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Is Attachment Parenting the Same Thing as Lazy Parenting?

Why I favor attachment parenting... I guess
Why I favor attachment parenting... I guess

Selfish, lazy and convenient parenting?

You're right, attachment parenting sounds way better. But let's talk a minute about why I lean towards the attachment side of the current parenting debate.

One day a few weeks ago, as I slid Vivi into the pouch sling I keep in my car at all times, I started to think back on all the comments I've gotten about babywearing in the past year. I do it because I like it, and to be honest, because I'm kind of lazy. Perhaps lazy isn't the best word, but carrying and cleaning out shopping carts is kind of ridiculous, strollers aren't always store friendly, car seats are hard to see around when perched atop a shopping cart and take up a lot of space inside shopping carts. Carrying a baby can get exhausting, awkward, and frankly I just don't like it when my babies cry and beg to be held. Wearing them solves both of those problems (I also like to have use of both of my arms, totally selfish I know.)

Turns out my main motivation for breastfeeding and my other main motivation for having Vivi room-in with us (let's be honest, I totally wanted to co-sleep) are the same as my motivations for babywearing…I'm kind of selfish and lazy and love convenience. (Cody's main motivation for babywearing is it gets him lots of attention from the ladies.)

Related: 7 things you should NEVER say to the mom of a newborn

I wanted to breastfeed because it's super cheap and super convenient. I like cheap and convenient! It can help you lose weight! May help prevent cancer! May keep your period at bay longer! YAY TO ALL OF THE ABOVE! All the money I've spent on formula in the last year could have been put towards a new camera lens her college education and all that time spent washing bottles and all the room I wasted in the diaper bag dedicated to the powder keg and bottles, I could have been giving myself a pedicure or been carrying a much lighter diaper bag. Ah well, the boobs didn't work, but had they? It would have been motivated by personal gain, supported in whole by the unique health benefits for my baby. Had I been able to breastfeed? I can promise you I wouldn't have been done at a year.

Related: Extreme Breastfeeding! 21 photos of women nursing in outrageous places

Co-sleeping? In those early weeks it so much easier to lie down in bed with a little baby, shove a boob in their mouth and let them nosh until you're both fed, relaxed and passed out. There are dangers to co-sleeping of course, but we always had people watching out for us in those first 8 weeks. Moving a sleeping baby (well, my sleeping babies) is basically a sleep death sentence, you don't move sleeping babies made by me, they wake up and DON'T GO BACK TO SLEEP. Cody couldn't have handled co-sleeping no matter what so we negotiated on rooming-in. SO MUCH EASIER than going ALL THE WAY across the house to check on the baby. You can look at them whenever you want! You can hear their adorable sleeping noises! It's so much easier to check on and hear a baby that's in the same room as you! Cody wasn't having it. She was booted at 4 months. Again, my motivations on sleeping arrangements were purely selfish in the best kind of way. I just love that baby too much to leave her by herself and boy howdy if I don't love snuggling with her warm, sleeping little body. (I still stalk the video monitor regularly.)

Sure, breastfeeding, co-sleeping and babywearing are the three pillars of attachment parenting, but they also just happen to be the three pillars of super convenient parenting as well, which is what I totally subscribe to (and I didn't even need a book to tell me how to do it!)

- By Casey Mullins
Follow Casey on Babble

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