Serenity Parenting

     .....And then they're gone.  All the agonizing! Cry it out or rock to sleep?  Baby sling or too much coddling?  Juice or no juice? Time out for hitting or talk about our feelings?  TV or no TV?  Co-sleeping or to each her own crib?  The list of parenting choices and their infinite varieties goes on... and on... and on...

    Beyond the list of parenting possibilities are the Advocates.  You have to let them cry it out or you're creating a life long insomniac.  If you don't nurse, you're ruining your child's changes of good health and secure relationship with you.  If you let them sleep in your bed, they'll be there until they're 48 years old.  I'm finding as I navigate the minefield of parenting possibilities that the possibilities are polarizing.  

     I'm wondering how I know that rocking my child to sleep is the right choice for every child, or every family.  I'm wondering how that mama knows that cry it out is right for my child and my family.  In fact, I'm wondering how I'll even know if rocking my child to sleep is right for my figurative second child, even if it was right for the first one.

     Serenity parenting, folks.  I haven't looked it up, but it's the phrase that floats to mind when I hear parents ripping each other to shreds over one another's choices.  Within limits of humane treatment, the rightt parenting choices feel right.  They feel right to you, your partner, and your child.  They do not cause you additional stress.  They give you a sense of inner calm, they give you what you need and what your child needs.  

     Let's do this - a serenity parenting village.  A village that says, "That choice sounds just right for you! How did you do it?" and "I love that idea, I'll add to my tips and tricks when we get to that bridge".  How about a village of parents supporting one another's unique lives and environments, offering love and guidance drawn from the pages of all our parenting dogma books?

Serenity parenting.  Parenting that feels right to adults and children.