Strollerderby

Ugh, it all just drives me batty. Like a lot of first time moms I am plagued with enough self-doubt, I don't need other moms heaping more onto me. Breastfeed, bottle feed, co-sleep, cry it out. Whatever. I trust parents to make their own decisions when it comes to this stuff - after all, I don't know their babies, so how can I pretend to know what's best for them?

Really, can't we all just get along?

Carolyn

www.momsontheedge.typepad.com

I agree w/Carolyn.  Let's stop the guilt olympics please!!  I'm a total slacker parent and I breast fed for 2 1/2 years and coslept.  I love Dr Sears too but the reason I did both was because I am a total slacker.  No really.  I did have to supplement and that was a LOT of work.  Those bottles and lactaids are a bitch to clean!!

Enough with the generalizations!  I feel like this is turning into Fox news or something of the parenting set. If I wanted to deal with the "they" don't let us say Merry Christmas anymore (for example) mindset, I'll call my octogenarian mom.  

Um, no imagining required. Those comments, verbatim, are thrown around all the time (except maybe the T. Berry Brazelton bit. It's more likely to be Weisbluth or babywise, depending on geography). (Your child will never learn to sleep on her own if she's not in her own bed! Her health and teeth are suffering from your insistence on breastfeeding after 12 months! Your baby will never learn independence if you keep picking her up! Indulgent parents like you are RUINING THE COUNTRY!)

There's enough hate to go around, from all sides. Carolyn's right, we're all doing the best we can with the kids we have and the people we are. Yeah, it sucks when people criticize your parenting.  But I think arguing about whether one group or another is more judgmental just adds to the false divisions and lack of respect for each other's choices that are the problems in the first place.  (didn't kelly blog about this a few months ago?)

Those breast feeders are just plain unAmerican! I tell you what!

Eh.  I'm a breastfeeding, co-sleeping, child-led weaning, crunchy kind of mom.  I'm not perfect (really, one look at my house will tell you that!).  But it goes both ways.  There's a lot of bashing of breastfeeding/co-sleeping moms going on, too.  No matter what you do, someone's going to tell you you're doing it wrong.  At the end of the day, all that matters is that you can answer to yourself and your family.

The whole right/wrong aspect of the argument is ridiculous. No one way is right or wrong--you've got to do what's best for your individual child and for you. Find a method that works for your own family.

Please, babble comments are full of people telling AP parents they're ruining their kids' life and have psychological problems. It totally goes both ways.

On parenting sites I do not admit I used CIO, because APs totally judge me for it. My friend across the street admitted using CIO to some AP friends of hers and the friendships cooled. I think - and this is not limited to APs by any stretch, my examples are because I'm not an AP, so that's where I get the judgment - anyone convinced that their method is better is going to end up a judgmental asshole. My method's right for my kid, and that's all I know... or care about.