On Attachment Parenting...

What is this Attachment Parenting (AP) that we have been hearing so much about in the past few years?

According to Dr.Sears, who is credited for starting the AP movement, Attachment Parenting AP is an approach, rather than a strict set of rules. It's actually the style that many parents use instinctively. Parenting is too individual and baby too complex for there to be only one way. The important point is to get connected to your baby. Once you have a connection, stick with what is working and modify what is not. You will ultimately develop your own parenting style that helps parent and baby find a way to fit with each other.

According to Dr. Sears, and I agree, Attachment parenting is one of the oldest ways of caring for babies. In fact, it's the way that parents for centuries have taken care of babies, until childcare advisers came on the scene and led parents to follow books instead of their babies.

I am always fascinated by the studies done by anthropologists on tribes of native peoples who have been untouched by Western society. I am sure that it has just as much to do with their entire culture as it does their parenting (but then again, the two are very intertwined) but they usually do practice what we have coined "AP" and they usually do not have the same problems with their children as we in more "civilized" (and I use that word lightly) societies do.

There are a lot of misconceptions out there that AP is a permissive style of parenting or that it spoils the child. This is a very informative link on what AP is "not".

I, by no means, am a "perfect mommy" and I do find that as my children grow so does change the way I parent. But for infants, I do firmly believe in the things that usually go along with the AP and Natural Family Living movements.

These things can include (but do not always include all), but are certainly not limited to:

• Natural Birth
• Homebirth
• Co-sleeping (aka The Family Bed)
• No CIO (letting baby "cry it out")
• Leaving baby boys intact instead of circumcising
• Gentle Discipline (no spanking)
• Cloth Diapers
• Breastfeeding
• Child led weaning
• Wearing baby in a sling
• Homeschooling