Others on Ezzo
Posted by TulipGirl | Under GFI / Ezzo / Babywise Monday Jul 20, 2009Elsewhere on the web, other people are discussing Gary Ezzo, Babywise, Growing Kids God’s Way, and other associated ideas.
Megan at Sorta Crunchy very graciously ventures into the discussion. I really like how she strives to stay out of the “us vs. them” mentality that is so easy to get caught up in when talking about parenting. She also does a great job of looking to the heart of fear-based parenting. It’s not easy to be vocal about ideas which continue to be popular, ideas which are intensely personal. Megan does it with grace and clarity, and her posts are worth taking the time to read.
ThatMom highlighted Ezzo Week here at TG, and followed up with some interesting conversation in the comments. But what impacted me most was her great thought posted a few days later (which I can’t help but quote in full), “I guess I look at this whole issue in this way…after parenting for 34 years as of yesterday, I have come to realize that all paradigms are basically a list of do’s and don’ts that someone has created. Instead of embracing a list, I have discovered that it is best for me to run all ideas, philosophies, and paradigms through my “one-anothering hopper.” I ask myself if the suggestions or ideas I am hearing will serve to build my relationships or will serve to tear them down; will they reflect the one-anothering commands of Scripture? I ask if they reflect Christ and His relationship with me as His needy daughter. If not, I am not interested, no matter how much appeal they might have for any number of reasons.” –thatmom
Also, Quiet Garden posted some encouragement related to Ezzo Week. She’s also the mother of all boys (though grown!) and has been one of the “Titus 2″ women in my life for many years.
Please let me know of other conversations or series surrounding these topics. . .
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This post is part of the Ezzo Week(end) 2009 series, raising awareness about the concerns with the parenting “philosophy” promoted by Gary Ezzo.
Super cool…. Thanks!
Much gratitude for the links. I never would have had the courage to say anything if it weren’t for your bold inspiration. Thanks for holding my hand!
I am an “old” mom, a mom in her mid-forties whose children are grown or nearly grown. However, I have read quite a bit on a number of parenting philosophies lately, mostly by happenstance because of some of the blogs I visit, such as truewomanhood, thatmom, etc. I was unfamiliar with the Ezzos, per se, but then did vaguely remember that it was a bandwagon that some of the more formulaic types from our church at that time jumped onto – this would have been the early to mid-90s. I believed in meetings my babies’ needs as they were presented to me, so GKGW never had much appeal for me.
My observation would just be to be very, very suspicious of anyone who thinks they have all of the answers when it comes to parenting. While scripture gives us much guidance, there is no man-made, foolproof formula for raising godly, healthy children. Anything that sets itself up as judgmental and narrow is probably not of God. I am not picking on just the Ezzo stuff here, though it certainly qualifies, but I see this on both ends of the spectrum. Recently, in an online discussion where one of the participants was an avid Attachment Parent-er, she referred to strollers as “dumb”, I guess not realizing that that sounds an awful lot like “using strollers is dumb” or “dumb people use strollers” and then offered up some questionable hypothesis that strollers cause or are linked to developmental delays.
Okay, she is entitled to decide whether or not to place her child in a stroller or not, but perhaps should also realize that many many millions of parents raised children using strollers as one device of conveyance, with no apparent harm at all, through many decades. It’s okay to do what one feels convicted to do with regard to raising one’s own children, but it’s not necessary to call anyone else’s innocuous choices into question in order to validate one’s own viewpoint.
I find this trend divisive, no matter which side of the aisle it appears on. It makes me almost grateful that the internet was not available to me when my children were babies.
I love Thatmom’s comment! She’s right on- as usual! Thanks for highlighting it!
Hoeveel kan ik lenen? (hypotheek). Wat worden mijn maandlasten? (hypotheek) … Hoeveel hypotheek heb ik nodig? Hoe hoog is de boete die ik nu zou moeten
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