babywise vs attachment parenting
I just figured out that the guy who created the “Growing Kids God’s Way” curriculum is the same guy who authored “Babywise” (Gary Ezzo). Someone recently mentioned GKGW to me so I went a-surfin’. Lots of controversy over Ezzo’s theories! This set me to thinking about the one extreme of Babywise versus the other extreme of Attachment Parenting. I could go on and on about this issue for awhile…I really could…but why? It’s like our pediatrician said… “you’ve got your extremes and the best way to parent is usually somewhere in the middle.”
posted by Jana at 9:44 AM
3 Comments:
Great comment Kate! (She's my wife so I have to say stuff like that - but I really mean it too!)
Although let me say...that "BabyWise" and "Growing Kids' God's Way" does work on a basic premise of molding a baby's behavior to match the convience of an adult pattern of sleep, eat, nap, and play. While attachment parenting perhaps isn't the best method for a teenager it does provide a greater opportunity for the child to develop their own unique parenting demands. I read one review on Amazon that said "My baby slept eight hours a night starting at eight weeks!" Now should that really be the goal for all babies? Babywise would say "yes!" and common sense would say no way! I have a big problem with the title "Growing Kids' Gods Way!" The hint of "exclusive truth" should be regarded with an abundance of skepticism. I have a hard time saying that Attachment Parenting is an extreme in the same sense that Babywise is.
I agree with your pediatrician. Finding that middle ground is dang difficult though, and many of your techniques and approaches need to be tailored to the child. Each child is different, and using the same approach constantly wears down in effectiveness, so new approaches have to be adopted. Parenthood is one of the most challenging jobs because there is so much repetition involved you can feel bogged down in the monotony, but on the other hand it also requires a great deal of improvisation on a constant basis. That is the dilemma of parent hood. We all go into it with the same experience... which is none, and all of us do our very best to muddle through and not screw up too badly.
Post a Comment
<< Home