Why are we different? I feel I get more and more away from mainstream everyday. I think the next step is to grow dreads and stop wearing a bra (I wish… I would never get away with that).
Well, I guess the answer is because my life was led to Chiropractic and I accepted it. I think I had always believed in the philosophy of Chiropractic, we just hadn’t found each other yet. Now, Chiropractic is not about vaccines, circumcision and so on, but it is about removing nerve interference and allowing the body to adapt as perfectly as it can. And with that philosophy all else follows.
When I tell people our children have never had one antibiotic (except what they got through me during my medicated births) and we haven’t had infant Tylenol in our house since our oldest was 1, they gawk at me. It makes me uncomfortable for a second and I wonder if I have my lunch in my teeth or if I slurred when I spoke. Then I realize that is not “normal” to them. We are not “normal” when compared to the rest of society.
There is nothing average about this family. We aren’t all 98.6 degrees, we welcome fevers, our son is not circumcised, I use my breasts to feed our babies and don’t give rice cereal at 4-6 months… or ever actually. We co-sleep (you won’t find a crib in our house), so no crying it out here, I wear my babies in wraps and slings and we don’t have cable. I pushed my baby out into my husband’s waiting hands standing in the bathroom with only our 2 year old cheering “BABY, BABY, BABY!!!.” I could go on and on.
Am I saying we are perfect? Absolutely not. I love my stroller, fed my first infant soy formula (GAG!) and moved her to a crib at a year old. I wasn’t successful at nursing until baby number 3, and I started raising my voice after having baby number 4! Let’s not forget the scars and emotional memories to remind me of my c-sections and traumatic births. But, we are always educating ourselves and adapting quickly. We listen to our intuition and don’t allow outside interference, because when we do it always ends in some kind of heartache.
Most of all, I am just grateful I educated myself on a lot of these issues before I had children! Am I lucky? No, I don’t think so. I think all of us are blessed and have the opportunity to do so, but don’t. People are so set in their ways. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard, “But that’s how my parents did it and I’m fine!” Are you? Really? Think about it.
Shouldn’t the norm be more like this…
Every child is drug free unless an emergency arises. Kids with ear infections, acid reflux, bedwetting, headaches, etc. are checked by a Chiropractor. If nerve interference is found, it is removed so their little bodies can heal instead of given a round of pink pills over and over. Children are with their mommies and daddies when they need and close to them like when they were in the womb, because soon enough they won’t want to be. All things like Chiropractic, diet, and natural remedies are exhausted before foreign drugs are introduced. A mom is able to birth her child where and how she likes, with whom she wants there and there is complete faith in her to do so.
Well, until that is the ‘norm’, I am OK with us being “different” to others, but to me, we are the standard of what normal should be. Educated, parenting intuitively, learning from our mistakes and doing better. This will be different for everyone, but it will feel right and make happier and healthier families!
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
I always knew we were kindred spirits, but this post just confirmed it, if I ever doubted it, though I think I have not! ;o) lol
You spoke so eloquently what I have felt and been chatting with you about for so long now!
Thank you for this confirmation that I am NOT the weirdo, I am what the norm was and should be again! It is just that our society has taken us (as a whole) so far away from normal that most have forgotten what normal is or should be!
Great post! I too think of what you describe as normal, and it’s me who gets a quizzical look on my face when mamas and daddies talk of vaccination schedules, children’s tylenol, antibiotics, ear infections, etc. I’m grateful to have grown up in a ‘normal’ family, and love watching my niece and nephews grow up ‘normally’, and look forward to having our kids do the same! Good on you, January!!
Yes, great post! Sometimes it does feel like if you are natural, normal nowadays, you almost feel like an outsider. That’s why Facebook, Blogs like this, and connecting more and more with like-minded families is a must. Most people I come across innately know the other side is wrong or are uncomfortable with it, however, they just don’t have the information or the courage to find it, own it, and share it. Also, they are lacking the support from seemlingly “well-intentioned” family and friends living in the mainstream fog who are making decisions based on fear and social programing, not facts, intuition, common sense, and science/nature.
Kelly Warnos
Innate Motherhood
Founder of Internetmom.org
January — As I have related to you, my children were also born at home. No drugs, no nurse or medical doctor to take that precious newborn from my arms and inject them with drugs or douse their baby blues with silver nitrate! I would not, could not, allow that! My children NEVER had vaccinations and NEVER EVER NEVER took any antibiotics or any medicines EVER in their lives. When they were sick (and they did get sick), their father or grandfather adjusted C-1 and their little bodies responded and healed. No drug can do that. No drug can make you well!
I knew then, as I know now, that we were far from normal. In those days …
19 O’Crap, “you’re kids aren’t vacinated?” I was and still am just fine with it.
I’d rather be a little weird … then heavily medicated anyday!!!
“It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.” So be crazy, be different, be well. You and your family are in good company.