So among many of our friends, my husband and I have been titled “crunchy” some might also know the reference as “granola”. I knew that Ryan and I had a lot of the mindsets that surround attachment parenting, but when we got pregnant we had no idea how many of our parenting techniques would fall in line with being “crunchy”.
Being crunchy gives off the “hippy-like” parenting in some regards, Ryan would hate that I used the word hippy to describe some of our beliefs and ideals, but really… I would say that might be the best way to describe us. No, we don’t have dreadlocks and wear bell bottoms and go around giving the peace sign and all of those typical stereotypes of what a hippie might have looked like in the 70’s. However, many of our parenting techniques are similar to many of those that were popular in the 70’s.
First and foremost, I like to consider that our reasoning behind a lot of our choices have to do with our Christian faith, we want to instill such a relationship in our children, and our hopes and prayers are for us to be models of Christ in their lives so that they may come to one day have a personal relationship with Christ as well. This has been a basis in a lot of our decisions on our parenting techniques, we are Christians and because this is the centerpiece of our lives, it has a huge influence and impact on why we have chosen to do many of the “crunchy” things we do.
Here is a small list of some of the qualities that a crunchy parent might follow,the ones I have listed are the ones that we follow, but you can find a more complete list at Little Crunchy‘s blog.
- Attachment Parenting
- Co-Sleeping
- Baby Wearing
- Cloth Diapering
- Cloth Wipes
- Natural Birth (not just vaginal, but unmedicated)
- Delayed cord clamping (until finished pulsating)
- Breastfeeding
- Extended breastfeeding (plan to breastfeed until she is at least two)
- Child-led weaning
- Delayed vaccination
- Selective vaccination
- Alternative health (we love the chiropractor, even Novella has had adjustments! I also am a strong advocate for acupuncture as well.)
- Homeschooling/Unschooling
- Natural Products
- Toxin Aware
- No Cry It Out
- Peaceful parenting
- Free Range Children (within reason)
- Child-Led learning
- TV Free (at least until she is 2 years old)
- Limited Media
- Eco-Friendly Home
- Support WAHM, Small Business, and local shops
- Travel Green (On foot or Bike… as often as possible)
- Organic Gardening
- Buy Organics First
- Handmade
- Active Parenting
- Respect for Nature
- Out Door Learning
- Sustainable Living
- Placenta encapsulation (unable to do it with last pregnancy due to gestational diabetes, but plan to next time as long as I don’t have gestational diabetes again)
- Baby food making
frazierfrontier.com 
Yay crunchy! Do you have any good advice about making baby food? I have a great book but thought I'd ask.
LikeLike
Warriorhippie, thanks for your question, and your continued support in reading my blog! I would just recommend trying one new food for 2-5 days to make sure that there is not allergic reaction. We have a baby bullet and LOVE IT! I make most of our own food from scratch, so making baby food has come pretty easy to me. I also make my own homemade applesauce from local orchards and have 8 quarts canned for the winter!! My best advice is to try to do organic as much as possible. Anyone can buy jarred baby food at the grocery store, but there is so much added junk and preservatives it's better to do store bought as little as possible. I don't know if that helps any. Let me know your thoughts!
LikeLike