My Garden of Thoughts: Reflection #10 -- Parenting Infants and Toddlers

 

https://themilitarywifeandmom.com/parent-demanding-toddler-and-newborn/

    In our exploration of Chapter 5 today, the basics of parenting pathways, transitioning to parenthood, and promoting both the development and care of a child were covered in the material. With technology nowadays, the path to parenthood has become extremely diverse in nature. Along with the diverse routes, the restrictions of what a parent should be has slowly been chipped away. Now, it does not matter what marital status or sexual orientation parents are--they can choose to have children in multiple different ways and find acceptance within those ways. Because more couples are able to have children by means of emerging technology, the need for parental classes discussing the transition into this new stage of life is great. Even though the majority of full term babies are healthy, parents will need to understand the risks that come with pregnancy (what to eat, what not to do, etc.) in order to make sure they are safeguarding the baby's life until it is born. The textbook also dedicated time to discussing the alterations in the parent's lives that will happen once they bring the baby home from the hospital. Parents will be required to pour almost all of their time into caring for, watching over, and helping their new child develop correctly. Most of this, as the book points out, is often done with the assistance of other close family members like grandparents and older siblings. 

    After the transition has been made into parenthood, the chapter explains how the parents should direct their attention to making sure the social-emotional development of their infant is continually being fostered. As discussed in previous chapters, the text mentions different types of attachment styles and making it clear that babies need a secure attachment to be formed in order to thrive in their growth. Parents who provide consistent responsiveness to their child not only create a bond of trust with them, but also an attachment that will allow the child to feel safe sharing their life with their parent as they continue to get older. A secure attachment reinforces positive development in children and is essential to their ability to having meaningful interpersonal relationships with others outside the family unit.

    Lastly, the chapter discusses the growing shifts surrounding the care that a child should receive. Since women have started to join the workforce at an exponentially higher rate than before, more couples are having to face the decision of who should watch over the kids. Often times, grandparents are asked to do this favor or the couple decides they need to take their child to a daycare. The textbook states that it is imperative that parents make sure the child care program they choose has a low caregiver--child  ratio and a low caregiver turnover. The findings in research surrounding parental consistency is also true for children in child care systems. They need safe attachments to be formed and require caregivers who are able to provide consistent, responsive, and quality care.

    Though much of this information seems like common sense, I have seen many parents in my own life completely disregard the educational parts of this chapter. They expect their children to be relationally close to them but they have failed to pour attention and love into them in order to form a trusting bond early on. Parents I know have also given their child over the random caregivers without a thought of how it will affect their child's behavior or development when being in an environment where caregivers struggle to balance having too many kids and cannot pay attention to the couple's child as much as needed. My hope is that I can pass this information I am learned in this chapter onto my sister who is expecting to have a baby this fall. My sister and her husband have already taken so many steps, like getting age appropriate toys and materials for a newborn, to prepare for their new baby. I can tell they are excited to meet the child and begin fostering a healthy, trusting attachment with it. I plan to give them the information surrounding daycare from this chapter since my sister and her husband both have careers. Hopefully they will be able to decide if one of them can take off work to care for the baby or if they can find a great daycare near them. I know I will always be up to offer to watch the baby and the rest of my family is too! It's an exciting time!

- E.