My Baby Doesn't Believe in Attachment Parenting
There's a Time cover story out this week that discusses the popularity of the attachment parenting trendand book behind the movement's,The Baby Bookby Dr. William Sears. As Time sums up, "The three basic tenets are breast-feeding (sometimes into toddlerhood), co-sleeping (inviting babies into the parental bed or pulling a bassinet alongside it) and 'baby wearing' in which infants are literally attached to their mothers via slings."
When I was pregnant, as far as I knew, this was the only book to read about how to take care of a baby. What the Dr. Spock book was to my parents, the Dr. Sears book is to my generation of moms. It's the only book my friends with kids told me to get.
Since I wasn't working, I had the luxury of being able to breastfeed on demand, wear my baby and be exhausted all the time (thanks to responding to every single cry my baby made.) I wanted to follow Dr. Sears' every word, so that my son and I would have the tightest possible bond. It was only once my son was born that I started to realize that some of Dr. Sears' suggestions not only didn't work for me, but they didn't work for my son, either.
Related: What's the Time cover story really trying to say?
I wanted to be an attachment parent. I really did. I bought and/or accepted hand-me-downs of several kinds of baby carriers, because I had visions of accomplishing all kinds of work around the house while wearing my baby. As it turned out, Laszlo wouldn't have it. I spent hours manipulating the Moby baby wrap into all kinds of sophisticated carrying designs, and Laszlo didn't like any of them. But I was determined. I tried the Baby Bjorn, the Ergo, a sling, and another model whose name I don't remember because it's been discontinued. He didn't like any of them. What he did like was when I just carried him in my arms all day. No baby carriers allowed, he seemed to say. Not possible, I said. I tried a vibrating bouncie seat. He loved it. My arms were happy for a rest, too.
Neither Joel nor I were into the idea of co-sleeping. Joel likes to have sex. A lot. Or at least, he likes to think there's a possibility of having sex a lot. A baby in the bed kind of puts a damper on that. Still, I thought it would be fun and cute to at least sometimes bring Laszlo into bed with us for co-sleeping. Probably because Joel thought that it would get him more sex if he went along with what I wanted, he said okay. Laszlo thought it was so fun and exciting to be in bed with us that he couldn't sleep. He would just wiggle around and make noises. We didn't sleep either. After a few attempts at co-sleeping, we found that none of us were able to sleep that way.
Related: Good Dads vs. Bad Moms -- The worst parenting stereotypes
I breastfed like an attachment parenting pro. Laszlo latched on well and ate like a champ. Feeding on demand worked for me. However, I persevered through the pain of a few rounds of blocked milk ducts and homemade cabbage-bra remedies. The boob with the blocked ducts continued to manufacture, but it deflated to half the size of the other boob. (Don't worry, everyone, my breasts are perfectly symmetrical now!) I had every intention of breastfeeding to the AAP-recommended 12 months, but at around month 9, Laszlo stopped being interested. He ignored my boobs for a few days in a row and they dried up. That was that.
Hello. My name is Cassandra, and I'm not an attachment parent.
That's how I feel sometimes. Like this is something I need to confess. Like I failed. It's such a prevailing parenting technique, and I was happy to see that Time covered it. I feel like I'm one of the few people who this isn't really working for, especially In Hollywood, the land of yuppie-hippie moms who are self-righteous and adamant about their attachment parenting philosophies. It often feels like I'm in a contest with other moms to see who's sacrificed and bonded with their children the most. As Time points out, this "philosophy has shifted mainstream American parenting toward a style that's more about parental devotion and sacrifice than about raising self-sufficient kids." It's the old fashioned martyr complex re-packaged in a touchy-feely philosophy about listening to your baby's needs.
Related: Cassandra Barry on the Hippie Mom Superiority Complex
I get why attachment parenting is so popular in my demographic. It seems like parents often try to deliberately do the opposite of what their parents did. Most of my friends were born in the 1970s. As a recent article from the New York Times about differences over parenting styles says, my generation of fellow parents are "nursing psychic wounds from the family disruption and disengagement that had swept through their own homes in the 1970s." Through attachment parenting, some moms are trying to make up something they felt was lacking in their 1970s upbringing. Perhaps these moms were latchkey kids, children of divorce, or otherwise feel they were robbed of a childhood. A mom friend of mine who follows this type of parenting style once told me that the reason why it speaks to her so strongly is that she feels like when she was a kid, her feelings weren't validated by her parents.
I feel like I do my best job as a mom when I take care of myself first. For me, that means getting some sleep and having some autonomy and a sense of identity beyond just being a mother. I'm the best mom I can be when I'm not exhausted and sacrificing for my son all the time. When Laszlo was a baby, this meant not carrying him all the time, using a bottle instead of the boob from time to time, and teaching him how to sleep through the night.
I know it's not "cool," but I guess I'm a bit more of a traditionalist. I used a little bit of Dr. Sears' advice, sure. But not all of it. One parenting technique does not fit all. To any of you moms out there who feel pressured by the extremes of the attachment parenting movement: You are not alone.
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Cassandra Barry is sometimes known for playing the role of "my lovely wife" in Joel Stein's columns for Time magazine and other publications. His story in which she ate her own placenta in pill form is the one she's most often asked about. Her son, Laszlo, is in preschool. After several years in New York City, she loves living in Los Angeles, where she works as a textile designer. She finds it weird to write about herself in the third person like this.
