Question
Thanks John, this is a final response to the distressed toddler questions. With the group setting tizzy, how should I respond to this in a way that will help him emerge? I am grateful for your affirming my hunch-- stop taking him. It was quite clear as I was writing the question and I made that decision privately, although I was still curious your experienced perspective. When I say that I take pride in being his primary caregiver, I am not confessing to attachment parenting, but rather I am reacting to the tendency of mothers around me (in Chelsea, London) to believe that every child problem can be responded to by handing over the care to a nanny or nursery. Obviously, this does not take into account our motherly obligation to be the primary source of formation, and of transmitting God's love, to the child. What do you as a mother do when, at the end of the day, the bratty child comes home to you? After the nannies and the the nurseries have gone home to bed? The obligation still remains with me, the mother. Without my being rightly oriented, the harmony and joy I dream of for my family is not going to be possible. Anyway, enough for my soapbox, I have been really enjoying your books. They are practical and affirming. I started with Toilet Training, then I moved to Parenting by the Book, and now I am reading Making the TTT.
