R-E-S-P-E-C-T, Find out What It Means to Me!

I was part of a discussion today about RESPECT revolving around parenting issues. The woman I was talking to is very.....crunchy (as she describes herself). She was wondering why there is so much defense, and so much hostility from the public towards moms that do things against the grain. It really got me thinking about my "village".

I fully believe that it takes a village to raise a child. My family is pretty far away, so my village mainly consists of the other moms I have met in the area. We are such a diverse group of women, each with our own unique expertise and our own thoughts and feelings regarding parenting (and everything else for that matter, but this is a blog about MOTHERHOOD).

Me personally, I guess I am somewhat crunchy. I aimed for a more natural approach to childbirth (didn't get it but aimed for it), exclusively breastfed (no bottles) for 6 months before introducing formula out of necessity, make my own purees, buy organic when practical, make cleaners & buy green cleaners for my home, and I am now going to try out cloth diapers!

One of my good friends, whom Addie and myself spend quite a bit of time with, does things completely differently than I do! We have our similarities, sure. One would probably call us both fairly crunchy, but our parenting techniques are completely different. She is much less worrisome than I am (in fact she's the one I call to calm me down when I freak abou.t something), she practices Baby-led Weaning, Co-sleeping, baby wearing (to an extent I suppose), and is still exclusively breastfeeding. I, on the other hand, practice crib sleeping, spoon-led weaning, & only use my baby carrier for hiking. Until I joined an online discussion this morning, I didn't even realize how differently we parented. It's all about respect for our fellow mothers.

This is true of all of my mommy friends. I love that we can get past our differences and respect each others differences instead of showing hostility or defense at something that's "against the grain". We are all so different, yet we all have one thing that pulls us together and teaches us respect. We are all part of the club, we all learned the secret hand shake in the delivery room that made us all pull together and become friends. I would be lost without the village that has built up around us.