Tip 70: Belief in yourself, beware of baby trainers

Each child is unique, a gift of God, your special child that you as a parent will understand more as you spend time with your child. In our society these days, a special child is frowned upon, deemed as requiring too much attention and is unable to be trained under society's education system. But, lest we change this mindset and look at each child as special under God's eyes instead of comparing the child with others, we are overlooking the beauty in our child, devaluing God's miracle in our lives as well as understating the role we play as parents. From child birth to raising a teenager, communication through close bonds - be it breastfeeding, playing or teaching is the parent's role on earth, to understand the child's needs and guide the child to meet his/her potential. Hence, the center of attachment parenting is on continuous thorough communication to care for the child, which may lead to options of being a full time parent or devoting to home schooling. But most importantly, not to follow convenient advices blindly, but to understand your child well enough to know what's best for your child and devote time and energy to be that expert in your child.

As I read more about attachment parenting, I begin to shudder at the burden of parenting, but realize that this is actually expected of us, parents. Being the easy going, complacent daddy that I am, its actually good to be woken up to such expectations, so my efforts would at least be more than half of perfect parenting, and quite disastrous should I have sticked to a more convenient parenting style. As Tomomi is a full time mother, all credit goes to her for her desire to bridge the distance between parent and child. As Haruka is growing up, Haruka is beginning to respond well to my speaking to her, clowning around, playing with her and reading. I try to understand what makes her tick, understand why she cries by understanding her and not following some schedule or clock rule. According to attachment parenting, all this convenient parenting rules are a short term gain but a long term loss. Thats true that relationships are not easy and raising a child means lots of time investment. I will do my best each day as a daddy and try to understand what is best for my child as I spend more time with her.