I suspect this whole craze for labelling our various parenting choices is a product of the internet forum age, as people find it easy to connect with others with similar opinions and interests, and they need quick and recognisable ways of describing certain practices when typing. But I do find this whole idea of parenting 'types' odd and irritating.
BLW. Babywearing. Cloth-nappying. Elimination communication. Co-sleeping. BFing. FFing. Unfooding. Unschooling. Unconditional parenting. Attachment parenting. CIO. CCing. The list goes on.
It's not so much the individual terms that bug me - if you are discussing something then you need to find a way of describing it. It is the way people try to create whole lifestyles or belief systems out of pretty simple parenting choices. I find this is particularly prevalent among people whose choices are different to the current mainstream. I use a sling full time and DS is in cloth nappies. When he was a baby we co-slept on and off and didn't have a routine as such. All of these things came about because they suited us as a family or because we believed that they were beneficial. They were individual choices, not part of some parenting ethos. But whenever I meet others who do any of these things they seem desperately keen to establish my natural parenting credentials. Do you 'do' unconditional parenting? Are you going to 'do' Steiner?
AIBU in finding this a bit illogical and artificial? Why does the method I choose to transport my child around, or the type of poo-catching device I employ make it any more likely that I will agree with a particular educational ethos or be evangelical about organic gardening? I don't get it. It just feels like someone has grouped together a random selection of things and set them up as the entry criteria for some sort of parenting club.
Oh you must try elimination communication with your next baby. Must I? Why? What if I don't want to? What if I don't see any benefit in it?
Oh you really should think about home-educating. Should I? Why? Because it is something you want to do?
Would I be unreasonable to scream 'because I bloody well don't want to' the next time someone raises an eyebrow and asks me why I don't do unconditional patenting? Or am I just hormonal and crabby?
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103 replies
TandB · 04/10/2011 10:06
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