I have heard the term “Attachment
Parenting” before and have heard it used in both the positive and negative
sense. Other terms like codependence, imprisonment, bonded, emotionally
engaged also come to mind. Dr. Sears
coined the phrase. (or so Wikipedia tells
me) And there are a lot of opinions for
and against. (See here)
After reading the Wikipedia entry I’ve
decided this is pretty much already what we are doing. Wearing the baby. Being attentive to her needs. Cosleeping.
Etc. But I’m not sure how much of
this I learned from books or how much I’ve just agreed to as I go along for the ride. But it seems like a lot
of this is common sense. The baby is
crying because she is uncomfortable. She
is uncomfortable because she needs something.
Let’s figure out what it is.
At this point, that seems ok because we are
all in survival mode. But eventually,
(when she learns to walk, talk and crush dreams) she’ll be manipulating us at
some level to get not only what she needs, but also what she wants. And as we all know,You Don’t Always Get What You
Want.
A lot of arguments against this type of
childrearing says that it is too restrictive.
It puts women back in the kitchen barefoot. It sets back women’s rights. I guess my responses to this would be “Where
are the husbands/partners?” or “If you
CHOSE to have a child, I guess you should accept the responsibility… even if it
is more demanding than you thought.”
That’s life, right? Time to nut
up and not be an ass. (I can’t believe I just used that phrase)
Here’s 10 Mb of cuteness.
