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Comment by hamasho | Hacker News Reader

   > 1. Unsolicited advice is always criticism.

This is important to me. Especially when I become a senior, my opinion without much thought can be taken as a criticism and make others irritated or insecure.

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Also this is what all advice sounds like to new parents. If you want to be an ally to someone who's just had a baby, don't give unsolicited advice - they're hearing enough of it from the numerous people who want to talk all about "future problems you definitely need to avoid now" to someone who hasn't had more then 2 hours of uninterrupted sleep.

Does that really happen? In my experience parents giving advice to other parents generally sound like “I don’t really know what I’m doing, nor your child, but this worked for us.”

The wild variety of advice is a good indication there is no true answer.

I'm not a parent so I can't say for sure but I've listened to lots of my child-having friends complain about the older members of their family constantly giving "advice" that is actually just veiled defensiveness and projection.

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