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ATTACHMENT PARENTING INTERNATIONAL (API)

Monthly Support Group Meetings

Date: Second Tuesday of every month

Time: 6:30 p.m.

Location: Moorhead Public Library downstairs meeting room; 118 5th S St; Moorhead

We look forward to seeing you and your family at one of our meetings. (Expectant parents, fathers, mothers, and anyone interested in attachment parenting are invited.) Meetings are child-friendly. Come meet other parents and learn the latest about attachment parenting techniques and ideas. We also offer a small lending library of books and soft baby carriers (slings, wraps, etc...).

Many people refer to API as a sister organization of La Leche League (LLL); however, geared for providing support to parents from the infant years to and through the teenage years. If you espouse responding sensitively to your child and using other parenting methods that create strong emotional bonds, also known as secure attachment, this group is for you! Are you still asking why you should attend? Here is a good answer: to refresh your soul, support others going through similar ages and stages, and to just have fun! Come join us!

The essence of Attachment Parenting is about forming and nurturing strong connections between parents and their children. Attachment Parenting challenges us as parents to treat our children with kindness, respect and dignity, and to model in our interactions with them the way we'd like them to interact with others.The simple truth is that when we strengthen families, we nurture and fulfill our children's need for trust, respect, and affection, and ultimately provide a lifelong foundation for healthy, enduring relationships.

API promotes parenting practices that create strong, healthy emotional bonds between children and their parents. For life. So they can take those bonds with them into their adult lives and share them with their children. And their children can do the same, creating a life cycle of compassion and connection.

Attachment parenting is the philosophy and practice of parenting methods that foster strong, healthy emotional bonds between parents and children.

This approach values responsiveness to the infant or child's physical and emotional needs, nurturing their trust that those needs will be met. Securely attached children develop secure, empathic, peaceful and enduring relationships throughout their lives.

Attachment parenting isn't "new". It is in many ways a return to the parenting methods of our ancestors. Some people would describe it as a natural or intuitive parenting style. In the last 60 years, the behaviors of attachment parenting have been studied extensively by psychology and child development researchers, and more recently, by researchers studying the brain. This body of knowledge offers strong support for areas that are key to the optimal development of children, summarized and promoted by API's 8 Principles of Attachment Parenting.

(see upper left margin for further info. on each principle)

1. Prepare for Pregnancy, Birth, and Parenting

2. Feed with Love and Respect

3. Respond with Sensitivity

4. Use Nurturing Touch

5. Engage in Nighttime Parenting

6. Provide Consistent and Loving Care

7. Practice Positive Discipline

8. Strive for Balance in Personal and Family Life

Disclosure about The 8 Principles of Attachment Parenting

API acknowledges that every family has unique circumstances with distinct needs and resources. The Eight Principles are intended to help parents better understand normal child development, to help parents identify their children's needs, and to aid parents in responding to their children with respect and empathy. API recommends parents use their own judgment and intuition to create a parenting style that fosters attachment and works for their family. Many API support groups start each meeting by saying "Take what works for your family and leave the rest."