'The Big Bang Theory' actress, Mayim Bialik, talked to Anderson Cooper on his daytime talk show, Anderson, about Attachment Parenting (AP) yesterday. The subject of the recent Time magazine cover, showing a four-year-old breastfeeding, came up. Bialik expressed what many AP moms feel, she said, "Time magazine has made this a competition, 'are you mom enough?' None of us [attachment parents] feel that way." Moms who practice AP are generally very nonconfrontational and love to share information about AP, not battle it out about who's a better mom.
Dr. Bialik, 35, is best known for her longtime role as TV's 'Blossom'. She is the mother of two boys and she is breastfeeding her three-year-old son, Frederick. She was joined on the show by fellow actress Rebecca Romijn who doesn't practice AP. Dr. Bialik explained, "I think a lot of people hear this term and think a lot of things, that there's some attachment parenting police, that if you have a c-section, you're out, if you don't breastfeed, you're out... it's simply not that."
Attachment Parenting is 'controversial' and proven effective method of parenting where parents follow their instincts and parent in a more natural manner, like breastfeeding until the child weans and safely co-sleeping. The Time magazine cover has ignited a bit of a 'mommy war' online between AP moms and other moms, but much of the arguing is based on misinformation. Mayim Bialik has written a book called Beyond The Sling: A Real-Life Guide To Raising Confident, Loving Children The Attachment Parenting Way.
For more information, check out Attachment Parenting International.
© Margie Wilson-Mars 2012
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Comments: 3
In any event, there is a distinction between keeping children close because they are happy that way and desire it and keeping them close because we feel pain at their maturation and increased desires for independence and choice. Bowlby evaluated parent-child attachment on a case by case basis, and so should we. One size does not fit all. (www.smartlovepress.com, www.mommydaddyihadabaddream.com).
Martha Heineman Pieper, Ph.D.