That's the thing about being Human Mothers; we get to change our mind!
When I had my son Mason I thought that I knew everything there was to know about having a kid. I was a 25 year old know it all that wasn't about to 'conform' to anyone's idea of what it was to be a mother. HA! Looking back now there are 100 + 1 things I can think of that I did WRONG! I listened to everyone else and did what they told me to when it came to raising him. Yes, that's a contradiction to my previous statement about conforming to everyone else's idea. Because if you know me at all, you know that I am far from a conformist.
Anyway; I only breastfed until 10 weeks because I had to go back to work. I wasn't going to pump because, well, that was too much trouble.
He wasn't sleeping through the night by 6 months; so what do I do... spend a night in hell, AKA: CIO! My husband and I stood by the door marking little "tick marks" on a sticky note attached to the door for each time we went in to sooth him. I hated myself for MONTHS after this and never tried it again. He still doesn't sleep through the night; BTW!
I tried a baby carrier once while cooking spaghetti and he HATED it! So where did it end up? At the bottom of his closet.
When he became a toddler it was straight to time out and high expectations of a child who was supposed to listen when spoken to. If you only knew this kid; yeah right!
Then the 4's and 5's came around and it was "enforcement" time. I was so done with the fussing and the cussing that I told my husband "I don't want him to FEAR you; I want him to RESPECT you!" We had a very heated debate that night about the difference between a child doing out of fear and doing out of respect. I "won" that arguement that night as he agreed he would no longer expect our son to listen out of fear but do because he respected and it was expected out of him.
Around this time an old friend from college and I reunited over MySpace. She ended up dating my brother in law and they later had a son. I remember vividly sitting in my office corresponding through emails with her and the mention of Attachment Parenting. I had no idea what this was. And so the discussion blossomed. I looked it up and was baffled. What was all of this "Hippie" stuff about? When looking at the different definitions of the 4 parenting styles I found myself, at the time, to be more of an Authoritrian Parent. DO as I SAY when I say to do it... OR ELSE! It was how I was raised and it was how we were raising our son.
Fast Forward to the last two years....
I've realized that I've done this parenting thing wrong for quite sometime now. Mason and his defiant self has proven that to me day in and day out. What happens when you become a strict parent and stay on their rear ends for every little thing? They rebel... I have a 7 year old REBEL sleeping in his bed right now!
I became pregnant with our second son and I vowed to do it all different. I was going to give this kid a chance his big brother didn't get. I was gonna breastfeed him forever, co-sleep, and wear him until he asked for his feet to touch the ground. It wasn't a matter of just waking up one morning and deciding that it was how I was going to be. It blossomed over time. I guess you could say I'm into all the "attachement parenting" stuff but what I say is I decided to change my mind on how we were raising our kids.

1 Comments:
I've never actually heard of the different style's of parenting, I guess I need to read a few more books! I'm just winging it! But so far I feel confident with my choices, I have a very happy baby, I ebf, but for some reason that was never a question in my mind that I wouldn't. I guess I was naive and assumed everybody just did it. But I like how you have chosen to do things differently the second time around, and we do have the right to change our minds as often as we like! I'm wanting to try BLW with my dd and I'm assuming I'm going to have a fight with her pedi tomorrow at her 4 mo check up. Since he said we would discuss starting food at 4 mo and I don't want to until 6, what's the rush. But like I said I'm just winging it!
Tatum's mom (Tristan)
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