The Attachment Parenting Debate: Mom of Five Weighs In

This picture was taken 2 years ago, and since then I've gotten a lot of new blog readers who may not know exactly what I'm about. Well, I'm about THIS. I'm about attachment parenting. I fell into it accidentally because my husband and I are big babies who couldn't stand to hear our son cry it out in his crib and just wanted some dang sleep. (no judgments from me if you did things differently; you leave my parenting alone and I will leave yours alone)

Okay, so I just wanted some dang sleep. And nursing Joel in bed helped with that a lot (well, after the first month, anyway ... that first month was hell ... getting up every two hours to nurse for an hour while I tried not to fall asleep sitting up). So we kept it up and 5 kids later we are still going strong. Only two kids in the bed now, though, with one who sometimes even leaves!

I love this picture because there's a photo of me off to the left watching over them. Since they are all 3 in the queen bed (Joel and Callie must have already been awake), I can only assume Aron was out of town.

So if you are doing this and feel bad about it or people are giving you crap about it, it's okay! Time will prove that you did your parenting the way you saw fit and that it all worked out. The day my oldest son was born (tomorrow, 11 years ago!), I prayed fervently to God that He would make me the kind of mother HE wanted me to be. Not the kind someone else wanted me to be or the mom society thought I should be. The kind of mother that a Higher Power wanted me to be, knew I could be.

Other forms of parenting work for other people. This one has worked well for us. It's not a parenting competition, trust me. None of that crap matters. It's about the kind of parent you are supposed to be. We are all different people, extremely different sometimes. Why would we all parent the exact same way based on a book or a fad or a TV show or advice from whoever?

Update: I posted this longer version of our attachment-parenting lifestyle here on the blog many years later. It's now mid-2021, and the kids are 11, 13, 16, 18, and 20. Four teenagers who are an actual pleasure to parent, as well as an energetic 11-year-old. I credit attachment parenting!