Quite early on, I discovered attachment parenting. A lot of its principles seemed to fit nicely into what I was doing anyway- breastfeeding, not bothering with much routine, and using a sling a lot of the time. This started just for convenience with dog walking but soon morphed into a way to keep her happy and be able to carry on with normal life. The more enveloped in this lifestyle and journey into what five years ago felt like anti-mainstream parenting, the more tools I discovered that worked for us. Bedsharing. Cloth nappies. Gentle discipline. I found a tribe of very similar mums, both online and in real life and soon forgot that the way I was parenting could be seen by others as anything other than normal.
The last few days I've been familiarising myself with the Babycalm book in preparation for my upcoming training. Everything in it stems from science and evolution. Instead of treating babies like a problem that needs a solution, the book gives you a range of tools and ideas to help calm them, and to give you confidence that you are raising a very normal human infant not a monster manipulator.
I would urge any new mums or mums to be to find a copy. It really is an absolute essential read and I hope it generates as many lightbulb moments for you as it did for me the first time around.