Exploring Attachment Parenting & Self Care


Part One in an inevitable series.

Attachment Parenting International’s eight principles include:

1) Prepare for pregnancy, birth, and parenting;

2) Feed with love and respect;

3) Respond with sensitivity;

4) Use nurturing touch;

5) Ensure safe sleep physically and emotionally;

6) Provide consistent, loving care;

7) Practice positive discipline; and

8) Strive for balance in personal and family life.

I stand by these principles, believe in them, and am pretty darn good at all but one.  Can you guess?  Yeah, balance of course. Since my first pregnancy, my interpretation of the AP philosophy has been the reverse of the instructions you always hear from flight attendants. I determined that to provide loving, nurturing, responsive care to my babies I must first put the oxygen mask on them, then myself.

So here’s the catch. After three years of consistently interrupted sleep and minimal care of myself, I’m depleted on multiple levels. I don’t think practicing the first seven tenets of attachment parenting while sacrificing the eighth is OK anymore.  I want to to protect my health which will ultimately serve my girls as well.

The way I feel today, I could go on and on about how I find balance extremely challenging with attachment parenting, pull in an audio clip of the violin music in Young Frankenstein, (hmmm, don’t mind if I do…quite appropriate for Halloween I think) and then accomplish nothing of value for myself or anyone else.

So, instead, I’d like to put together a little Think-Positive-Mama list on a few ways I could keep on keepin’ on as a dedicated Attachment Mama, take care of my house (sort of), work part-time AND begin to care for myself too.

Let’s start with five easy things for a teeny tiny budget and my current perception of time being that I have none to spare:

1) After the girls are asleep tonight, I will use my couch time to listen to Renee Trudeau’s “The Transformative Power of Self-Care”.   Free tele-class.  Can’t vouch for its transformative influence yet, but I post it here for others to check out with me.

2) Vitamins.  Ester C in the morning. B complex at lunch. Calcium magnesium before bed.  The jars are staring at me from the counter every day.  I will swallow them with ease and appreciation.

3)  Two mornings a week I will splurge on the Depth Charge Plus for $10 at Daily Juice.  High nutrient veggies easy to digest in juice form. Coconut juice, cucumber, celery, parsley, spinach, cabbage, kale and romaine.  Add the marine phytoplankton for extra immune boost.

Hey — and what do you know?  They’re running a Halloween Special tomorrow!  Go in with your costume, do your best imitation of whatever you’re dressed as and get 1/2 off your smoothie or juice.  Rock.  Wonder if I can put my 3 year-old up to it…..

4) Now that autumn has finally graced us in Austin, every day that lacks rain, why not get outside and move the body a bit? I will dedicate 20 minutes to running around the neighborhood with one or both of the girls in the jogger.  I can.  I will.  I am.

5) I’m going to explore Stroller Yoga and work with the lovely Larissa to find a date and time that will work so I can commit to once/week.

Related Posts with Thumbnails

2 Responses to “Exploring Attachment Parenting & Self Care”

  1. Audrey says:

    What a great list! Very positive. The site is beautiful, and I’m proud of you!! Definitely going to subscribe. Good luck, I miss you, and tell everybody I love you all.

    • admin says:

      Audrey!
      Thanks for subscribing. I love it! And thank you for your sweet gift to Sadie that we received today. She was thrilled. She is still trying to comprehend what a college is, a dorm, etc. She keeps asking where your house is. I hope we can visit in the Spring — or for sure for the next Parent’s weekend so she can connect the dots. Much love to you

Leave a Reply

SUBSCRIBE VIA:




  • Categories




 

 

    Follow Me



 





 

    Places to go


     


Art by Erika Hastings at http://mudspice.wordpress.com/

 

    Add us to your site!


     

Click to get the code!