A Shot in the Dark

Interesting article.

As an avid cloth-diapering mom, I fell in closely with the alternative-parenting community, which embraces many concepts I agree with completely:

Attachment parenting in general, which replaces the neo-mod 50s ideal that pregnancy is socially unacceptable; babies, and kids, are accessories to be tended at one's convenience; and instead recognizes the fact that, for all our scientific advances, we are still mammals who are evolved to cuddle and love our young;

Breast-feeding as opposed to bottle-feeding, which is a large part of what I like to call "detachment parenting:" not that I have a huge philosophical objection to bottle-feeding in and of itself, except that, unless there is a medical or work-related reason, it's just less efficient and more impractical and does not foster the natural attachment between mother and baby;

Co-sleeping as opposed to the crib, which serves to make more immediate and abrupt the separation between mother and infant, who are designed by evolution to remain almost as close as during pregnancy, growing apart gradually rather than experiencing an abrupt end to their previous unified state;

Cry-It-Out vs. Comfort-On-Demand, a conflict between the early imposition of artificial schedules on a particularly tiny and helpless personage who doesn't understand what the hell the problem is, as opposed to the mother doing what she feels like doing when her little one is screaming (pick it up and give it love, or alternately go outside where she cannot hear it - for you new moms, this is also okay to do, as mother and baby will each come to understand and accept the needs of the other);

Natural Childbirth vs. Give Me The Fucking Drugs Already You Asshole: Well, this one is pretty subjective. I'm personally on the side of natural, and have done it myself three times. However, I am prepared to accept, without judgment, that those less perfect (i.e. amply endorphine-riddled and hippy) than myself might like to have a spot of epidural. We all get something and lose something to compensate. I personally have 20/2400 vision without contacts. Charles Darwin would kick my ass over that one. Also, my teeth were crooked.

Vaccinations:

Now listen. I haven't been an active member of the online parenting community for a few years, but when I was, the divide between vaccinating and non-vaccinating was huge. It split pretty neatly along party lines, too. Cloth-diapering, baby-wearing, breast-feeding, natural-birthing, attachment-parenting moms were also overwhelmingly anti-vaccination. And this really always bothered me, because I do, and did vaccinate my kids, and believe passionately in doing so. There are so many ridiculous, needless diseases that have been almost completely wiped out by modern medicine. To think of some of those diseases making a comeback because some of my ilk have been seduced by the Germy Side is more than I really like to think of.

Free-thinking parents should be, you know, free-thinking, and be doing their own research. I'm hoping that the anti-vaccination pendulum is well-begun on its swing in the other direction.

How stupid, on top of everything else horrible, would you feel if your child died of measles??