It's been neat to watch my friend's little ones growing up and imitating their parents. I see little girls nursing their dollies, little boys pushing strollers, and babywearing babes carrying their precious cargo around- just like Mom and dad! It is so sweet!
I think the way we teach our children to love and nurture will help them to define what kind of parents they want to be. We live in such a generation where babies are objectified; carried almost non-stop in car-seats, (like luggage!), and then bottles are propped to get more "stuff" done. It seems that babies are being pushed away more often than they are held.
The warmth of human touch, the closeness of a mother or father's breath and body, the rhythm of body movement, the bonding and closeness, are all a priceless time in that first year of life +, for parents and babies alike.
When a Mother is having issues with milk supply, one of the best pieces of advice is to carry her baby in a sling. There is a hormone called Oxytocin, which is also referred to as the "love" hormone. When a nursing mother carries her baby next to her warm chest, that hormone is triggered, and more milk is produced. Amazing!
These are several of the toddler size Mei-Tais I've sewed this past year and given to the children of babywearing friends. It's fun to watch them imitate their moms and dads. Weather they are watching their parents carry new siblings, or they have been carried themselves, I think they will always know and remember that babies are meant to be held close.
And lets not forget babywearing boys. This picture is from a year 1/2 ago, but Zadok used to love wearing his baby "just like Micah."
We hope to be positive role models for our kids, so they will want to be nurturing fathers to their own sweet babies, someday.
For more of my thoughts on babywearing, there's a little label to the right over there titled "babywearing." Thanks Adria, Sophie, Keira, Ashlyn, and Zadok, for sharing your babywearing pictyres with me!
