For this first day of AP Month, Yvette Lamb helps us remember that our challenges in
providing parental presence in the early years are but moments that we will remember fondly and that help shape our child's perception of what love is.
I want to continue maximizing
parental presence as she grows into the more turbulent preteen and teen years, being able to
provide gentle guidance aligned with our family values as she finds who she is as a unique person.
Editor's note: Attachment Parenting International (API) recognizes the amazing creativity of parents to balance their children's attachment needs with their financial needs and / or career in order to
provide consistent, loving care especially in the first few months postpartum but also throughout the early childhood years when
parental presence is most critical to establishing a secure attachment relationship.
During the prenatal and infant periods, families have been identified on the basis of socioeconomic risk (
parental education, income, age8, 11) and / or other family (e.g. maternal depression) or child (e.g. prematurity and low birth weight12) risks; whereas with preschoolers a greater emphasis has been placed on the
presence of child disruptive behaviour, delays in language / cognitive impairment and / or more pervasive developmental delays.6 With an increased emphasis on families from lower socioeconomic strata, who typically face multiple types of adversity (e.g. low
parental educational attainment and work skills, poor housing, low social support, dangerous neighbourhoods), many parenting programs have incorporated components that
provide support for parents» self - care (e.g. depression, birth - control planning), marital functioning and / or economic self - sufficiency (e.g. improving educational, occupational and housing resources).8, 13,14 This trend to broaden the scope of «parenting» programs mirrors recent findings on early predictors of low - income children's social and emotional skills.