Dierdre!!!

Here it is!

Awesome to see you again, Deidre, even if it wasn't in person!

ETA: Just started reading it, and Brook is mentioned, too! You ladies rock!

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Thanks, Mama! I am pleased... I think Kristina did a good job of trying to present both sides of the story and still maintain her "professional distance". A couple of my quotes would have sounded a lot better had she kept the context in which they were said but it turned out ok at any rate.

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I think APing is hard work! I think it is much more difficult to have such a "hands-on" approach to parenting... co-sleeping for a million years, extended breast-feeding, gentle discipline, etc. It's just my opinion and I have no experience doing it the other way, but I think it would be easier to drop DS off at the day care and make him sleep in his bed at night and to put him in a stroller instead of carrying him around on my back (not my front, BTW), and telling him "because I said so, that's way" instead of explaining things to him and letting him have his say. But that wouldn't be the right thing to do... It wouldn't be best for him or our society in general or our family, for that matter. The positives of APing, IMO, far out weigh the difficult parts but done right, parenting IS hard. I think it would have been misleading and I wouldn't have been doing my job had I represented attachment parenting in any other way than what I did.

Oops, sorry Brook, I meant to mention that you were in it, too!

I don't mean to say that AP isn't hard work. It is. But nobody ever told me that parenting wouldn't be hard work, you know? So it bothers me when people mention how much work they think AP is. I'm probably being over-sensitive because I know a lot of people who object to AP *because* of the work involved. I just feel that hard work doesn't mean that something isn't worthwhile. Yes, other things might be easier, but since when should ease be the #1 consideration? Unfortunately, for many people it is, even when it comes to parenting. So it bothers me when an article mentions that - it plays into the mainstream objection to work when it comes to domestic tasks, whether they be washing dishes (gotta have that new Dawn Wash-n-Toss, right?) or taking care of children (what crazy person would want to spend time washing diapers or carrying your child in a sling?).

Debi, thanks for pointing out the other thread, I'll have to check it out! Sorry to be AWOL for such a long time, it's good to chat with you ladies again!

yeah, i'm probably just PMS'ing, but the whole "AP'ing is such hard work" bit in the article bugged me a bit as well.

like you said, parenting is hard work, but i honestly think that a lot of the things i do make my life *easier* not harder. co-sleeping, while still nursing twice a night means i barely have to wake up, and we both fall back asleep easily - vs. the baby having to scream bloody murder in another room to wake me up, she's then wide awake and so am i and i spend 30 minutes calming her down and getting her back to sleep. always having a sling with me means i don't have to carry her without support when she wants to be held, and i have hands free to get things done. BF'ing means no bottles to wash, formula to buy, not a lot of advanced preparation before leaving the house since what i need is always right there. having a close relationship with my daughter means i can usually tell immediately what's upsetting her and can fix it quickly. and having a securely attached baby means it's likely you'll have less discipline issues as the child grows up... there are plenty more examples of how i feel AP'ing makes my life easier, kwim?

like i said, though, it probably just bugged me because I'm PMS'ing