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One of the tasks that we must complete in the beta is answering the 7 essential meta questions. I'm creating these meta questions here for us to work on.

Here is the intended format, with three placeholder items highlighted that we want to replace with actual content, as suggested and upvoted by the community. Offer your suggestions as answers, and let the voting begin!

Parenting is a site for parents of children of all ages.
If you have a question about...
(insert scope examples here)
...and it's not about...
(insert off-topic examples here)
...then you've come to the right place!

The highest voted answers would be prime candidates. I guess the final decision could be made by the moderators or in an announced chat meeting, but I don't know.

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I know I haven't seen it on other SE sites; is there a reason that we couldn't also include a similar section indicating what is/isn't an acceptable answer?

I'm seeing a disturbing a mount of "how do I...?" questions being answered with people pushing agendas on other parenting styles, rather than in any way answering the original question. I'd like to be explicit in the FAQ about the fact that those are NOT real answers, to try to head off some of the soapboxing.

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    The Math FAQ has a nice structure: X is on-topic, Y is too but is better served on the following sister sites, and Z is considered off-topic. We should adopt that too!
    – Torben Gundtofte-Bruun
    Jun 17, 2011 at 13:40
  • It's worth noting that the FAQ format is going to change in the not-too-distant future. See this post for more information.
    – HedgeMage
    Jun 17, 2011 at 14:11
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The Parenting Stack Exchange site is for parents, grandparents, nannies and others with a parenting role.

We welcome questions on topics like these:
- matters of upbringing,
- safety considerations,
- food and feeding,
- health and hygiene,
- development and growth,
- language development,
- behavior and social skills,
- discipline and punishment.

Some subjects might be on-topic here but you can get better response on our sister sites, for instance:
- sports and fitness (see fitness.SE),
- computer games, educational software, other IT questions (see superuser),
- family finances (see money.SE).

And some kinds of questions are considered off-topic because they're not directly related to parenting, for instance:
- specific medical issues (we're not doctors!),
- legal issues (too localized, see this proposal),
- shopping recommendations (too localized, and not timeless),
- sex (see this proposal),
- generic and universal questions that are lazily worded "... for kids".

Please note that opinions shared here should be backed up either with a reference, or experiences that happened to you personally. Also, posts that primarily exist to push a specific agenda (propaganda), and soap-boxing, are not welcome.

(Structure based on the Math.SE FAQ.)

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  • As a professional, I'm not sure I could read that I fit with this group based on this explanation. What exactly does "with a reference" include? Perhaps it is me personally, but I've really had to "feel" my way around this site which has been time consuming and intimidating when I realized I was off target. I experienced lots of confusion due to difficulty locating definitions and explanation of the process. (What are favorites?) It may be that our training demands clearly defined guidelines for decision making and as with most people, if it take too much time, it's just not worth it.
    – Marie Hendrix
    Jul 30, 2011 at 12:36
  • Hello @Marie! That's very important feedback - we want more specialists like you. What changes can you suggest so that you feel included? If you like, please add another answer to this question. We could also meet in the chat room if a discussion suits you better. Just @mention the mods (I am one) there.
    – Torben Gundtofte-Bruun
    Jul 30, 2011 at 12:47
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For starters, your first sentence leaves me wondering if I should even be a part of this group. My son is now 28 and I have no grandchildren - so I have a very limited parenting role at this time. Just a statement that others that care for and about children are welcome would be more inviting.

My training conditioned me to carefully follow clearly define rules. I have not found a comprehensive list of terms or a thorough description of privileges. I finally stumbled on bounty but I have yet to find information on favorites. This creates uncertainty in my mind that I have had to resist to continue searching. This angst was increased as I immediately was corrected on my first posts. I am a perfectionist as are many other over achieving professionals I think. If we can't get it right, then it's just not worth the effort.

I am also driven to share information that I have accumulated over the years as are many other specialist and perhaps more than a little stubborn so I have persisted.

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  • We'd honestly appreciate any edits and improvements you'd like to offer! Our tags attempt to describe/define the terms we use. The privileges page lists all the priv's there are, and you can click each one to see what it means and how much reputation it requires. Here on parenting we didn't give these pages any extra emphasis because it's part of the standard Stack Exchange system. If you like, let's discuss more in the chat.
    – Torben Gundtofte-Bruun
    Jul 30, 2011 at 18:34
  • We were thinking that "and others with a parenting role" would be enough, but please suggest a better phrasing.
    – Torben Gundtofte-Bruun
    Jul 30, 2011 at 19:33
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    Many professionals are not in a parenting role. So it leaves room to assume that they do not qualify to participate. Again, maybe we have been trained to be very strict and ridged in our interpretation of information. Or, maybe it is just me. I was just offering my thoughts based on my experience.
    – Marie Hendrix
    Jul 31, 2011 at 2:31

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