How We Parent Our Little Man

The baby industry offers an abundance of information.  There are books and blogs, magazines and medical journals, and then every person you come in contact with has advice or opions for raising your children.

We were fortunate not to become innundated or overwhelemed.  There are a few books that we skimmed.  Trusted friends who we consulted. But all in all, at the end of the day, we trusted our gut.  At first, I was fearful of sharing the ways we weren't following the letter of the law, afraid of judgement.  Overtime, I have gained the confidence to stand firm on the decision we have made for our family.  So it is with this new found confidence that I share how we parent.

We attachment parent, but don't.

When Behr wants to sleep in our bed, he does.

But I am not always a snuggler.  I make no promises.

We are just as happy when Behr sleeps in his crib.

When I am cranky, Behr gets the cold shoulder, and I am okay with that. 

We do not let him cry it out.  It never worked.  Within a few minutes, Behr would be crying so hard he would stop breathing.

We rock Behr to sleep, and so does our daycare.  They are great.

I make Behr's food with organic produce from our farm share.

And we feed him store bought food for the convenience, because sometimes you need convenience.

I give him whole food often, like the apple slices above.  This worries many people, but Behr is a great eater and knows how to take small "bites."

Behr nurses.  Drinks bottles.  And occasionally has formula.  It is a mixed bag.

We started with cloth diapers.

And now we use disposables.  It makes more sense for our life right now.

We do not punish yet, because we cannot keep a straight face.

But we are teaching "gentle," because baby claws can hurt!

We encourage Behr with laughter when he spits and sprays his food.

This might come back to haunt us, but we are enjoying living in the moment.

We are not trying to teach Behr to crawl.  If he wants to, he will.

I am content with my little immobile baby, but encourage him to stand, because that makes him happy.

We do not have a schedule.

"They" say that scheduled help babies learn, adapt, and cope.  

Behr is doing just fine witha  flexible feeding schedule and bed time.

I am sure there are more things that we do and don't do.  Some habbits that might make you cringe.  But at the end of the day, we parent in a way that is best for our family.

What are some of the things that work for you and your family?

I am linking up to Small Style.  Behr's plaid shirt is from Carter's and I love how he looks like a Little Man!

10 comments:

  1. His little smiles just kill me. And, to me, it sounds like you're doing an excellent job at being parents. I don't think there should be "set ways" on parenting. It's different for every parent, every child.

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  2. Oh he is just too precious! My hubby and I don't have any little ones yet, but I imagine we'll have a parenting style like yours - figure out what works best for us and go with it! You seem to be doing a great job raising that handsome little man!

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  3. I love love love this. Totally coming back to it when rigobaby makes an appearance.

    Oh, and I love you. Did you know that? Well I do.

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  4. You are great parents! I totally agree with that parenting philosophy- trust your gut!

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  5. thanks for all of the sweet encouraging comments. parenting is full of tough decisions, and if you aren't able to be confident, it can be overwhelming. i hope this post allowed some mom some where to know that doing what is best for her family is the right deicion no matter what the books and experts have to say!

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  6. He is just delicious! I think you're a great mom. I have a blog post similar to this in theme rolling around in my head. Maybe I'll post mine soon!

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  7. I say yes to being flexible. Yes. And, I always try to remember, "Don't freak out right away. Give whatever 'crisis' hits a few a days or weeks and chances are, it won't be a problem anymore."

    Also, sometimes it's okay to NOT eat dinner as a family, feed the kids scrambled eggs and fruit, put them to bed early, and eat take out in bed. Bam.

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  8. Love this post, Shannon! You and Mark seem like you're doing such a great job with Behr and it sounds like we are very, very similar in our "parenting philosophies"... :) Hope to meet the little man some day. You guys aren't going to Homecoming this year, are you?

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  9. I love this! I have a post in my head so much like this...but so much less nice...It sounds a lot more like...back off you haters... I'll raise my kid the way I want too, and oh yeah, she's doing just fine. Love it.

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  10. i didn't walk until i was 2 years old. just because. you know, i just liked chillin'. so yay for immobile babies. especially cute little blond ones :)

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