I am in 2 different social circles with my children (1 group mainly comprises of past and present BB mums), and even though we all do gentle parenting in some way, we all do differently.

I have both my kids sleep in my room. IF DS is disturbing DD too much, then DH takes her to sleep in the spare room, but neither are left on their own. And in my original mothers group, the kids are all in their own rooms with CIO used at times. I had one of the mothers so embarrased that her DD was screaming, and chucking an outright tantrum, she thought I would never go back. But if that is the way that it works for her, who am I to judge and tell her I don't agree, or I think it's wrong? I know they don't agree with my children sleeping with us, but they have never directly said that I am doing it wrong, just said it isn't for them.

Just makes me so sad that so many dedicated, educated, competent Mums are still told that this is the only way and often that it's actually good for their child - eg. 'he needs you to teach him how to sleep... this is how you do it'. And, as a consequence, so many babies have to experience this stress. I know some parents choose to do this when fully informed of all the options because of their own circumstances and preferences and I want to be clear... I respect that.

Do you know that the mother that you have written about is 'uninformed'? Is it possible that she fits into the category of knowing and chooses to do it that way? Or maybe she was doing things differently because she had visitors? OR maybe the kid was acting up because their were people there? How would you feel if she told you that you were doing things wrong, just because you have chosen a different method of parenting? I don't tjink either way, is wrong, we just all go about it differently.