Parents Are Asking ChatGPT For Everyday Parenting Advice: Are You?
If you’re a Millennial parent, odds are you’re a member of a handful of parenting groups across various social media such as Whatsapp and Facebook where you ask or answer other moms’ and dads’ questions. Maybe there’s one for your neighborhood, your county, your kid’s school, your child’s age group, and/or another for parents with similar interests. But honestly, these platforms for parents might soon join the digital graveyard with MySpace and Vine; ChatGPT is where it’s at, folks.
The goal of these social media groups is to make online friendships, sure, but it’s more so to have a bevy of other parents who you may or may not kinda know answer questions about everyday parenting. It’s like parenting in your pocket, if you will. Have a question? Whip out your Smartphone and post it in a group.
But why ask real people on the internet when you can ask a bot instead? A lot of parents these days are turning to ChatGPT, Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer. It’s an AI chat bot that can generate human-like responses to life’s biggest questions. You enter a prompt or keyword, and it scours the internet to find the most appropriate response. It’s like Google, but less overwhelming and more tailored to your specific query.
Parents are relying on ChatGPT to help with certain parental conundrums, whether they’re in need of medical advice, sleep tips, or homework help. Some parents have noted that ChatGPT is particularly empathetic to parenting struggles; if you type in that your toddler is tantruming, it just might remind you to take a deep breath and calm down.
Still, there are obviously limitations to using ChatGPT. Sometimes you might get bad or even dangerous advice (do not let a robot diagnose your kid’s rash, please!). Sometimes you need a real human—either IRL or across the internet—to share actual advice based on life experience that a smart robot can’t replicate.
However, ChatGPT can be helpful for parents, especially when you’re busy and simply do not have the time or energy to be an adult (which, TBH, is often). Try ChatGPT for:
Creating recipes and shopping lists
Filling out forms
Activity ideas for kids of different ages
Drafting and editing emails
Planning a party or event
Making up bedtime stories
The moral of the story here? ChatGPT can be helpful, but it is just an automated tool, after all. Nothing can replace real-life connection and common sense. If you receive answers from ChatGPT that seem suspicious or untrue, always validate them on your own. Use your judgement as a parent and as a human when using AI tools in general, and be safe out there.
How do you use ChatGPT to your advantage in parenting?
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