Being a single mommy I’m in an enviable position of not having to concern myself with what anyone in my life thinks of my parenting style. Although I recently ran into some criticism while on vacation, I’ve been very lucky with being able to follow my own instincts without outside comments. However this has left me vulnerable to my own  ideas of what AP SHOULD be, and even worse, I didn’t even know it.

While on vacation I visited with some other AP moms. When it comes to nursing I have firmly believed in nursing on demand, and so when another mother asked her 2 year old to wait, subconsciously I was  bothered. If you were to ask me why asking her child to wait bothered me, I would have a hard time explaining. Something about wondering if he understood he’d get it later, did he really want to nurse, or was he just bored- how did the mother know, was it because she was uncomfortable in public or uncomfortable nursing in front of us? Of course it was none of these these things, the mother was just choosing not to nurse in public, but I did not know that at the time.

While on vacation my daughter was nursing ALL.THE.TIME. She didn’t really need or want to nurse, she was bored, and the incessant nursing started wearing on me, and I was more than ready to wean in spite of my determination to let her self wean. When I asked the “what do I do?” question, the ladies here and ftm helped me to understand that it is OK to ask my daughter to wait. She’s almost 2, no longer a newborn needing to nurse on demand. And as I worked through this transition with my daughter I finally understood what the other mother had been doing.

I also realized that I don’t know everything there is to know about AP. I’m still learning and growing along with my daughter. The most important lesson is to remember to do what feels right for YOU. And I’ll try and be better about not being uncomfortable about what someone else is doing.