Parenting isn't easy, and no one knows for sure what advice will work for them until they become parents and learn more about their kids. Most people seek parenting advice from close friends and family, but that doesn't stop celebrities from offering their opinions on everything related to having a child.

Many people find celebrity advice hard to stomach.  Because of the money they accrue from fame, most celebrities have help in the form of a nanny, a chef, or a personal assistant. It's a bit easier to tell everyone how to do things when not carrying the full weight of parenting alone, but the advice often sounds hollow in the real world.

There's another reason the common parent shouldn't listen to celebrity parenting advice: most of it is bad. Sure, there are gems like Kristin Bell, who often offers wise insight on her journey, or those who are honest like Mila Kunis, who talks about the realities of having kids and trying to have a career.

However, most parenting advice from celebrities is spotty at best. That's why parents need to do their own research and resist recommendations that don't work for their families. Celebrities are not medical professionals or child psychologists, and they shouldn't be looked at as such...Ignoring these fifteen pieces of parenting advice from the rich and famous is a good start down the road of sound parenting.

15 Tell Them Everything

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie had six kids during their time as as couple, and they often offered parenting advice since they had plenty of experience.  However, not all of it was good, and they are repeat offenders on this list.

One of their rules was that there would be no secrets in their household.  While on the surface this is a good rule to have, it doesn't always take into account age appropriateness and the fact that kids can't digest information the same way adults can.  There's a reason parents shield kids from information they aren't ready for, and offering the details to every questions a child asks doesn't always work out.

While it's fair to want to be honest with kids so they trust us, it's also realistic to not give kids so much information that they develop anxiety from worrying about adult problems.  There's a time in life to just be a kid, and that's what we need to offer our children.

14 Dad Should Eat The Placenta

Maybe this isn't a surprise since Tom Cruise has been known for some weird beliefs that often stem from his participation in Scientology.  He supposedly wanted Katie Holmes to have a silent birth where she wasn't allowed to cry or scream out during labor, and then he said he wanted to eat the placenta and umbilical cord.  Yeah.

Cruise later said he was joking, but it's hard to know what to believe.  While eating the placenta has become fairly common for women hoping to keep postpartum depression at bay, most men don't take part.  Studies don't show that consuming the placenta has any benefits, but it makes a bit more sense for mom to chance it anyway since her hormones are the ones going crazy.

While there's no way to know for sure if Cruise did in fact consume the placenta, something he was supposedly going to do right after Suri's birth, it's a weird thing to even joke about.

13 Hot Sauce For Saucy Language

Lisa Whelchel from Facts of Life fame revealed that she uses a unique punishment to discipline her kids for bad behavior.  She forces her kids to have a spicy substance, such as hot sauce, placed on their tongues when they misbehave.  In her mind, this constitutes a logical consequence, though it's not a natural one since it wouldn't occur unless being forced on a child by an adult.

Whelchel is not the only parent who does this, though most use this punishment for when kids words get out of line to remind them that what comes out of the mouth can hurt people by putting pain on their tongues.  Like spanking, this technique is old school and likely not effective.  It doesn't teach kids how to change their behavior.  It just teaches them to hide it from the person who is going to burn their mouths with hot sauce.

12 Be A Pushover

Actress Leah Remini openly admits that her daughter runs the house.  Remini says she gave in to everything her child wanted, including six bottles a night at the age of four and sugary snacks instead of healthy choices.

Remini called herself a pushover mom in the past, and though she was open about her habit, even she knew it was a bad idea.  Being a pushover parent means kids know all they have to do is cry, pout, or throw a tantrum to get what they want.  This does not set them up for a good life later on when they will have to find out that this isn't how life actually works.

Plus, kids raised by pushover parents usually end up being brats.  Giving a child reasonable boundaries is loving, not cruel.  They need to know that they can't have everything they want, and parents are the first ones to teach them that.

11 Caffeinate Them Early

Brad Pitt famously admitted that some mornings in his household were harder than others. When he needed his kids moving quickly, he provided soft drinks for breakfast, directing his kids to drink up and get moving.

Though Pitt, who was with Angelina Jolie at the time, may have thought his parenting confession would make him more relatable, he came under heavy fire. Pitt's youngest children were only three at the time, and his oldest was ten, so the idea of using caffeine as a stimulate outraged many parents, especially when it was given in place of breakfast.

Researchers know that caffeine can have detrimental effects on kids' growth and heart rate. Blood pressure issues are also a concern, and researchers feel that caffeine doesn't need to be doled out to young children. Don't follow Pitt's example when it comes to Coke for breakfast.

10 Nudity All The Time

It might not be a surprise to find that the singer who bragged about having naked Sundays while her then-spouse would  be totally comfortable with nudity in general.  Christina Aguilera says that she is naked in front of her son often so he'll know his mom is okay with being a sexual creature.

There are plenty of reasons to not be afraid of kids seeing us naked, and many parents don't let nudity become an issue so their kids won't feel shame about their bodies.  However, that differs a bit from wanting to make sure a child sees mommy as a sexual creature.  Being nude doesn't have to be sexual, so Aguilera's remark was odd.

Each parent has to decide when to stop letting their kids see them in the buff, but most moms don't really want their children to see them in a sexual way.  That's beyond weird.

9 Tell Them To Do Drugs

Honestly, Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee are going to have a lot to explain to their kids since there are videos of them in compromising positions roaming around. They may have decided that instead of trying to forbid bad behavior, they're just going to encourage the kids to get it out of their systems.

That's the only reason we can think of for encouraging kids to do drugs, have sex, and drink.  Though Anderson said she wanted her kids to do all of this in moderation, when drunk and high with a willing partner available, it's doubtful that sex and drugs are going to be moderate.

Setting boundaries is better than letting kids fall into behaviors that can be addictive and dangerous.  We're parents first, and that means guiding kids towards behavior that is beneficial for them.  Anderson and Lee would do well to lay down ground rules and talk to the kids instead of giving them a free pass on everything.

8 Be Crazy Strict

There are limits to everything, and while being too permissive isn't good for kids, neither is being too strict.  Telling kids they are forbidden from reading newspapers or magazines and that they can't set their eyes on a television is a bit much, especially coming from a pop icon who has spent her whole life breaking every rule.

Madonna is said to be so controlling when it comes to her kids that they are on a strict, no sugar diet, and their lives are managed down to the smallest detail.  This may be why her relationships with her kids have been so rocky.  Letting kids do whatever they want is dangerous, but so is giving them no say in their own lives.

Kids can't learn to make their own decisions if they aren't given a chance, and being controlling deprives them of opportunities to make mistakes, which are valuable experiences to look back on when a child is older.

7 Attachment Only

Mayim Bialik is known for her role in the Big Bang Theory and for receiving her Ph.D. in neuroscience.  What parents might not know is that she also wrote a book, Beyond the Sling, that talks about her hard core belief in attachment parenting.

Attachment parenting involves many different ideas about parenting, like that children should be breastfed for as long as they want and that co-sleeping is the only way to go.  However, what really caught people's attention is when Bialik said pretty much only she or her husband at the time were ever the ones to care for their kids.  No babysitters or outside help is considered an option.

While it's nice to see a celebrity who doesn't just hand her parenting responsibilities over to a nanny, there's a balance.  Bialik's interpretation of attachment parenting, which sounds like being with the kids without breaks almost constantly, can lead many women to feel boxed in and burnt out.

6 Bathe With Them Past A Certain Age

Gwyneth Paltrow has brought us the idea of conscious uncoupling instead of divorcing, and her website has offered some pretty strange advice in the past.  To be fair, she isn't the only one who has no problem with nudity in front of her kids, but it still strikes many as weird past a certain age.

Paltrow confessed that she bathed with her kids, the oldest who was seven at the time.  For some families this might be normal, but Paltrow received flak for the decision.  Many felt her kids were too old to be in the bath with her or her husband at the time, Chris Martin.

Each parent needs to decide when to draw that line, but being aware that kids may grow uncomfortable with this arrangement is key.  Kids need to be allowed to be modest if they choose to, and parents shouldn't force family nudity once it gets weird.

5 Elimination Communication

What do Gisele Bundchen and Mayim Bialik have in common?  Well, besides both being famous, they are advocates for breastfeeding and unmedicated birth.  They're also both on this list more than once.  They also claim to know the secret to potty training children early:  elimination communication.

This method involves reading a baby's cues early in life so mom can get the child to the potty when it's time to go.  Instead of diapers, mom looks for signs that her kid needs to go and then holds him over the potty.  Bundchen says she potty trained one of her children at six months of age using this trick.

The problem for most moms, besides this being extremely messy, is the time commitment involved.  A mother has to be with her kid at all times to pull this off, and that's not possible for women who work or have short maternity leave.  We'll just take diapers, thanks.

4 Pre-chew Food

Alicia Silverstone posted a video of her son, Bear, eating from her mouth after she pre-chewed his food. Imagine a mommy bird preparing food for her baby birds and then putting it in their mouths, except in this case with humans. People were immediately outraged, and Silverstone explained that this is normal for her family.

Pre-mastication, chewing a kid's food for them, has been around for ages, but recently people have become concerned about the unhygienic practice. Chewing a child's food and sharing saliva can spread germs. However, feeding a child with our hands can do the same thing if hands aren't washed properly.

A big concern with pre-chewing is that a parent can transmit germs to a child that can cause them to have cavities. Any child can get cavities, but pre-chewing food may leave them more susceptible. Plus, a mom who breastfeeds is offering her kids plenty of immunity without passing the child spit.

3 Never-ending Breastfeeding

To be fair, many women are on board with extended breastfeeding.  With the World Health Organization recommending that moms breastfeed for at least one year, two if possible, it's not unreasonable to assume longer might be better.  For some moms and kids it might be, but this trend isn't for others.

Singer Alanis Morissette entered this debate after Time magazine ran a cover showing a mom breastfeeding her three year old.  Morissette defended that mom's decision and said she would let her son nurse as long as he wanted.  For Morissette, that means the age of  six isn't too old for nursing.

Morissette said she would stop when her son asked and not before.  While some women can do this, many women work, and others are just not comfortable with nursing that long.

2 Give Them Limitless Freedom

Will Smith and wife Jada Pinkett Smith often boasted of their parenting style, basically declaring it complete freedom for their kids.  The kids could make whatever decisions they wanted, as long as they could explain why they made them.  This may sound great, but it's not always a good idea to let a nine year old have free reign on all decisions.

Will Smith joked in an interview that they may have let things go too far when talking about his son's artistic expression.  However, he still sounded like a proud dad despite his son's eclectic choices.

Letting kids have choices is obviously a good idea, but narrowing down their options can be freeing for everyone in certain situations.  It's also a good idea for parents to explain to their kids how to make good decisions so they will understand that it's about more than just doing what feels good at the time.  This will likely lead to better outcomes in the future.

1 Avoid Violent Hospital Births

Gisele Bundchen has been known to go on the record with some seriously outrageous statements. She said she believed all women should be required to breastfeed for six months and that she wanted her kids to think broccoli was a dessert food.

She's also birthed at the home she shares with husband Tom Brady, and though home births and birthing center deliveries are increasing, Bundchen went as far as to call hospital births violent. It's true that many women have bad experiences in hospitals, but many don't. Plus, there are some women who need to deliver in a hospital because of high-risk pregnancy issues.

While every woman needs to find the best place for her to birth, she doesn't need to let a celebrity's inflammatory comments influence her. Bundchen hasn't won many fans with her sanctimommy attitude, and she's not an expert on anyone's situation but her own.

Sources:  Motherandbaby.co.uk, News.com, Styleblazer.com, Babycenter.com