More about Attachment Parenting
Yes, we are a place of closeness. You don’t have to worry that we will discipline your child using punishment, rewards, or tit-for-tat exchanges. We have never used—and never will use—stickers, stamps, motivational boards, „quiet corners,” isolation areas, or any other behavioral management techniques here. We want to build relationships with children and their parents based on trust, openness, honest communication, and respect for each other’s needs. This is rooted in our deepest beliefs, and we cannot imagine acting any other way.
You don’t have to worry that your child in our kindergarten will be exposed to methods and techniques that you avoid and do not approve of at home.
Yes, you will have the time and space to adapt gradually and peacefully in the company of a parent, grandmother, grandfather, or nanny. We will support you throughout this process. No, no one will snatch a crying child from your arms, ignore their pleas to call Mom, deceive them, or mistake their frozen fear for a smooth adjustment to a new situation.
Well, no one will force a child to eat or use the „airplane” method of feeding. We will create a meal-time atmosphere that encourages eating and trying new foods, but we will not resort to promising dessert in exchange for eating vegetables.
Of course, we don't have mandatory nap times, which for many parents of our children are still a vivid and unpleasant memory from their own childhood. Yes, every child can rest or even take a nap during the day if they need to.
Attachment Parenting is a term coined by American pediatrician William Sears to describe a parenting philosophy based on the principles of attachment theory in developmental psychology, which holds that a child forms a strong emotional bond with their caregivers that shapes their entire future life.
It is worth remembering that tThis isn't some „modern parenting theory” or empty „stress-free parenting” rhetoric, but the oldest human way of raising children, practiced by our ancestors, which enabled our species to survive and thrive. Until the specific social conditions of the Industrial Revolution era and the takeover of child-parent relationships by so-called experts caused a loss of faith in our own ability to understand and meet a child’s needs, no one would have thought that an infant „manipulates” parents instead of simply communicating their essential needs (security, closeness, nourishment, etc.).
The pillars of Attachment Parenting are primarily:
- Responding sensitively and empathetically to the child’s needs.
- Being sensitive to the child’s cues, treating them seriously as the child’s means of communication and bonding, rather than as tools for „manipulation” or „coercion.”
- Catering to parents’ needs in a way that does not compromise the child’s best interests at a given stage of development, while ensuring that parents do not lose themselves in the whirlwind of responsibilities and do not forget the joys of parenting.
- Avoiding „child trainers.”
Attachment parenting teaches how to evaluate the advice that young parents are typically bombarded with and assertively reject those that promote a harsh, radical, and completely unnatural parenting style that dictates adherence to imposed rules rather than observing the child and responding to the needs of all family members. This approach, often referred to as „let them cry it out” (in relation to infants) or „all children cry in preschool for the first few months,” does not yield long-term benefits but often results in irreparable damage, both to family relationships and to the mental health of the entire family.