Real. Simple. Parenting.

Tag: attachment

Teach A Simple Listening Activity to Your Kids

I’m a music teacher who is now a stay-at-home mom. While my current role is different – I’m at home with my own children instead of a music classroom – I still love teaching age-appropriate music lessons to my kids! I frequently come up with new ideas, and I have a great session you can do with kids as young as two years old. This music lesson is simple and customizable for children preschool age and up, no teaching experience needed! Read on to learn how to do a simple music listening activity with your kids!

Continue reading

Raising Children with Emotional Intelligence

I want my children to grow up with a healthy emotional intelligence. Simply put, I want them to have a healthy range of emotions, know the vernacular so that they can express those feelings, and deal with unpleasant feelings in a safe way. That emotional education begins when they are still quite young and must happen regularly. Let me give you some insight into what’s working beautifully for our family! Continue reading

Teaching My Child with Natural Consequences: The AP Alternative to Punishment

My son is an amazing child: he’s considerate, kind, and sensitive. And I knew early on that I would never spank or hit him. But he’s at an age where we need to have an effective, consistent way to correct him and teach him. I’m here to tell you: attachment parenting does not mean that you let your kids do whatever the hell they want. We have high expectations, we are consistent, and we mean what we say. But how we discipline our kids may look quite different from what you’re used to. We use what’s called “natural consequences.” And let me say, it works beautifully. Continue reading

This Is Why I Baby Wear

As a babywearing mama, I get a lot of different comments from people when I am out and about. Some mention how happy and cozy my baby looks, while others ask questions. It’s a challenge to answer them in a way which really explains and glorifies babywearing like it deserves. There are so many reasons why I enjoy wearing my baby, it would be impossible to explain them all to a complete stranger (although I’ve thought about making a pamphlet that I could just pass out as I walk away).

Here is a very honest list which hopefully will do justice to how wonderful it is to babywear! Continue reading

Attachment Parenting for the Working Mom

I’m so excited to have Marie Levey-Pabst write the first guest post on Real Simple Mama! Marie helps families on a regular basis with her business, Create Balance. She’s an AP mom and an ex-teacher just like me! We both feel for the working mom who wants to live an attachment parenting lifestyle. Here are Marie’s words of wisdom.

From Marie Levey-Pabst (of Create Balance: createbalancedlife.com) Continue reading

Real Simple: Attachment Parenting My Way

Attachment parenting: it is the foundation for this entire website, and I have become quite passionate about its advocacy. I wanted my first article to be significant, so I am giving you my definition of this parenting style as well as some other things I have learned over the last few years.

real simple parenting

real simple parenting

First, though, I have to tell you something – don’t obsess about finding a name to give your own parenting style. No one is going to stop you on the street and ask “what parenting philosophy do you follow?”  I did not even know about attachment parenting until after my first child was born, and I had obsessively read and researched everything when I was pregnant. As cliché as it may sound, I guess you could say that attachment parenting found me. Not the other way around. It’s totally OK to not have a name for what you practice.

I also have a confession.  I hate the name “attachment” parenting. I guess it is my educational background that makes me think of a parent hovering around their child, wiping their nose and keeping them from experiencing anything.  In the teaching world, we call that “helicopter mom” – and it is definitely a derogatory term. So my initial impression was of a paranoid germaphobic mom and a clingy, emotionally unstable child.

Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Continue reading

© 2024 Real Simple Mama

Theme by Anders NorenUp ↑