Top 10 Attachment Parenting Challenges

This put a smile on my face. :)
Here's to all you fellow AP moms & dads.
Enjoy!

By Caity McCardell

Being a parent who labels herself an Attachment Parent (AP), I follow Dr. Sears' prescription: Wear your baby, sleep with your baby, nurse your baby, and tend to your baby - for as long as they want you to. This parenting style goes against modern Western tradition, which includes letting a baby "cry it out," weaning from nursing or not nursing at all, having baby sleep in a crib, and leaving baby alone in a playpen. I love my choice to parent with intuition and connection, but it comes with its trials. Following are ten AP challenges I've encountered so far… 10. Trying to explain how a baby carried in a sling will, indeed, learn how to crawl, walk, dance just like babies in strollers. 9. Feeling something's wrong when there's no one attached to my boob. 8. The Questions. On top of vegan-related questions ("is it really healthy to raise her vegan?"), people just naturally have questions about AP practices. "When are you going to wean her?" "When will you put her in her own bed?" "When are you going to put her down?" I should design a t-shirt that simply says, "When the baby wants to." 7. Public Displays of Boob (PDB). Nursing while grocery shopping, baby gets distracted, resulting in PDB. 6. Waking up shivering with half my body off the bed, next to baby and husband both splayed out with arms and legs outstretched, like sleeping jumping jacks. 5. AP Competition. "I've been wearing John for five days straight, nursing the equivalent of 20 gallons of milk and have mastered the art of changing his diaper in the sling!" "Ha! That's nothing! I just hiked Mount Shasta with Suzie in the sling, nursing her the whole way while dictating my book about the pros and cons of co-sleeping." 4. AP terminology. I'm not really "attached" to by baby; she nurses before she needs to "demand" it; and "co-sleeping" just sounds so academic. 3. Those fleeting feelings of doubt about this parenting style. Could she really crush me in my sleep? What if she doesn't wean until she leaves for college? Can I still call her vegan even though she drinks milk? What if after all this work she hates me? 2. Trying to convince my husband that I do really need a blue sling to match my blue dress… and a slick black sling to go to that wedding… and a white sling for summer… 1. And the Number 1 Challenge About Attachment Parenting. Those times when I feel so… well… detached.