Saturday 31 March 2012

Earth Parenting

Across the span of time and all over the world, indigenous peoples raised their children with nearly identical ways which indicate that humans have an 'earth code' for our raising just as all animals have innate parenting codes.  Detailed studies of anthropology reveal many exceptions to this and therefore experts can easily dismiss my simple observation as idealistic and even romantic.  However what can not be overlooked is that despite the exceptions, peoples all across the world maintained culture for thousands of generations and their parenting was nearly identical with different colour feathers, so to speak.  Even modern day Steiner's work seems to have been tapping in on this innate 'earth code'.
A brief breakdown of the common threads of 'earth parenting'of the stage of babyhood are:
1. Singing as main ante natal preparation for maidens. There was no application of logic or analytical mind to what is essentially innate and part of the ancient limbic system of the mind.
2. Birthing was secret women's business, attended by sisters and elder women and generally safeguarded from maidens.
3. For one lunar month the mother and newborn were cared for by the sisterhood in a womb like environment. This was the dreamtime of the new child, important bonding was established.
4. Women regrouped their energy through synchronized menstruating where they would often withdraw to a special place, taking only breast feeding babies and newly menstruating maidens with them.
5. Once out of the dreamtime, mother resumed her place in the tribe; gathering and preparing food with her baby tied to her or carried with her.  Generally the first stage of babe in arms, the_ baby was carried by the mother or woman who breastfed him or her.
6. As baby got bigger it was carried freely by older children. The baby was immersed in its tribe very deeply.
7. Babies were never left alone. (The exception was the practise of leaving the infant out over night when first born in some tribes)
8. Babies breastfed for three years, generally. This matches the apparent 'psychic bond' of mother and baby.
9. Once toddling, the baby was free to explore the world around, safely observed by the sisterhood. The collective body of the tribe provided a natural safety net for them. They were immersed in the elements; eating dirt, sucking rocks, navigating fire, uneven ground and many other situations.
10. Babies were unrestrained and grew with a feeling of infinite freedom.  Safety and monitoring them was done collectively and it was obscure so that the will of the child was not prematurely activated.
11. Sounds and particularly baby sounds were used with babies.  They picked up their language from those around them, everyone happily spoke babies sounds to them.  Many cultures use repeat words with babies; for example Ma ma, Da da, Pa pa and so on.  We under estimate how important these sounds are to the developing mind in our quest to comunicate with our babies we over look the natural process of bonding that opens up doorways to intuition and allow us to instantly be able to understand our babies without words.

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2 comments:

  1. I love your blog Kristi. I am really looking forward to reading your book too. We have been starved of this wisdom. Thank you for sharing and showing me each day how to parent children in this way.

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