Thursday, March 24, 2011

In the Words of the Master of Ceremonies, "Leben und Leben Lassen"

Search "parenting" books on Amazon.com and there are over 61,000 results. Did you have any idea there was so much to be written on the subject?

When I was pregnant, my friend lent me a book called "On Becoming Babywise: Giving Your Infant the Gift of Nighttime Sleep." In it, the author requires encourages moms and dads to put their baby on a 3-hour schedule as soon as possible. Baby wakes up, eats, plays, goes back to sleep. He says, "Mom, not baby, decides when the nap is over." According to Gary Ezzo, attachment parenting and on-demand feeding is right out, so that Baby does not become spoiled. Uh, yeahhhh.

And then there are the attachment parenting people. Keep your baby with you all the time... Feed the baby when he asks... Crying it out is cruel... Sleep with the baby in your bed... Lose your ever-loving mind...

But you know what? Each of those methods work for some people, and parts of each work for a lot of people.

Confession time: I judge other mothers. I'm not proud of it, but I do. I know they judge me too. (No cake?? Scandalous!) But you know what? Their choices work for them, and ours work for us. The world would be boring if everyone made the same parenting choices.

You see, as it turns out, there is no law about how you raise your kid. There are no laws broken when you give your kid a piece of cake, and no one dies if you don't give your baby dirt pudding. Neither breastfeeding into toddlerhood nor choosing formula from the start will scar a child or make him a brilliant scholar.

So from now on, I'm NOT going to judge other moms. Because motherhood is tough enough without our sisters' support.

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