What spurred the creation of this blog...

As I mentioned, I am an active Livejournal user. Within Livejournal, I am a member of 100+ communities, and I read 25+ feeds daily. The particular pregnancy community of which I'm a part is a fairly good resource. The breastfeeding community that I'm a part of but don't watch on a regular basis is a decent one. But, as I mentioned, there are many (LOUD) proponents of attachment parenting online, and in one day I was hit by two.

I made the monumental misstep of mentioning On Becoming Babywise in the pregnancy community and had a few members not only tell me I should burn it, but one actually attempted to get me to "further educate" myself, by giving me...ONE LINK to read through.

I'm sorry, I've done my research, and I'm satisfied with it. I'm not a child, and I don't need an Internetz person to hold my hand and tell me how I should or shouldn't raise my child. Especially if the link you show me shows opinions from people who either have no reading comprehension or are giving recommendations based on what they think the book says.

For the record, I really do think a schedule makes sense, not only for giving stability to the baby, but to be sure that the family can live with having a new member that will already be turning the household upside-down. Babywise does NOT recommend keeping baby on a rigid schedule, based solely on the clock, nor does it recommend baby going hungry. Anyone who thinks it does obviously can't read.

God forbid I mention The Ferber Method. I seriously think I might be strung up. I'm sorry, but I really do believe that unless CIO (cry it out) happens, children CAN'T learn to self-soothe and it will be hell for anyone besides the parents to get the child to bed. Ever.

In the breastfeeding community, someone was actually nice about her preachy-ness, posted some links to some helpful advice without the overt implication that I was stupid, which I totally appreciated...but shared her favorite breastfeeding article, which at the end violated Godwin's Law. How is that even possible??? Yeesh.

I'm sorry, but I've already decided how I'm planning to feed my child. I can't possibly breastfeed when I go back to work. So I will pump. I don't need people telling me that:
1) I'm evil for going back to work because I can't feed on-demand.
2) I'm evil for introducing a bottle so my baby can have expressed breast milk.
3) I'm evil for not wanting to feed on-demand even in the beginning in order to keep a schedule for my husband when I do go back to work. I'm sorry; going from on-demand to a schedule would be more of a detriment to my child and a disruption to her life.
4) I should feed on-demand all night long and have scheduled feedings during the day. If I'm going to be working all day, I'm going to need sleep.
5) I should feed on-demand through at least two years. I know WHO recommends it but honestly? On-demand is already out, and if I'm lucky enough to have a supply and NOT have another child at the time, the kid's going to get it in a sippy cup, and not through 15-20 "snacks" throughout the day like some of the women said their 2-3 year olds were getting.

So, that's what spurred me on. Next post will either be my rejection of other AP (attachment parenting) objectives, pointing out the crazy of them, or pulling out some scientific research for some debunking.