A proper introduction

Hello, my name is Claire and I am mama to a 6 month old baby girl.

I always thought I was normal (mostly) but apparently not. Since having my baby, it turns out that I'm quite weird. I breastfeed, use cloth nappies and carry my daughter in a sling most of the time. These aren't things I'm particularly proud of by the way, it's just stuff I do. Mostly because it saves me money or makes life easier or both. But apparently it's not normal.*

And then there's the most important thing to me- I don't leave my daughter to cry. Not even for 2 minutes, not if I can get to her. Obviously you can't stop a car in the middle of the motorway or get up mid pee. And every mother has that point at which the crying becomes too much and they need to leave the room for a minute or two. But those situations aside, if madam cries, madam is picked up, cuddled, soothed and if the crying persists she will be nursed, even *shock horror* if she's not crying from hunger. There are plenty of parents, health care professionals and interfering busybodies out there who I'm sure would jump at the chance to tell me that I'm creating a monster; she will be clingy and want carrying and breastfeeding until she's 23. 'You need to leave her to cry, she has to learn that mummy won't always come running.' To these people I say this-

Bollocks.

My daughter does not need to learn that I won't always be there for her, she needs to learn exactly the opposite of that. Why would she need to cling to me if she is 100% confident that I will be there if she needs me? But apparently I'm in the minority on this one too.

So what is 'normal'? Disposable nappies have only been in widespread use for less than 30 years, processed cows' milk as a substitute for breastmilk has been around for less than 100 years, prams for less than 200 years. And how can it possibly be normal to ignore the heart-rending feeling of hearing your child cry? But apparently I'm the weirdo.

So I thought I'd write me a little blog so that I can get some of this stuff out of my head. And if someone reads it and changes their perception of what is 'normal' then that would be quite awesome. But mostly I just hope it's interesting to someone.






* You probably think I'm one of those mad hippies. I'm not. I don't wear sandals so I can't be. I don't wear long skirts or make my own jewellery either. I'm not even a vegetarian.