Wednesday, March 23, 2011

So what is this fuss about Natural Parenting?

Sometimes ago, I was being questioned by fellow blogger mates, what is actually natural parenting. It was rather time consuming to explain it to her there and then so to summarize the whole concept, I simply informed that it is all about what most natural as nature's intended to you as a parent on your parenting style. It is oppose to what is considered as artificial and act the best that you can in natural manner thus as might be expected.

To date, Natural Parenting is more of a philosophy of gentle, healthy childbirth and growth. This approach has been closely called attachment parenting or empathetic parenting as well. It is often considered to be New Age kind of trend in parenting style but it is in fact age-old. I believe we are partly Naturalist Parent internally but we just probably unaware to the terms and characteristics.


Gone are the days where parents would totally rely on technology to the extent parents tend to ignore their gut feelings. Supposedly, we as a parent treats technology with caution and to put it simply, believing what we know our hearts to be true. I guess you do some of basic ideals or guidelines in Natural Parenting and it never crossed your mind that you are actually on doing Natural Parenting.

It means many things to many people but generally includes natural childbirth, breastfeeding and babywearing. Other practices commonly included are co-sleeping (family bed), avoidance the use of surrogates ie pacifiers, child-led weaning, natural diet (home-cooked baby food) and to some included homeschooling and baby signing and the latest cloth diapering. These are merely tools and practices that assist parent to fine tune to their child needs. The benefits of each of them would just blossom naturally to both child and parents.

Can we choose love by accepting our baby's legitimate human needs and responding to them with an open heart? To do so requires us to trust our babies and ultimately that we trust ourselves. Each of us is an original. Parents are not perfect but we can continually recognize the critical importance of how we behave toward our children. Children may be small in size but they deserve to have their needs taken seriously. We learn to look beneath the child's outward behaviour to understand what he is thinking and feeling. Children have a natural love of learning and do not have to be coerced. Punishment interferes with the bond between parent and child. Children deserve to be treated with respect.

If you keen and comfortable with Natural Parenting concept and approach, you will likely to enjoy your parenthood at most. However, do consider balancing all aspects and factors. It could be a trend to some but it could be something oh, so natural to you. What most important the symbiosis relations between you and your lil loved ones.

"Children raised with love and compassion 
will be free to use their time 
as adults in meaningful and creative ways, 
rather than expressing their childhood 
hurts in ways that harm themselves or others.
If adults have no need to deal with the past, 
they can live fully in the present. "
(Jan Hunt ; 2001)


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