Attachment Parenting Quotes

“Traumatic experiences in early childhood may interfere with the child's ability to securely attach.”
― Asa Don Brown, The Effects of Childhood Trauma on Adult Perception and Worldview

“When you've had one call after another and your little one is tugging on your shirt, remember what really matters. When the milk is splattered all over the floor and those little eyes are looking at you for your reaction, remember what really matters. It takes 5 minutes to clean up spilled milk; it takes much longer to clean up a broken spirit.”
― Rebecca Eanes, The Newbie's Guide to Positive Parenting

“In between every action and reaction, there is a space. Usually the space is extremely small because we react so quickly, but take notice of that space and expand it. Be aware in that space that you have a choice to make. You can choose how to respond, and choose wisely, because the next step you take will teach your child how to handle anger and could either strengthen or damage your relationship.”
― Rebecca Eanes, The Newbie's Guide to Positive Parenting

“The word on the street was that I had two options when it came to caring for my future baby: I could either eat, sleep, drink, bathe, walk, and work with my baby permanently affixed to my body until the two of us meld into one, or I could leave my baby out naked on a cold millstone to cry, refusing to hold or feed her until the schedule allowed. Apparently, there was no in between.”
― Rachel Held Evans, A Year of Biblical Womanhood

“There are two philosophies when it comes to getting young children to sleep. There is 'sleep training,' which basically involves putting your kids to bed and listening to them scream all night; or there is 'attachment parenting,' which essentially involves lying down with your kids, cuddling them, and then listening to them scream all night.”
― Jim Gaffigan, Dad Is Fat

“There are many different ways of approaching parenting as there are cultures. However, in non-industrialized cultures, the similarities are also striking. Extended nursing, co-sleeping, carrying the baby in close physical contact, responding promptly to cries or distress, never leaving a baby alone, are all virtually universal in traditional societies that have not become overly "westernized".”
― Ingrid Bauer, Diaper Free: The Gentle Wisdom of Natural Infant Hygiene

“Shamefully, human beings are the only mammals to separate mothers from their infants. Dr. John Krystal,
Professor of Psychiatry and Neurobiology at the Yale School
of Medicine, described the impact of maternal separation on
the infant as 'profound', citing the recent discovery that the
autonomic activity (heart rate and other involuntary nervous
system activity) of two-day-old sleeping babies is 176 per
cent higher during maternal separation.”
― Antonella Gambotto-Burke, Mama: Love, Motherhood and Revolution

“The one to whom nothing was refused, whose tears were always wiped away by an anxious mother, will not abide being offended.
—De Ira 2.21.6”
― Seneca, Dying Every Day: Seneca at the Court of Nero

“What would it be like to feel so attached, so intrinsically bonded, so protective of one’s own best connection with time and the ages, of generations past and future, of another human life, of their time?”
― J.R. Tompkins, Price of the Child

“The very matrix of our ability to love and bond in later life, maternal sensitivity – or lack thereof – also determines cultural tenor.”
― Antonella Gambotto-Burke, Mama: Love, Motherhood and Revolution

“Motherwhelm isn’t a problem, it’s a rite of passage. Once we recognize it as such and honor these intense times (and intense seasons of our lives) for the potential they have to help us get clear on what we want and what no longer serves us, we can use that intensity to our advantage. We can learn to direct our energy toward choices that create the connections, experiences, and ways of life we most deeply desire. We can learn to cultivate healthier, kinder relationships with ourselves and, in doing so, model healing and health and empowerment for generations to come.”
― Beth Berry, Motherwhelmed

“Increased responsibility for babies and young children has proved just as restrictive, if not more so, than sexism in the home or in the workplace.”
― Élisabeth Badinter, The Conflict: How Modern Motherhood Undermines the Status of Women

“Silence doesn’t always mean peace. Sometimes, it’s a child learning to bury feelings they don’t yet know how to name.”
― P. Pra. Sandhyaya

“A calm child is not always a regulated one. Some children learn to go silent when they feel unseen.”
― P. Pra. Sandhyaya, Digital Detox Parenting: The Science-Backed Guide to Raising Screen-Free, Emotionally Resilient Kids: Neuroscience-Backed Strategies for Lifelong Resilience

“Regulating emotions is not the same as suppressing them. Children need space to feel, not just behave.”
― P. Pra. Sandhyaya, Digital Detox Parenting: The Science-Backed Guide to Raising Screen-Free, Emotionally Resilient Kids: Neuroscience-Backed Strategies for Lifelong Resilience