Support in My Choices

Blessed. I think of myself as very blessed. Besides my fabulous husband and child (soon to be children), I have fabulous and very supportive family and friends. I have never felt judged nor looked down upon for choices that I have made as a parent. I have read so many comments about people who have less-than-supportive friends and family. People who have had their loved ones tell them they are wrong/reckless/disgusting for choices they have made regarding their children. Even my close group of friends have had negative comments made to them about choices they have made. I keep waiting for such negativity to flood into my life, but it has yet to do so. I feel extremely lucky that I haven't had to deal with any such comments. 

Thanks for always supporting me Mom and Dad!

I have managed to surround myself with fantastic and mostly like-minded friends thanks to momstown, and if my family (both mine and mrblueberry's) doesn't agree with my choices, well, they don't say anything to me. Some people have to fight their families when it comes to choices they make as parents and parents-to-be. I have only had one conversation that felt like I had to defend my choice, and it wasn't even that bad. Why? Does my family just realize that I am stubborn? Or are they more open minded than others may be? Or maybe they just agree with our decisions? Perhaps they realize that we are adults and able to make our own decisions? Even as a teenager, my parents never pushed any decisions on me, and never tried to sway my decision or offer their opinions unless I openly asked for them. I am grateful that they gave me practice making choices and then having to live with the consequences, good or bad.

Our parenting choices are not exactly "mainstream." To me, they seem like obvious choices and I don't really see why more people don't make the same choice. But, there are a lot of people out there that don't. We all make different choices in our journey of parenthood, and that is okay. Most of the choices we make as parents are directly related to experiences we had growing up. I chose to cloth diaper because that was what my mom did. I chose to breastfeed for the same reason. It never occurred to me to do otherwise for either of those things. We chose to leave E intact for much the same reasons. It just never occurred to me to do otherwise. And now, we are choosing to have a home birth for this upcoming babe. And though none of our parents chose the same as us in this regard, none of them have made any negative comments about our choice. Whatever they may think, they continue to support our choices. How fantastic it is to have such support in our lives! Thank you my dear friends and family. Thank you.