I've always put my mom on a pedestal, but now that I'm a mom myself I'm learning more and more about how great of a mother she was (and is) to me. Funny, but she was an Attachment Parenting mom before the term was coined!
My sister and I were born in 71 and 75 respectively. She breastfed us both until we were 2, when breastfeeding rates were at an all time low. She never questions my parenting choices. She never let us CIO. She cloth diapered. And then there is this:
The other day she was babysitting my DD while I was in the house. I hadn't heard a peep for a while, and when I went to check on them my mom said DD had slept for about 1/2 an hour. I asked how she "put" her to sleep (since it takes some work!) and she said, "I just rocked her in the sling for a bit." I looked and saw that my mom had a scarf tied around her body sling-style. I said, "Mom, I have like 6 different contraptions to use as just the perfect sling...you just went to your closet, found a scarf, tied it up and voila!" Mom: "Oh, I used to put you kids in a sling all the time. I even figured out how to put you on my back this way. I learned it by looking at pictures of women in Africa." !!!! And we thought we were such Hip Mamas.
And this is just one example of many.
So, my point is this: keep it up with the Attachment Parenting. My mom did it; she and I are super close and I've turned out to be a pretty darn good person. When you are making choices that are in response to your baby, treating them as reasonable, thinking human beings as they get to those communicative ages, and loving them deeply, things really do work out. We (collectively, as natural family parenting people) are doing the right thing!
My sister and I were born in 71 and 75 respectively. She breastfed us both until we were 2, when breastfeeding rates were at an all time low. She never questions my parenting choices. She never let us CIO. She cloth diapered. And then there is this:
The other day she was babysitting my DD while I was in the house. I hadn't heard a peep for a while, and when I went to check on them my mom said DD had slept for about 1/2 an hour. I asked how she "put" her to sleep (since it takes some work!) and she said, "I just rocked her in the sling for a bit." I looked and saw that my mom had a scarf tied around her body sling-style. I said, "Mom, I have like 6 different contraptions to use as just the perfect sling...you just went to your closet, found a scarf, tied it up and voila!" Mom: "Oh, I used to put you kids in a sling all the time. I even figured out how to put you on my back this way. I learned it by looking at pictures of women in Africa." !!!! And we thought we were such Hip Mamas.
And this is just one example of many.
So, my point is this: keep it up with the Attachment Parenting. My mom did it; she and I are super close and I've turned out to be a pretty darn good person. When you are making choices that are in response to your baby, treating them as reasonable, thinking human beings as they get to those communicative ages, and loving them deeply, things really do work out. We (collectively, as natural family parenting people) are doing the right thing!
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