What are your thoughts on Attachment Parenting?

I am a very commited attachment parent. I love raising my son with this parenting style. I have found that he is so much more pleasant. However, I have two neighbors who frown when I pick my baby up when he cries. I can't stand it. One of them told me that my baby is completely spoiled (he's only 6 months old). I am just wondering if there are other mothers out there who have to deal with others and their opinions. Its frustrating!What are your thoughts on Attachment Parenting?
There are as many parenting styles as there are parents! And someone will always have an opinion no matter what you do. You can politely say '; You are welcome to keep your opinions to yourself'; as you go about raising your child the way you feel is best.


After reading a little bit about Attachment Parenting, it is not the way I chose to raise my babies, but my hat is off to any mother willing to make their child the only focus of their life.


I am not judging when I ask, how does this type of parenting handle multiple children? My 1st and 2nd are 4 years apart, my 2nd and 3 are 27 months apart and my 3rd and 4th are 18 months apart. At one time I had 3 in diapers- it was an assembly line to change them all! I was more into ';Don't you dare move'; rather than explaining what I was doing for each child.


We enjoy a wonderful, close and respectful relationship now that they are 10,11, 13 and 17 so it worked for me. Do what you feel is right and you will never be wrong!What are your thoughts on Attachment Parenting?
I live by this style and it is such an amazing experience not to mention the great benefits! Even though it's been around for a while, it's still fairly ';new'; to our society and many folks will initially frown upon the new and unfamiliar. I work in a field in which I can say....it is IMPOSSIBLE to spoil a baby! So, don't worry. If anything, attachment parenting is hard on the parents due to the complexity of time and energy it takes, so be sure and take good care of yourself in the process. Don't worry about those that simply do not understand!
It is your choice how you want to raise your son. I actually didn't know that it had a name, I just call it giving her attention... It is soothing for me to hold her and calm her down. At least I know that she needs me in her life. I don't believe that you can spoil a baby. I do believe in discipline, but when she is crying I WILL PICK HER UP!!!, how else will she know that she can depend on me for all her needs.





Congratulations on being a WONDERFUL mother!! Your neighbours are just grouches.
i feel the way you do! i didn't know the term for it then, but i guess i was a little more into attachment parenting.





i always held my son. i picked him up... never let him cry. it pissed me off when everyone would call him spoiled or tell me i'm spoiling him.





when my son started crawling he never even wanted me to pick him up. he is 15 months and hardly ever wants me to carry him... and they all said he was going to be so ';spoiled.';





it was very frustrating especially because it was my mom and other close family telling me this. i just told them things like i wouldn't want to be left to cry knowing my mommy wasn't coming to get me. really it breaks my heart to think that a baby would be left to feel like that!





keep doing what you are doing. my son is a happy 15 month old... always smiling always laughing. he is not spoiled like everyone said he would be
We are also an attached family and were so with our firstborn, six years ago, before we knew there was a label for a family that practices breastfeeding, co-sleeping, babywearing, etc. For us, AP comes naturally and it is what we feel our children deserve from us. The best thing I can say is to surround yourself with like minded mothers, it's important to have a sense of community with other mothers and helps to share experiences with one another. Alot of AP families face criticism and you just have to blow it off. Some people are ignorant enough to believe that responding to your baby's cries can spoil them and that is just sad for them. Some people just don't have it in them to be as responsive to their own children and they look down on those that do. I don't know where you live but you might find an AP group on meetup.com or you can always look for a local group through Attachment Parenting International. If one does not exist, you can start one!


http://www.attachmentparenting.org/group鈥?/a>
I hear it all the time too, we co-sleep and I don't let him cry very long (as long as it takes to make a bottle or change him) and people tell me he is spoiled, but I know that at 9 months he is very attached to me and I to him and I don't care what other people think.
We all deal with others opionions. Every one thinks their way is right whtehr it is or not. You are doing fine.
dont worry what others say, hes your child raise him how u want, plus hes only 6months old, he doesnt know much else
I guess you could say I was kind of an attachment parent. I picked up my kids when they cried, breastfed, and coslept. But I didn't carry my baby around in a sling all day long like some. I'm not saying it's wrong to do that, I just didn't see the need.





My mother-in-law was my biggest critic. She would always tell me, ';Let her cry, her lungs need the exercise.'; For a while I bit my tongue but eventually I just had to tell her that was a really stupid idea (that a baby needed to exercise their lungs by crying).





Then she wanted to know why my 3-month old wasn't eating cereal. Ugh. I told her that 4 is the absolute earliest you should, and I planned on waiting until 6 or later. She looked at me like I was speaking greek, so I just got one of my books out and turned to the proper page and read her a couple of sentences.





Then when she said my child HAD to wear shoes while walking inside to ';help her learn to walk';, I explained that they learn better without them, and the only time I'd put shoes on her is if she was going outside where she could hurt them.





She didn't believe me and kept pestering me until I eventually went online and printed out a website page that explained all of it. Then she apologized and said that wasn't what was thought at her time of parenting. I simply reminded her that as medical advances are made, recommendations are changed.





Even now, she still gets on me about some things...in a phone call, my 2-year-old daughter was telling her about all the characters she saw at Disney, and when I got on the phone, my MIL said ';It's great that she knows who Tigger is, but does she know who Jesus is?!'; (she's a missionary, so that's her life).





Basically, whenever I got opinions, I listened to them and then compared them to the latest medical info and what I felt was right for my child.





If it was a stranger, I just ignored their comments, if it was someone closer and I know what they were saying wasn't right, I'd just prove them wrong so they'd shut up about it.





If you find yourself constantly defending your parenting style to others, print up some research that shows that your style is beneficial. I know there is a TON of it out there on AP.