A reader, Deidre, recently sent us this co-parenting dilemma:

My son’s father and I split two weeks after my son’s birth due to his lack of support in all areas you can think of. Over the past 7 months, things occured that I wish I could take back. We are now in the position of trying to be the best parents we can be, as well as friends. My issue is when my son is introduced to new things such as foods, toys, etc, I will contact the father to ask for his opinion. He is his son too. But I feel when it comes to my son’s father’s side of the famiily, my son’s father does not speak up when it comes to decisions regarding our son.

We had a conversation about our son being a vegetarian until the age of one. That means absolutely no meat whatsoever. That went out of the window when I found out my son was given chicken baby food while at his dad’s house.

The next issue: I attended a function at my son’s father’s house, and they were feeding him the Gerber baby puffs. I was not aware of my son being feed solid/table food. It’s not a big deal, but out of respect, I feel I should have been included on a decision of giving our son solids such as baby puffs. I want to ask him but don’t know how to address it. I don’t want to seem as if I am trying to control things when it comes to my son, but I want him to be respectful of me as his mother.

My son’s father allows others to do what they want with our son because they have children. I have explained to him how we raise our child is our decision; no one else’s. Others should respect our decision as far as what we want to give our son and what discipline methods we choose. Stop letting people give our son food outside of the normal and stop doing things outside the normal.

As it turns out, Talibah Mbonisi–savvy co-parenting mama, WeParent.com CEO/Head Coach, and our “Co-Parenting Matters” show co-host–could relate first-hand to Deidre’s concerns.  So we asked her to chime in and give Deidre her best advice.  Read on to find out what Talibah had to say: