Hand-Off

Isn’t it funny when people say they aren’t smart enough to homeschool their kids and then send their children to the exact same school they went to? Let’s break that cycle. You aren’t too dumb, someone told you public school was the only (and best) way. We handed our children over to standardized tests, substituting a mother and father’s discernment, wisdom, knowledge, and talents. We forgot that curiosity is born at home, in the lap of a parent who reads aloud, not in the glow of a government-issued screen.

We handed their health to pharmaceuticals and growth charts. Told to blindly trust that a number on paper or a prescription slip mattered more than the intuition in a mother’s gut. And scolded and punished if we asked questions or decided not to participate. We ignored the generations before us who nursed fevers with broth, tended wounds with herbs, and understood that healing doesn’t always come in a capsule, but often springs from a state of mind, lifestyle, and the presence of someone who truly cares..

We handed our food to corporations and drive-thru windows. Our health now at the mercy of convenience, our connection to food and family was severed. We traded gardens and cellars for plastic containers, microwaves, and frozen aisles. We slowly forgot that food once carried the memory of seasons, family recipes, culture, and hands that sowed, harvested, and kneaded.

Most shamefully of all, we surrendered their faith to society. We stopped seeing ourselves as living breathing examples of Christ, and allowed the broader society to catechize our children in classrooms, cartoons, and screens. We let the world shape what only parents were meant to nurture, forgetting that discipleship starts in the daily rhythms of prayer, conversation, attending church, and real examples of service, humility, and love at home.

Every hand-off was small, quiet, almost invisible. We told ourselves it was progress, we trust the “professionals,” we fell for “modern means better”. But with each surrender, something sacred slipped away. Bit by bit, we stopped trusting our instincts, our heritage, and the God-given authority to shepherd our own homes.

How the Experts Took Over

This didn’t happen overnight. It happened slowly, wrapped in the language of progress. And the old cliche of give them an inch and they’ll take a mile snuck up on all of us.

• Education: Compulsory schooling laws in the early 1900s told families the state could form children better than parents. In recent years, programs like Common Core insisted on standardized teaching, while attacks and restrictions on homeschooling are always being threatened.
• Health: Growth charts were introduced in the 1920s and made parents compare their children to numbers instead of knowing them as individuals. In the mid-20th century, corporations convinced mothers that formula was “scientific” and even superior to breastmilk, dismissing basic biology, millennia of maternal wisdom, and thousands of years of healthy humans nurtured on nothing else. Most recently, in the COVID-19 era, parents who hesitated to follow every new mandate for their child were mocked as ignorant, even when their instincts told them otherwise.
• Food: In 1977, the U.S. government rolled out the first Food Pyramid, shaped as much by lobbying as nutrition, steering families toward processed carbs while dismissing well-rounded, nutrition packed diets. School lunch programs grew dependent on industrial suppliers, replacing homemade meals and locally sourced produce and meats with mass-produced trays. Once-familiar practices like saving seeds or putting up food for winter gave way to grocery store dependency.
• Parenting: The 1946 bestseller Dr. Spock’s Baby and Child Care shifted authority from grandmothers and family wisdom to “expert opinion.” By the 1970s, the daycare boom reassured mothers that professional childcare was “just as good” as home. In the 2000s, screens and “educational apps” were marketed as learning tools, even for toddlers.
• Faith: Families once prayed together daily and passed down faith in ordinary routines. But over time, discipleship was outsourced to Sunday schools and youth programs. Meanwhile, television, textbooks, and media became the daily catechism, often in direct conflict with what parents believed.

The Cost of Outsourcing

Here’s the truth: institutions don’t know your child. You do. The individuals in these organizations may care, but at the end of the day, the company’s policies win out over anything that might serve your child.

A teacher may guide, but only a parent discerns the soul behind the struggle. Only the parent can understand the reason for the tears over math problems, the hidden story behind the restless silence, and the spark in the eye when a subject finally makes sense. Schooling can test, but it cannot teach the soul.

Doctors may chart symptoms, but only a mother sees the subtle changes others miss; the way her child’s energy dips in the evening, the tone of a cough, the shadows under the eyes that no growth chart or blood panel can explain. Medicine can measure, but it cannot mother.

You can find almost any food you want in a store, and we are blessed with this abundance, but only a grandmother remembers how to season it all with love. A frozen meal can fill a stomach, but it can’t grow a sense of belonging and history. Recipes, rituals, and the “secret ingredient” of care are the things corporations cannot package.

And faith? No church program, youth retreat, or catchy slogan can take the place of a father who prays aloud at bedtime, or a mother who lives what she teaches in the ordinary hours of the day. The practice of prayer and attending church on Sundays falls away when it is not lived and continued at home Monday through Saturday. 

Reclaiming the Sacred Duty

The world will keep whispering its lie: “You’re not enough. Leave it to the experts.”
It will dress the lie in credentials, in lab coats, in official stamps of approval. But we cannot forget you were chosen for your child. Out of all the women in history, God placed this child in your arms. That is no accident, and it is no small thing.

You are enough.

You carry the God-given discernment that no institution, no program, no policy can replicate.

The lie of the age is that expertise can replace love. But love guided by wisdom has always raised the strongest children.

Lean into that, mama. Trust that still, small voice and the Mercy and Grace of God to guide your as you raise the next generation of Americans who know where they come from, whose they are, and what it means to belong.

Reclaiming this sacred duty doesn’t mean rejecting every tool of modern life. It doesn’t mean scorning every teacher, every doctor, every book. It means remembering who the first teacher is. Who the first doctor is. Who the first keeper of tradition is.

It is you and it always has been.

Don’t Outsource Your Wisdom

So light the lamp at the family table again and set the phones aside. Let the meal linger, make it slowly, supporting local markets and farmers and ensuring your children know about the food they consume. Have deep and silly conversations, knit your family together with games and stories and time spent in each other’s company. 

Tell the stories of your grandparents—the ones who crossed oceans, plowed fields, raised babies without conveniences, and prayed without ceasing. Let your children hear their names and feel a part of the grit that runs in their veins. A child who knows their roots will not be easily swayed by the winds of the world.

Trust your gut when it comes to your child’s health. Your intuition is not an accident—it is God’s design. Pray out loud and in quiet. Read scripture and explore every aspect of your faith. Not just at church, but in the living room, so your children know that faith isn’t a Sunday ritual, but a daily refuge.

Don’t outsource your wisdom.