I have always practiced attachment parenting with my three kids; nursing on demand, holding them till they fell asleep, coming to them when they cry and I have never let them cry it out. In the early days of being a Mom, I received a lot of criticism for my way of doing things. I heard things like, "You really should let them cry. They will never learn to soothe themselves. You are crippling their independence and you have to let them grow up and be independent (this was at 2)."
But, attachment parenting always felt right for me. I don't think it is for everyone but it made sense to me and it felt in alignment with how I wanted to show up as my kids’ Mom. And yet, I worried, "What if they are right? What if I am holding back my child's growth and development? What if they never want to leave the house or worse, what if they still live at home when they are fifty?" I had never been a Mom before. How could I know for sure?
And then there are these moments like last night. My six year old had her first ever slumber party at our house. At one point during the night one of her friends started to cry as she was removing her Band-Aid. I jumped up to run to the rescue but then, my six year old looked at me, put her hand out in the air and said, "Mom, I got this. I can take care of her." Then, I stood there and watched as she wrapped her arm around her little friend and said, "There, there, it's ok. I am here for you. Can I help you?"
It's these small sweet milestone moments that make all the sleepless nights worth staying up through and all of the heavy lifting worth lifting. I am so grateful to be a witness of these little peoples' sacred journey!
It's 5:59 AM the next day, I am soaking in the joy of listening to the monitor as 5 sweet girls are all cuddled up together, upstairs...now I better think about breakfast.