My Nonprofit Reviews

I am very aware of the many influencers in a child’s life. There are parents, stepparents, foster parents, relatives, and myriad other adults affecting a child, in the span of their upbringing.
Therefore, I use the term “Parent/Parents” as just the general descriptor of the person or persons who raised us.
The way we parent, whether we realise it or not, like it or not, is directly related to the way we were parented. Our parents’ parenting style/skills were directly related to their parents, and on and on and on, generation before generation before generation.
That being said, the world that we live in, now, has been through so many cycles of turmoil: joy, death, life, fear, deep suffering, deep gratitude, love, hate, et al.
In our generation, we are now the parents and we have the luxury of being able to parent our children in a way we can choose to- as opposed to “having to” parent our children in the way that was necessary in order to keep children safe and (for lack of a more fancy word) alive.
Attachment Parenting has changed the way I view myself and my children. Attachment Parenting isn’t just for the child, it is also about us. Choosing to shower your child with love, set firm boundaries, having consistency, and treating our children with the same respect and compassion that we would give to another adult... our friends, perhaps.
I don’t know how I discovered “Attachment Parenting” but I do know that when I learned more about the philosophy, I felt like I wasn’t alone. Many parents weren’t parented in the same way we parent our children. I think that’s because so many of us can still remember what it felt like to be dismissed when we were going through some very difficult things (even as toddlers), or we remember what it was like to have to parent our own parents!
I taught all 3 of my children basic sign language signs before they could talk with their voices. After I did this with my first child, I was completely overwhelmed with beautiful emotions because my child was speaking to me, telling me about themselves and what they were thinking, well before they could form words. It means that children are so bright and so observant! The capacity to communicate with our children before they can even form words was so profound for me that I began to see my children as their own people- with their own uniqueness. That began my journey with Attachment Parenting. It’s about bonding, love, and giving your children the feeling of safety and trust in you, their parent, to hear them, listen to them, and love every ounce of their Being.