naturalfamily - Profile (original) (raw)
on 19 July 2004 (#3871198)
naturalfamily is a space for sharing, learning and connecting with other families and individuals who practice, or simply want to know more about, natural family living ideals.
What is natural living?
Natural living is a lifestyle aimed at restoring and protecting the planet and all life on it. This includes things like recycling, composting, making your meals at home instead of using pre-packaged goods, supporting organizations that help the planet, buying local or organic or just using cloth bags at the grocery store. There are no minimum requirements: every step counts toward the bigger picture.
What is natural parenting?
Natural parenting is a term which holds two ideals that are very closely related. The first being true 'natural parenting', which is an extension of natural living that includes your whole family and the way you raise them. This encompasses everything from teaching your children about saving and restoring the planet, to reducing your carbon footprint by biking them to school or using cloth diapers and breastfeeding.
Instinctive parenting is the other, which while tied to the same morals and ethics as natural living, is mostly about nurturing and raising children as closely to how nature, or God, intended. Science supports these practices, and new studies are released every year about how touch, extended breastfeeding, babywearing and cosleeping foster intelligence, health and independence. All of these things also work to decrease dependance on conveniences that may also be contributing to pollution, stress and the deterioration of our planet's resources (ie: plastics, garbage in landfills, and world health).
What kinds of things do you discuss here?
Everything under the umbrella of "natural family living"! Health and wellness, homeopathic and alternative medicine, eating healthy (or trying to!), recipes, supplements, getting pregnant, midwives and doulas, home birth, natural birth, breastfeeding, delaying solids, cloth diapering, slings and cosleeping, vaccination debate, home or alternative schooling, sexual health and being open-minded, pet health, boycotts, mother's instinct and keeping up to date on research about the health effects of toxicity of things our society may see as pretty "normal".
I do some of those things, but I want to learn more about why you don't, or all those other things you do... can I still join?
Yes! Anyone can join, but keep discussions on-topic. Please keep in mind this community was created to be a safe space for the discussion and support of natural family living, so it does have a clear bias toward this and discussion about the benefits of mainstream practices (or harms of natural living) is strongly discouraged.
RULES:
Do not personally insult anyone, or use this community as a place to snark about other people or communities.
Do not post surveys, advertising, community promotions or spam. Any advertising of your services or products will be deleted and marked as spam, and you may be banned for a repeated offense. If you want to get noticed, please do so at the WAHM Spam Post where anyone with a store or business can leave a comment about who they are and what they do.
Do not flood the community. Multiple questions or comments can all go in one post.
Debate is healthy and encouraged, but do not make posts or comments supporting mainstream practices in a manner that is insulting or derogatory toward natural family living (IE. "I can't imagine why any smart person wouldn't vaccinate"), this will be assumed as an attempt to start a fight and will be deleted or frozen, repeated offenses will result in banning.
A better way to express yourself could be, "I vaccinate, and I always thought this was the healthiest choice. I don't understand why people wouldn't - can someone tell me about it?".This community is for natural family living support and information, please respect the community spirit. Keep posts on topic, safe and friendly.
Uphold the WHO Code and do not promote the use of infant foods that would replace breastmilk or breastfeeding. This includes the early introduction of solids (<6 months), promotion of forced early weaning without medical need, or use of formulas and substitutes in situations that do not necessitate it. As a community we understand there are situations that absolute require these things, but we also support breastfeeding as the 'gold standard'. It is possible to be left in a situation where you are unable to nurse, while also in strong support of it.
When debating:
Cite your sources - credibly. This avoids further conflict, and helps your case.
Do not use politics and religion to bully others. It would be extremely unlikely that either would be even remotely relevant to an argument that would take place here.
Do not under any circumstances make personal attacks, use information from someone's personal journal, or utter any sort of derogatory slur or epithet. "Poopie head", however, is acceptable.
Accept that sometimes you just can't change someone's mind. Every so often, get up and take a walk and wonder if it's really worth continuing before you get into a 100-comment thread.
Please check the tags before asking questions, and remember to tag your own posts so that others can do the same! This helps keep our community running smoothly and reduces the likelihood of having many, many posts in a row asking the same question.
Do not feed the trolls. Before jumping into a flame ware, as much as you may want to, please report it to a mod at
naturalfam_mods.Do not post "flounce" or goodbye posts. If you are unhappy: leave. There is no need to garner attention and drama. Any hints of this will be deleted and you will be banned permanently so that you are not tempted to keep coming back to check if people wanted you to stay.
Do not delete, screen or freeze comments. You are not a mod, and if you act like one you will be shown the corner.
No diagnose-me posts. Do not post a list of symptoms or concerns and ask someone to diagnose you OR your children and pets. It is very unlikely that the members here are medical professionals and even if they are they probably charge for their services.
Clarification: "What is this funny rash?" is a diagnose me post, and will be deleted.
"I have a bladder infection and am taking antibiotics to help. While I wait for them to kick in, what can I do to ease the discomfort?" is okay.While we support natural healing and alternative medicine there will always be plenty of times and places for traditional medication, surgery and other allopathic treatments. Do not tell someone to stop any sort of medical treatment: this is extremely dangerous, not to mention bad karma. You will be banned.
Do not argue with the mods, for they wield the banhammer. If you were asked to cut it out: do so.
Racism, homophobia, sexism, classism and "I'm better than you"-ism are not tolerated.
Your mods and wielders of the banhammer are:
babyslime (Creator and Maintainer)altarflame (Creator)yelena_r0ssinithe_lissawaiting4it2snow
Please direct questions and concerns to naturalfam_mods and not to the personal journals of the mods.
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