Parenting pair pressure and influence from others

Being a parent is a challenging job as it is....not only do you have to juggle your family but you do have to live in your community and socialise with your friends as well.
Being an Attachment parent is often empowering but also challenging at times as well as its often different from the norm.

I often find my self in a difficult situation while in our play group (or some other child social event) and there is a situation between mother and her child which I would handle totally different. I can see my daughters distress watching what ever is happening and all I can really do is pick her up and hold her or remove her from the scene and explain what was happening.

But this parenting rubs off...yes it goes both ways but I've been catching myself often over the past few months doing things and saying things which are really not cool and I feel very damaging to my daughters education.
So I've been pulling myself back re-reading through books that I've read before and updating myself for my child's current age.

As an example:
Sleep in the evenings...I've been thinking of all the shoulds and how frustrating it is to have a child (not just a child who doesn't sleep when I want but a child...horrible Mother).
So as I sit outside the bedroom door in my rocking chair doing my crochet (yes you can laugh) I picked up the "The No-Cry Sleep Solution for Toddlers and Preschoolers".
Talk about reassurance boost and to see I'm totally normal and my daughter is totally normal.
Since being pregnant and very morning sick I've been going to bed before Ara is ready...so she's just been laying beside me playing with her books and toys until she's ready to go to sleep...me I'm already in la la land.
So she's got used to me being there.
So we've had to start again on my Elizabeth Pantley suggested sleep plan of slowly removing myself from the room as now I don't need the sleep anymore in the early evening.
We do have two issues at the moment which this book is help me realise and calm any influences my pairs have over my attitude.
1) Ara is going through strong separation anxiety (Dave is not at home most of the time and I'm pregnant)
2) Night time toilet training (nearly got this knocked....yahoo she's so wonderful)

We don't have to agree with everything that our books say word for word but it is often a reality check sometimes to see how others are affecting you in your interactions with your children. Its a good pull up...a good up date and a good calm down....reading blogs of people that you feel in line with too can often make you feel better and change your mood and attitude.

It takes work to be a parent and just like every job that we do some times we need to get out on that course to update...go to that conference....or as in parenting hang with like minded people. Its on going.