Parent Essays - Interpersonal Relationships, Attachment Theory

Parent Child Bonding Thesis: Bonding does not refer to mutual affection between a baby and an adult, but to the phenomenon whereby adults become committed by a one-way flow of concern and affection to children for whom they have cared during the first months and years of life. I. The importance of bonding or attachment in an individual's life. A. Friend acquaintances B. A mother-child attachment 1. The power and importance of such a bond 2. How it paves the way for future attachments II. The elements that are important to a mother-child bond. A. Touch B. Eye-to-Eye contact, voice and entertainment C. Odor among other things III. Bonding as it relates to breastfeeding A. The importance of breastfeeding to the bond development IV. Bonding and the hyperactive child A. The impact of bonding on hyperactivity B. Dealing with hyperactivity 1. Its believed origin V. Bonding and Divorce The problem associated with divorce as it relates to Children and the bond between both parents In each person's life much of the joy and sorrow revolves around attachments or affectionate relationships -- making them, breaking them, preparing for them, and adjusting to their loss by death. Among all of these bonds as a special bond -- the type a mother or father forms with his or her newborn infant. Bonding does not refer to mutual affection between a baby and an adult, but to the phenomenon whereby adults become committed by a one-way flow of concern and affection to children for whom they have cared during the first months and years of life. According to J. Robertson in his book A Baby in the Family: Loving and Being loved, individuals may have from three hundred to four hundred acquaintances in there lifetimes, but at any one time there are only a small number of persons to whom they are closely attached. He explains that much of the richness and beauty of life is derived from these close relationships which each person has with a small number of individuals -- mother, father, brother, sister, husband, wife, son, daughter, and a small cadre of close friends (Robertson 1). A mothers love is a crude offering, and according to Kennell and Klaus. In heir book Parent-Infant Bonding, there is a possessiveness in it, there's appetite in it. There is also a "Drat the Kid" element in it, there's generosity in it, there's power in it, as well as humility. However sentimentality is outside of it altogether and is repugnant to mothers (Kennell and Klaus 1). Some argue that attachment is one qualitative feature of the emotional tie to the partner. The operationalization of the construct (attachment) to determine the presence or absence has to be done by some measure of the interaction between partners, and Joe Mercer in Mothers' Responses to their infants with defects says: The mothers either respond to her infants cries with affectionate behaviors and evokes the infants interacting to suggest the infant is a central part of her life, or she does. The infant either shows preferential responses to the mother, responds to her verbal and tactile stimulation, or does not. (Mercer 17). He further goes on to explain that it is easier for the infant to say the tie to the mother is absent, but the psychological complexity of adults make it far more difficult to say a mother has no bond to her infant (Mercer 19). Attachment is crucial to the survival and development of the infant. Kenneth and Klaus points out that the parents bond to their child may be the strongest of all human ties (Kennell and Klaus 3). This relationship has two unique characteristics. First, before birth one individual infant gestates within a part of the mother body and second, after birth she ensures his survival while he is utterly dependent on her and until he becomes a separate individual. According to Mercer, the power of this attachment is so great that it enables the mother and father to make the unusual sacrifices necessary for the care of their infant. Day after day, night after night; changing diapers, attending to cries, protecting the child from danger, and giving feed in the middle of the night despite their desperate need to sleep (Mercer 22). It is important to note that this original parent-infant tie is the major source for all of the infants subsequent attachment and is the formative relationship in the course of which the child develops a sense of himself. Throughout his lifetime the strength and character of this attachment will influence the quality