Weird

						weird
						adjective
						odd, bizarre
						awe-inspiring, awful, creepy*, curious, dreadful, eccentric, eerie*, far-out, fearful, flaky*, freaky, funky*, ghastly, ghostly, grotesque, haunting, horrific, inscrutable, kinky*, kooky, magical, mysterious, occult, oddball, ominous, outlandish, peculiar, preternatural, queer, secret, singular, spooky*, strange, supernal, supernatural, uncanny, uncouth, unearthly, unnatural According to Thesaurus.com, this is the entry for "weird" and all the associated words. Now, call me picky, but I don't think I'm creepy, dreadful or freaky. On a good day I might be funky and I'd quite like to be magical but, in general I don't think the above list of words has much at all to do with me. So why, why, why do people insist on using the word "weird", when they actually mean something else. I mean, if you mean unnatural, disgusting or wrong then just say that, or if you just mean different or unusual, then those are much kinder words than weird! This blog has been kicked off by a comment I read online about Attachment Parenting. We've become attached parents quite by accident I think, our kids didn't much like to be put down when they were small (and in the case of Velcro Boy, not so small!) and slept better in our bed. We prefer to follow their lead, encouraging and gently steering them rather than telling them how or what they should be doing. I don't like it when my kids cry, and I do like cuddling and loving them, so AP has been something we've fallen into. It's what works for our family. I'm aware though, that especially as they get older our parenting style is noticeably different to lots of other people's. That's fine by me, my parenting of my kids isn't a political statement, I'm not trying to make others feel bad or criticize alternative choices. But, somehow my choices seem to offend people, particularly the very visible choices, mainly slinging and extended breastfeeding, and I'm not sure why people take my choices so personally, as if I'm silently criticizing their own decisions by being so unashamed about how we do things. We get nice comments too, lots of people tell me how comfy VB looks in the sling and a lovely old lady stopped me when we were visiting Glasgow to tell me how brilliant she thought it was that I was carrying an exhausted VB so close to my breast (we'd just done a marathon car journey and VB was fast asleep on my front in a wrap) and how comfy and loved he looked. Anyway, please don't call me weird. It'll only wind me up and force me to live up to your expectations. I might start knitting lentils or weaving sanitary towels out of yoghurt just for fun :) And just to congratulate you for getting this far, here's a couple of random, unusual photos, of my frankly bizarre kids (I'm allowed to say it, I'm their mum!) VB demonstrating his feelings about facing out in a sling Moobles + Face-paints + 5 mama-free minutes = abstract art!