30 Cool And Interesting Guides That Teach You More In Images Than Any Parenting Book Can

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to parenting: every family's situation is unique. However, there are some common features of good parenting. Among them are important things like transparency, unconditional support, and proper communication.

Essentially, you want your child to understand why you're asking something of them and why it's important. Whether that's brushing their teeth or doing their homework on time. You want to include them in the conversation, instead of making them feel like they're left out. The more clarity you provide around the rules that you set, the better.

Most parents have access to the internet, as well as all of those new and fancy AI chatbots that everyone keeps talking about. However, when you’re exhausted and pressed for time, having a handy and trustworthy chart you can reference is far easier than conducting thorough independent research. 

While there will always be subtle nuances and the need to update relevant information, the graphics presented here definitely work as general guidelines. They can get parents up to speed on the most relevant info, from how many diapers they can expect to change per day to what to look out for in their baby’s poop.

The r/coolguides sub has grown by leaps and bounds since its founding in late March 2014. At the time of writing, the online group had over 3.8 million members on Reddit. It’s easy to see why the community is so popular: the guides are extremely informative, creative, and entertaining. Combine the three and you have a powerful mix that draws people in (and even gets them to design their own graphics).

According to the moderator team running the subreddit, they welcome reference guides for “anything and everything.” The rule of thumb is that if something’s good enough to print out for reference, then it probably has a place on r/coolguides. The mods also note that the difference between infographics and guides is that the former are learning tools while the latter are reference tools. However, there’s a grey area where the two overlap!

If you plan on designing or sharing a guide, keep in mind that you’ve got to follow some simple rules when naming your post, to help keep everything uniform. You should name your posts “A cool guide” and then fill in the rest of the title, explaining what the image is about. That way, there’s less variation in headlines, so the internet audience immediately understands the context and knows what it’s looking at. Obviously, nobody should be sharing any guides that could be dangerous.

A while ago, Bored Panda had gotten in touch with the founder of the r/coolguides online community, redditor u/dadschool. He was kind enough to walk us through the history of the group.

"I had a bit of a compulsive habit of saving every guide I came across on Reddit with the idea that I'd somehow reference it when I needed it later. There weren't really any subs for general guides so I made one and uploaded all my guides at once. I think a lot of people have a similar affection for bitesize trivia and hoarding generalist knowledge,” he told us during an earlier interview.

According to the founder of the sub, no success would have been possible without the support of the community’s fantastic moderators. It’s they who volunteer their time to keep the entire group running smoothly. All of the mods are working professionals, so one of the biggest challenges is quickly reacting to some of the hateful posts that some internet trolls make.

"The unique thing about Reddit is that subreddits really are independent and are autonomously moderated communities,” u/dadschool told us before that the moderator team had remained more or less unchanged. The team continues to be excited about the growing community, as well as ensuring that people don’t post the same guide hundreds of times.

The founder told Bored Panda before that he has a far more relaxed attitude toward infographics than he did nearly a decade ago when he created the subreddit. He’s very keen on letting the community decide the direction in which the group will go in, through their upvotes and engagement. 

"I see the moderator role as more akin to a landscaper: pruning [troll] posts, removing harmful posts, and moderating for content diversity. Subscribers are much better judges of content quality and validity than moderators and I think it's important to trust them in that role. I will admit, however, that the majority of guides I enjoy most myself rarely break 50/100 upvotes.”

Meanwhile, the founder had some awesome advice for anyone who wants to post on r/coolguides in the figure. "Go for it! We do try to maintain some content diversity, so don't upload all ten of your favorite ab workout guides at once. If you have the source, be a buddy and list that too in the comments or title to give credit where it's due!"

Which of these parenting guides and charts did you find the most useful, Pandas? Were there any tips and pieces of info that were completely new to you? What’s the most important advice that you’d give new parents? Scroll down to the bottom of this post and share your thoughts in the comment section!