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Home › Articles › Family Life › Getting Attached to Attachment Parenting

Getting Attached to Attachment Parenting

What Does It Mean, How Does It Work and Is It Right for You?

By Mark Stackpole

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What parent doesn't want to feel more attached to her child? What child wouldn't benefit from a close physical and emotional relationship with his parents?

It would be difficult to overestimate the importance of the bond between parent and child, and parents who practice attachment parenting aren't interested in trying. Through their parenting philosophy, reflected by some simple behavioral techniques, attachment parents are committed to helping their children achieve their full potential.

What Does It Mean?
Attachment theory, pioneered by British psychoanalyst John Bowlby, says that the bonds formed between an infant and his primary caregiver (usually his mother) have a lifelong impact on him.

By responding promptly and appropriately to his needs, the caregiver is able to establish a secure attachment with the child and help him successfully deal with emotional issues like fear and stress. In short, the child becomes better adjusted with closer personal relationships.

As attachment parenting is based on attachment theory, at its core is a similar theme: Babies have needs and they depend on their parents to meet them.

How Does It Work?
Dave Taylor of Boulder, Colo., is a devoted attachment parent of three. "Basically, the idea is that we are social creatures and anything that pushes us apart is unnatural," he says. "There's no reason a baby needs to sleep in a crib in a separate room, for example, and that's a very new idea for society. Instead, babies and children can sleep with their parents quite safely, and gain the great benefit of skin contact and greater sense of loving attachment."


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