Kourtney Kardashian’s ‘attachment style’ of parenting can leave children with lifelong emotional problems, experts told DailyMail.com.
The Keeping Up With The Kardashians star recently gave birth to baby number four, her first child with husband Travis Barker, whom the couple reportedly named Rocky.
Early in her pregnancy, the 44-year-old told Vogue that she planned to practice attachment-style parenting with her newborn.
This approach aims to ensure an exceptionally close bond between mother and child, dedicating as much time as possible to the baby, as well as practices such as co-sleeping, co-bathing, and drug-free childbirth.
Last year, Kourtney admitted she still slept with her daughter Penelope, 10, “practically every night.” The mother of four has also talked about sleeping with her firstborn, Mason, who is now 12, until she turned Seven.
But experts have warned other new parents not to follow in their footsteps.
Kourtney Kardashian will adopt an attachment parenting style with her new baby, which includes co-sleeping, joint bathing, and responding to all of the child’s needs immediately.
The reality star says she slept in the same bed as her first-born son Mason, now 12, until he was seven. Her daughter Penelope, now 10, still shares her bed “practically every night.”
Dr. Carole Lieberman, a forensic psychologist in Beverly Hills, California, said “smothering” parents is linked to an increased risk of the child developing depression and anxiety later in life.
‘Depending on each child’s psychological makeup, (attachment parenting) will either make them want to hold onto it for more years than is really appropriate, or it will make them flee away from it more quickly, because (a parent) has been authoritarian. .’
Both problems are associated with emotional problems in adulthood, he says.
Other experts have warned that attachment parenting sets unrealistic expectations for parents and leaves children ill-prepared to practice independence.
Kourtney Kardashian married Blink 182 star Travis Barker in 2022, and the couple recently celebrated the birth of their first child together.
“From a practical point of view, the continuous presence of parents is impossible: no parent can respond perfectly to their child all the time,” says Dr. Jephtha Tausig, a clinical psychologist working in New York City.
“There are times when parents need to pay attention to other things and it can be helpful, especially as they get older, for children to feel more comfortable delaying their gratification.”
According to Dr. Tausig, not being able to delay gratification can prevent children from developing a healthy amount of patience.
Another big concern for experts is the known risks of co-sleeping, something the American Academy of Pediatrics strongly advises against. Child health specialists have long been It warned that sharing a bed with a baby can increase the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).
This is because an adult bed has many safety risks, such as a lack of barriers to prevent them from falling. Co-sleeping also increases the chances of suffocation and strangulation due to the soft mattress and loose or soft bedding, such as pillows, blankets, and duvets.
Dr. Lieberman adds: “It also creates an unrealistic expectation for a mother to continue allowing her children to sleep with her until they are 10 years old.
“And when the mother wants to sleep with her partner, she kicks her out of bed, which makes the children feel abandoned and less important.”
Over the years, psychologists have coined many different parenting attachment styles, including authoritarian, permissive, and secure.
The practice of attachment parenting was first popularized by American pediatrician Dr. William Sears, who wrote the popular book ‘The Baby Book’.
She says attachment parenting revolves around seven key principles, which begin to be practiced while the woman is still pregnant.
They include bonding at birth, breastfeeding, carrying your baby, sharing a bed, believing in your baby’s cry, being careful with baby trainers, and balance.
While some insist that the technique fosters a healthier, happier relationship between parents and children, critics have warned that attachment parenting can make children overly dependent while increasing the stress their parents endure.
Dr. Diana Divecha, a developmental psychologist in Berkeley, California, wrote in a blog post on her website that the quality of parent-child interactions is often more important than the quantity.
What matters, she says, is “the orientation and attunement of the caregiver: Is the caregiver stressed or calm, attentive or engaged, and is the caregiver reading the baby’s signals?”
Dr. Lieberman says it’s important to note that too much parental involvement is always better than too little.
Developmental psychologists have previously warned against other, more modern parenting styles, such as helicopter parents, who can be overinvolved and overly protective, and elephant parents, who are unrealistically ambitious about a child’s abilities.
