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33 reviews for:
The Attachment Parenting Book: A Commonsense Guide to Understanding and Nurturing Your Baby
William Sears, Martha Sears
4.1 AVERAGE
33 reviews for:
The Attachment Parenting Book: A Commonsense Guide to Understanding and Nurturing Your Baby
William Sears, Martha Sears
4.1 AVERAGE
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Maybe there are good little snippets of advice in this book, maybe, so 1 star for the few and far between one liners I found. memorable. I cannot stand these Doctors. I find them annoying, and weird, and I don't even want their books in my office or at home. Suggesting that it's okay for parents to allow their baby to co-sleep and then have sex in the same bed the baby is co-sleeping in is insane and gross and weird. Telling men that a main reason they should take care of their children and actually be a parent is because it "turns women on" 🤢 Dr. Bill Sears...you better hope we're never in the same room together...At least in their breastfeeding book, they tried to hide their anti-feminist, fundamentalist, garbage advice, key word is tried. Mostly, it was more easily ignorable because at least they were giving good information about the biology of breastfeeding. Hopefully I can find something to do with this piece of junk book because I'm not giving it to anyone...
I first read this book long before we started trying to get pregnant. I love the ideas presented in the attachment parenting philosophy, from baby wearing and co-sleeping to being able to read your child’s signs and having them learn from close interactions with adults.
Now that I am a parent, I believe this book served us very well. Reading it years before I got pregnant helped us really formulate our parenting strategy and feel confident with the decisions we were making along the way. We have also benefited from seeking out other parents who follow a similar approach (no matter what they call it) because not everyone believes we're making the best choices and it helps to see our model in action in other families.
Now that I am a parent, I believe this book served us very well. Reading it years before I got pregnant helped us really formulate our parenting strategy and feel confident with the decisions we were making along the way. We have also benefited from seeking out other parents who follow a similar approach (no matter what they call it) because not everyone believes we're making the best choices and it helps to see our model in action in other families.
hopeful
informative
medium-paced
A little preachy and sometimes annoyingly gender-stereotyping, but clarified for me what the term "attachment parenting" is about; really, a fancy term for intuitive and responsive parenting. I don't buy in to polarizing parents by labels or villainizing people who don't go with this approach, but I did find it informative to read about the different ways we form attachment to babies and how that might affect their long-term development; that said, I don't think this or any "textbook"approach is the only way to achieve healthy long-term development; you pick and choose tools that work for you and your family to build attachment with your baby. I appreciate that it acknowledged the potentially taxing emotional and fatiguing effects of the approach on parents and offered tips for avoiding burnout and making the approach fit to your own circumstances.
This book was aimed at "younger" parents than I am, my kids are 2 & 4, so I skipped a lot of the infant info because it doesn't apply to me anymore. Attachment parenting is what I identify with most, and like a lot of AP parents, I do it on instinct and learned it had a name after I started parenting this way. So a bunch of this info was more of a refresher. I really love that Dr. Sears emphasizes that it's not an all-or-nothing approach, take what you need and don't worry about the rest. You are the right parent for your baby.
I would say this is a great book for someone trying to figure out what type of parenting method they want to use or for someone who is interested in attachment parenting but either not completely sold on it or just needs to read more about it to understand exactly what it entails. It is a fairly short and easy read full of useful information. It begins by going over what attachment parenting is and how it is beneficial. Then it discusses each of the 7 B's that basically make up attachment parenting: Birth bonding, Breastfeeding, Babywearing, Bedding close to baby, Belief in baby's cry, Balance and boundaries, and Beware of baby trainers. Finally, the book discusses how fathers are involved in attachment parenting and how mothers who work full time can do attachment parenting as well.
The important point that this book emphasizes is that every baby and every parent is different, thus there is no one formula for parenting that will work for everyone. Attachment parenting is flexible with the goals being to listen and connect with your child, to love and understand your child; to attach! The seven B's are just things that are conducive to helping you connect with your child.
When my baby was born, I didn't decide to select a parenting method that appealed to me, research it and follow its directions. Instead, I chose to listen to my heart. For me that meant sleeping with him at night because he wasn't happy anywhere else, it meant nursing him, it meant wearing him around because I couldn't stand using the stroller and enjoyed the exercise and having him near me. Following my heart meant spending time with him and trying to learn about his personality because it was fun and I am excited be around and get to know this little human. As my baby started growing, I was interested in learning more about his development so I picked up a copy of Dr. Sear's [b:The Baby Book: Everything You Need to Know About Your Baby from Birth to Age Two|204286|The Baby Book Everything You Need to Know About Your Baby from Birth to Age Two (Revised and Updated Edition)|William Sears|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172662127s/204286.jpg|43506]. It was while reading through that book that I realized the parenting style I had developed intuitively was attachment parenting. So I picked up this book (The Attachment Parenting Book) just to read more about it and see if there were any tips I might find helpful along the way. It covers a lot of the same information as "The Baby Book" does, so if you have a copy of that you don't really need this book. Otherwise, it is worth having a read through!
The important point that this book emphasizes is that every baby and every parent is different, thus there is no one formula for parenting that will work for everyone. Attachment parenting is flexible with the goals being to listen and connect with your child, to love and understand your child; to attach! The seven B's are just things that are conducive to helping you connect with your child.
When my baby was born, I didn't decide to select a parenting method that appealed to me, research it and follow its directions. Instead, I chose to listen to my heart. For me that meant sleeping with him at night because he wasn't happy anywhere else, it meant nursing him, it meant wearing him around because I couldn't stand using the stroller and enjoyed the exercise and having him near me. Following my heart meant spending time with him and trying to learn about his personality because it was fun and I am excited be around and get to know this little human. As my baby started growing, I was interested in learning more about his development so I picked up a copy of Dr. Sear's [b:The Baby Book: Everything You Need to Know About Your Baby from Birth to Age Two|204286|The Baby Book Everything You Need to Know About Your Baby from Birth to Age Two (Revised and Updated Edition)|William Sears|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172662127s/204286.jpg|43506]. It was while reading through that book that I realized the parenting style I had developed intuitively was attachment parenting. So I picked up this book (The Attachment Parenting Book) just to read more about it and see if there were any tips I might find helpful along the way. It covers a lot of the same information as "The Baby Book" does, so if you have a copy of that you don't really need this book. Otherwise, it is worth having a read through!
I wouldn't say I read this so much as I browsed through it. It was fine, although much of it was directed at how carrying your baby, giving birth to your baby, and breastfeeding your baby are all incredibly important for bonding with your baby. I don't deny that, but since I don't have those options ... well, that probably explains why I didn't spend much time reading it.
Commonsense guide is really the correct term here because most of what is in this book should be common sense, which made it sort of a boring read but I suppose it had to be said for someone out there.
I really appreciate the Sears' library of books about children, pregnancy, and childbirth. Not that I needed vindication, but I enjoyed seeing the science behind the choices I've made instinctively.