Borderline Crunch

I breastfeed.
I use cloth diapers.
I babywear.
We don't do cry-it-out.
My baby doesn't eat purees from jars.
My baby doesn't use a pacifier.
We rarely use OTC medicines.

I say all of this to see if you consider me a "crunchy" mom. You might. But I don't think so.

I breastfeed, BUT I hope to wean my baby by 13 months for various reasons. And I'm okay with cow's milk--I drink it every day.
I use cloth diapers, BUT I have disposables in my diaper bag that she goes into when we're out or for the childcare at the gym. Cloth diapers are just cheaper in the long-run.
I babywear, BUT not that often any more. I love both my Boba and my stroller.
We don't do cry-it-out, BUT we do let her fuss a bit, which she often does when she's just changing her sleeping position. Mostly, it's just ME that can't handle the crying.
We don't generally do purees, BUT I do feed my baby off of a spoon often (that's a no-no in BLW if you're wondering). She loves applesauce, and Mott's natural is fine with me. She has been self-feeding since 6 months as well.
My baby doesn't take a pacifier, BUT Sometimes I wish she did. She thinks it is a teething toy to chew on. At least we won't have to paci-wean.
I had never given my baby infant Tylenol until recently, BUT I have two containers of it. She just had never really needed it until 11 months old. I originally bought it to use after her shots, but she has taken them all like a champ. With that said, I'm obviously not anti-vax either.
We don't co-sleep. Our baby only sleeps in the same room as us when we travel.
I loved my epidural, and I will probably get one again.
Oh, and you couldn't pay me enough to home school. (Not sure if that's a crunchy thing, but it seems to be running rampant on the mom-blogs I read.)

Something I've noticed is the link between "crunchy" mama and "attachment parents." I'm definitely more of the former than the latter. However, I also think that most of my own crunchiness is just frugality in disguise. I'm also kinda lazy--no bottles to wash, no trips to the store for diapers or baby food. As for you and what you do with your baby, I honestly do not care. Do what works, as long as you're not abusing them. Yeah yeah, I have a degree in Child & Family Development (which has since been thankfully renamed). I took one class on infant development and the words "crunchy" and "attachment parenting" were never used. Well, attachment itself was discussed (as in every class), but the Dr. Sears-style of parenting was never discussed. It most likely does not matter.

When I'm getting too invested in this parenting choice or another, I remind myself that in 5 years, nobody will know. If you go to a playground on a Saturday afternoon and watch a bunch of 5-year-olds run around without seeing their parents, will you know which ones were given formula instead of breast milk? Will you know which of them co-slept or weren't immediately held skin-to-skin after birth? Which ones wore cloth diapers or sucked a paci until they were 2?

Yeah, you won't know. So everybody just calm down, okay?

And if you want to laugh at crunchy attachment parents, see this video:
There's a part 2 also if you just can't get enough.

[That is seriously what almost every La Leche League meeting sounded like in Pensacola. SMH.]

So am I "crunchy around the edges"? Chewy? Just a lazy cheapskate of a mom?
Probably.

Note: For those reading this later, we eventually DID do cry-it-out [a few weeks after I wrote this, mostly thanks to an email conversation with a commenter on this post], and it was hands-down one of the best decisions I've made. You can read a little more about that decision here and here.