Social Skills in the Making? I

As a bit of a follow-up to my thoughts on feminism which favored the claims of a society shifting to a less specified feminine, gentle, and maternal figure being that undoubtedly of the woman, I came across a time article about Dr. Sears and his idea about attachment parenting. In the 1970’s, he published a bestselling book which caught the attention of many mother’s making them aware of a parenting—or rather, mothering—which was to support better child development. It created a standard which almost required women to commit to a stay-at-home lifestyle spent completely devoted to children to the point of complete attachment, and literally too. Since then, a few scientific discoveries proved some of Sears’ ideal wrong, but many remain strongly supported if not 100% proven. Near constant sling carrying, advanced-stage breast-feeding (beyond 6 months), and frequent night crashes in the parents’ bed are all aspects of Sears’ plan. These things are supposed to contribute to better social skills. 20 percent of parents follow this routine today, which may either be a large surprise or none at all. I think most parents practice what would be considered a partial variation of this—which in fact has an official term, which I am oblivious to at the moment. It is probably Sears’ most effective extreme which is least likely to seem appealing to most people. Yet the minority is quite existent and surprising in its quantity, especially with the modern –day working mom. Despite the spoilage of the baby-boomers come the fifties, it would seem “feminism” chased maternal closeness from common-hood.