How has CIO affected you??

[Acacia]

I too like Barb have memories of being really scared at night from nightmares / imaginings / but being (even more) scared to disturb my parents. I would stand at their bedroom door hoping they would wake up without me bothering them (these are probably memories from 3-4yrs old), and I also clearly remember times being treated impatiently, annoyed and cross (sometimes even yelled at) for waking up at night, sometimes even when sick, and especially if it was whilst my parents were awake in the evening - I guess they really wanted their evenings without the kids. I know I was left to CIO as a young baby as my mother and father told me they did this with me, and suggested that I should be doing it with DD when she was no more than 3 or 4 months old - the "you need to give them some tough love otherwise they'll never learn" attitude. Needless to say I don't have any conversations with my parents at all about parenting.

I can tell you that the above - combined with my mother and father's parenting style as a whole - has impacted me greatly. I have recently been diagnosed with a serious mental illness that has been going on since my teens and I'm just finding the courage to talk about it now. It's a personality disorder that is very clearly linked to your upbringing (as many personality disorders are). So... I want to say that I believe the CIO has played it's part but it is not the only thing nor could I ever view it in isolation.

This is not judgement on anyone else's parenting techniques or styles - just simply an observation of my own upbringing. The fact that my parents were prepared to use CIO with me and my siblings as babies I feel was and is completely indicative of and congruent with the parenting style my parents chose or perhaps even grew into. It was harsh and unforgiving more often than not. Perhaps it's as much to do with being a sensitive person as I know I am, perhaps it's that the way I have been parented has "grown" me into a much more sensitive person - the old nature versus nurture argument. What I can say is that the nurture side was lacking and I know where I am now.

I think it is so very difficult to measure the impact in isolation, but - as in my case - my parents used CIO as a technique along with many other less gentle parenting techniques as I grew up, and I can honestly say that I believe that CIO played it's part in who I am now, no matter how small and how unmeasurable/immeasurable that part may be.

But... that's just me...

Thanks Heaven for starting a really interesting thread