Babywise & Attachment Parenting
A friend of mine and several of my old coworkers swear by the book Babywise. It basically teaches parents how to put their babies on a schedule so that baby will fit into the parents’ lives better. When Caleb was born, I took on more of an attachment parenting method and loved The Baby Book by Dr. Sears.
So, I read Babywise over the last week to see what it was all about. No offense to any of my friends who are using this method, but I think Josh got tired of me shouting out while reading it. I got frustrated at how the book portrayed attachment parenting, as though I’m some kind of overworked, exhausted mother sacrificing everything to cater to every little whim of my child. Oh, and of course my child will be uber-spoiled and obese because I do on-cue feeding. And I should never nurse my baby to sleep because I am giving him a crutch. And so on, sarcasm intended.
I think the book had a few good things to say, but overall I found the scheduling method to be a bunch of hooey. I don’t think it’s possible to mess a kid up by building a strong parent-child trust and attachment.
One nice thing about reading the Babywise book is that it helped me to feel more confident about the choices Josh and I have decided to make (a.k.a. not following the Babywise book!). That, and Caleb is a very happy, observant little guy. I think the choices we are making are overall working very well for us and that makes me happy.