Jessica - posted on 12/28/2012 ( 2 moms have responded )
10
6
Hey ladies. Do any of yall practice attachment parenting with your school aged children? I was very young when I had my first daughter and had my second just 15 months after my first. I let others make decisions on how things should be done and I regret that, but now I want to take my place back and do things the way I have always wanted them to be.
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Shawnn - posted on 01/04/2013
3,225
16
Attachment parenting is something that's done from birth on. I don't know how kids would handle all of a sudden being smothered (as they will see it).
The Eight Principles of Attachment Parenting
Attachment Parenting International (API) is a worldwide educational association for this style of parenting. API identifies eight principles of attachment parenting. Parents have considerable leeway in how they interpret and put these principles into action. The eight principles are:
1)Prepare for pregnancy, birth, and parenting. Proponents of attachment parenting believe it is important to eliminate negative thoughts and feelings about pregnancy. Doing so, they say, readies a parent for the emotionally demanding work of being a parent.
2)Feed with love and respect. Breastfeeding, proponents say, is the ideal way to create a secure attachment. It also teaches infants that parents will listen to their cues and fulfill their needs.
3)Respond with sensitivity. With attachment parenting, parents consider all expressions of emotions, including repeated tantrums, as real efforts at communication. Those efforts are to be taken seriously and understood rather than punished or dismissed.
4)Use nurturing touch. Attachment parenting proponents advise maximum skin-to-skin touching. Ways to achieve that include joint baths and "baby-wearing" -- carrying babies during the day in a front-facing sling.
5)Engage in nighttime parenting. Attachment parenting experts advise making "co-sleeping" arrangements. With co-sleeping, an infant sleeps in the same room with parents so they can feed and emotionally soothe the child during the night. Some parents practice "bed-sharing" or sleeping in the same bed with babies. It's thought that this creates an even more secure attachment. Precautions are advised, though, to help prevent sudden infant death syndrome, or SIDS.
6)Provide constant, loving care. Proponents of attachment parenting advise the nearly constant presence of a parent. That includes during walks, parents' night out, and work. They advocate against childcare for more than 20 hours a week for babies younger than 30 months old.
7.)Practice positive discipline. Parents are advised to distract, redirect, and guide even the youngest of babies, and to model positive behavior. Attachment parenting aims at understanding what a child's negative behavior is communicating. And parents are encouraged to work out a solution together with a child, rather than spanking or simply imposing their will on children.
8.)Strive for balance in personal and family life. Parents are encouraged to create a support network, live a healthy lifestyle, and prevent parenting burn-out.
Now, you're not going to be able to do the first two, nor the 5th. Numbers 3,4,6,7 & 8 you should be already doing.
Kari - posted on 01/04/2013
27
58
What is attachment parenting? I mean, how does that relate to school-age children? I'm intrigued.
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