1. Degrees Don’t Equal Experience: A Parent’s Perspective

Part One: The Degree vs. The Experience

Just because someone holds a degree, doesn’t mean they hold the experience.

This thought has been sitting with me for a long time, especially as I navigate the system that has had such a deep impact on my family — the social care system. I want to be clear: I’m not discrediting education. I know it takes dedication, hard work, and a lot of effort to qualify as a social worker. But what I am questioning is this: how can someone be a professional in a situation they’ve never personally lived through?

Take my children’s social worker. On paper, he’s qualified. He has the right credentials, he’s passed the right exams, and he can quote all the right policies. But there’s something missing — something big. He doesn’t have children. He’s never sat in a courtroom fighting to be heard as a parent. He’s never experienced the raw, gut-wrenching pain of being separated from his own kids. He’s never had to prove his worth as a parent to strangers holding clipboards and making notes.

Yet somehow, he has the authority to make decisions about my parenting, my life, and my children’s future.

That doesn’t sit right with me.

Because while he’s read the case files, I’ve lived the case. Every memory, every interaction, every sleepless night wondering if I’ll ever get my children back — that’s all mine. Not written by someone else. Not observed through a professional lens. Lived. Felt. Survived.

And this is where the imbalance begins. His world is one of protocols, theories, and policies. Mine is one of emotions, trauma, resilience, and fighting to be heard. We are not coming from the same place, but somehow, only one of us gets to decide what happens next.

Is it really fair to call that “professional judgment” when it lacks the foundation of real-world understanding?

This system often elevates academic knowledge over lived experience. It places more weight on what’s written in a report than what’s felt in the heart. And in doing so, it silences the voices of parents like me — parents who know their children better than anyone, but who are made to feel like spectators in their own lives.

I’m not saying every social worker needs to have lived through the same things as the families they work with. But I am saying that empathy, humility, and genuine listening should matter just as much as qualifications. Because this isn’t just about theories. This is about real people, real lives, and real consequences.

Until we start valuing lived experience in the same way we value formal education, the gap will always exist. And parents like me will keep being misunderstood, misjudged, and unheard — all while being told it’s “in the best interest” of the child.

But who gets to decide that?

Someone who has read about it — or someone who’s lived it?