Finding your identity as a mother...

In high school, most teens go through an identity crisis of sorts, and try out the different cliques until they find the best fit. There's the jocks, the preps, Goths, and skaters to name a few. Just about the time they get it figured out, they encounter a whole new set of stereotypes in college...the political activists, the philosophers, the party crowd, the hippies. Usually by the time a person finishes college and enters the workforce, they have a decent grasp of who they are. Then they become parents and are faced with a whole new set of choices to make as it relates to parenting style.

• Breast milk or formula?
• Spankings or time-outs?
• Vaccinate or not?
• Plastic toys or wooden toys?
• Stay-at-home mom or childcare?
• Public school, private school or home-school?

And the list could go on and on and on. None of these choices are easy to make for new parents as they are bombarded with expert advice and strong opinions from authors, pediatricians, and well-meaning friends and family. And it seems like as soon as you start to figure out what works for you, you are quickly labeled as a certain "type" of parent and are expected to do everything that falls under that label.

It's funny how quickly people try to label me. They find out I breastfeed, co-sleep and wear my baby and they label me a hippie. Or they find out that I cloth diaper and make my own cleaning supplies and all of a sudden I'm the "green" expert obsessed with saving the planet. The other day I was called a "liberal". (I don't know what my parenting style has to do with my political views.) I wouldn't consider myself a hippie (not that there is anything wrong with being one) and there are plenty of non-"green" things that I do. Why do we have to fit into a preexisting stereotype and then feel trapped to operate only within that stereotype?

Am I an Attachment Parenting mom, a green/organic mom, a crunchy/hippie mom, a crafty/DIY mom, a super organized mom, a "Little House on the Prairie" mom, a thrifty money-saving mom, a homeschooling mom??? Can I be one and not the other? Can I be more than one? Do I have to be the best?

This blog started out being about me following my instincts as a mother, finding my own unique identity and parenting style. That is what Naturally Chic Mama is about. It's not about natural parenting as defined by Attachment Parenting or "going green" (although I do a lot of things that fall under those labels). It about parenting naturally by way of following my natural instincts, parenting my children within my family dynamic and life's circumstances. I'm sorry if I have rambled, but I needed to remind myself of that.


Always, 

Amanda