To hate the term 'baby wearing'

[Junosmum]

I have a sling and I love it, and my ds loves it. But I HATE it when people call it baby wearing. Sounds to me like a fashion accessory! I carry my baby in a sling, I don't wear him!

AIBU?

I hate it to. Mind you I hate labels of baby led weaning, attachment parenting and the like. Its all trying to say "oh I'm superior and I'm following the latest trend", rather than "I'm just a parent doing whatever I think is best for my DC".

Jassy The bloody hv was at it last week, "so, how's mum?". I'm assuming she meant me. FFS. YOU! "How are you?". It's just not that hard.

I bf dd, and carried her about it a sling (because I had no choice!) and had her in our bed (again, no choice). HV said "oh so you're an attachment mummy!". Nope. Presumably if you're not "doing" attachment parenting then you're a detached parent? Happy enough to leave the baby to get on with things on their own whilst you read a paper?

I was confused when I started seeing these terms on MN for the first time - I had my babies in the 1980's and thought everything must have changed. Now that I know what they are I realise it's exactly what I was doing back then - carrying my babies in a sling, giving them finger food etc.

In fact exactly what women all over the world have been doing for years.
I suppose I find it slightly irritating that a special new term has been invented for tying your baby to yourself so you can do other stuff and hold your baby close, because it's been going on since the year dot.

See I can't stand Finger Food either. Aren't they just having something to eat? Feeding themselves?

Jassy The bloody hv was at it last week, "so, how's mum?". I'm assuming she meant me. FFS. YOU! "How are you?". It's just not that hard

Ugh. My midwife did it when I was pregnant with DS2. She was taking to a student midwife and said 'now, give this to mum...' FFS. I wasn't the mother of anyone in that room at that point, and my name was right in front of her.

'Finger food' makes me think of canapés. I keep picturing people feeding their babies vol-au-vents.

I think the terms were coined as a kick back against the norm in terms of what is promoted...which is the opposite of many attachment parenting ideals. I don't know many AP parents who identify as such, but they certainly don't feel superior. Most of them just feel unusual!

Baby led weaning isn't just finger foods, fyi.

I deliberately call it a Papoose.

I'm going to start referring to using my sling as "Papoosing"

In several European languages, the verb for 'to wear' is the same as the verb 'to carry'. Porter, tragen, etc.

I think that's part of why the term babywearing emerged - as a translation issue. German companies, websites, writers have been particularly influential in the dissemination of wraps and slings in Europe since the 1980s.

Missed a bit off my post - I wanted to say "this book is called either "A Baby Wants To Be Carried" or "A Baby Wants To Be Worn" depending on who translates it.