AI Powered Parenting: A Guidance

When I was struggling with my 6-month-old son’s sleep, I knew something HAD to be done.  I also knew that I could not sleep train him with the “Cry it out” method (the only one I had heard of at the time). It was just not for me (no offence to moms who could).

With polarised opinions on the internet of those who believe you need to co-sleep with your child till god-knows-when (also not me) and those who say it’s essential to sleep train them, I was desperate and confused.

As a full time working mother, I don’t have the time to read books and do time-consuming research. As a daughter, I did the thing that felt most natural – I called up my mom, and asked her if sleep training would traumatize my child psychologically (YEAP!) and she told me the truth I needed to hear: I would never really know, that I know my child best, and I need to go with my gut.

With some extra faith in myself, off I went to ChatGPT for solutions. I sleep trained my son with a more gentle “Ferber method”, and it’s been my go-to for any concern ever since. I can’t say the sleep training worked like magic, but it was an option for me to try something new and saved me tons of time reading parenting books.

While AI offers great tools that help with the daily stress of parenting, everything we get from them has to go through a lens of critical thinking.  With so many different AI-powered apps, parenting/household assistants, we also have to remember – the one thing AI can’t give your child is the HUMAN element – the feelings, the love, the care, and the attention.

UNICEF’s 2021 guidance urges that AI should empower children, uphold their rights, and be designed with their participation in mind. Parenting in an AI world means being informed, asking the right design questions, and prioritising transparency, fairness, and inclusion. My point is AI can help make them smarter, read faster and so on – but the true psychological impact of AI tech on children’s brain development is unknown.

Personally, I believe that we have to equip children with certain skills for the future; but the foundation lies in creating strong, healthy, smart and creative personalities that have great intrapersonal skills, critical thinking, and a value of human connection. Because in a world where everything will be powered by AI – human connection is what will matter most.

// Indira Kasaeva