To think the term Attachment Parenting.....

[Softlysoftly]

.....is offensive? Because the inference is if you don't follow that theory to the letter you are not attached, or as attached to your child?

I think it makes sense as a name because you are very much physically attached to your baby when you do it - breastfeeding, carrying, cosleeping. Doesn't mean you are less emotionally attached if you don't practise it.

It's just a name, and a niche form of parenting. Not really worth getting worked up about.

Yabu. It's just a name.

And a name for a set of guidelines and ideas - there is no suggestion that you have to follow it to the letter, nor that if you don't you're less attached to your children.

Have you actually read anything about it?

Anything is offensive if you let it offend you.

I don't find it offensive, just a silly name for what a lot of us do anyway.

YABU. The name comes from attachment theory, which is about emotional attachment rather than physical. But I don't think as a term it implies you are not attached to your child if you don't follow attachment parenting any more than I think knowledge industries implies people working in other industries are ignorant. Some practitioners may imply it, but they would do that whatever it was called.

I'm offended by the amount of people who find silly things offensive

What name would you give it instead then?

I have and tbh as tee said I do a lot of it anyway, I just find "labelling" something that seems instinctual = exclusion of those who dont claim to follow a theory and could therefore be offensive? Calling something Attachment parenting seems to be allowing parents to group up under it and I don't think those principles can be owned.

Just interested in now others feel.

its just a bloody theory.. another will come along..one day

*how

Am not weeping letter writing offended btw, it just sometimes makes my teeth itch.

No, I don't find it offensive, although I am very much a believer in makeitupasyougoalong parenting, which is a far less catchy title!

I am an older parent well not an older parent but with older children im sure there is parents my age with young kids , anyway im waffiling , I hate these new tags parenting gets BLW attachment parenting etc etc , Just parent your child the way you want , if you want to sleep with your baby or cart them around in a sling then do it , I dont see why there has to be a term for it , ITs like they are in a special gang or party nobody else is invited too , I know a girl who is into AP and its lovely she has this but just parent your kids you dont need a book or a title , and AP is a primative thing im sure cave mummies did this with cave babies ,

Amen to that Mrsjay

The way all these funky names are being attached, you'd think the younger generation were the first to discover different types of parenting.

Except that attachment parenting isn't a NEW term.

There are always theories, fads and new research. If you let it bother you, you'll tie yourself up in knots. Get over it.

Yabu

It may not be a new term but it seems to be a newish fad again the theroy is fab , but i think what the OP meant is that people put their parenting into boxes . and tbh I think sometimes parents can get themselves into a tizz if the thing they are doing doesnt work ,

I didnt mean to say fad just couldnt think of another way to saw what i meant

YANBU. It does imply that those who don't use slings/cosleep etc etc are in some way less attached to their DC. I certainly thing that folk who use the label to describe themselves as AP think they are somehow more in tune with their DC and probably better parents

YANBU - it puts people and parents into boxes and suggests that if you do one style of parenting you can't do another. I am mostly attachment parenting with a bit of continuum concept and "because I'm the parent and I bloody well said so" parenting thrown in.

i think i was into AP a little when i had mine as babies Its more a natural instinct to do things rather than following a parenting style iyswim .

It's pretty much the Continuum Concept though, right? Just call it that and then you won't be offended. REALLY good book, by the way.

I love the idea of CC/AP - we plan to have our baby attached to one of us constantly via a sling or holding. It seems like the most natural thing in the world and fills me with endorphins when I think about it :)

You do what you want to do and what's right for you, and and if you choose to make associations via syntax, then YABU. The term doesn't imply anything at all other than literally being attached to your baby - I always took it as physically being attached, which isn't for everyone.

DS certainly interprets it as being physically attached preferably to a boob.

I don't see the point in getting offended by labels. But then I do Gina Ford and I'm sure people call me all sorts of things because of that - I don't give two hoots because it doesn't matter what other people think

the idea of being permanantly attached to either DC fills me with horror

when I first started using parenting fora on the inter web 12 years ago, I frequented a few AP boards (and considered myself an AP'er) before pulling away and finding my own happy medium somewhere between AP and benign neglect, lol! I returned from time to time and what's fascinating is that many of the posters are now divorced or separated from their partners (reading between the lines, many of their partners got sick of kids permanently attached and in the bed etc. and fancied a little bit more time and work spent on the relationship and not just on the kids)

I did attachment parenting with DD3 by accident as with three under 5 she was in sling to keep hands free, bf vos I couldn't get organised for bottles and co-slept cos I was too blinking exhausted to put her in cot.

I'd say she is clingier than the older two and took slot longer to settle at nursery. She is very cuddly though and aged 2 still like to put her hand on my chest for skin to skin.

I think the attachment thing suits some parents because they feel they are doing better for their child - but there are many good ways to raise a well-adjusted child, AP isn't the only one and has its drawbacks too.