The Baby's Feelings for His/her Parents

As the baby is growing all the time, so are his feelings. When the baby is born, he does not know anyone, and he cannot make sense of the world. However, as the time passes, he starts to distinguish between the people, feels the different gestures and recognizes the touch, smell and voice. As the mother handles the baby daily in similar ways, the baby starts to assemble a pattern. Every time the mother picks him, feeds him or loves him, he makes a bond with the mother. This bond helps him to recognize his mother. The baby has the special attachment with his mother as she is the closest person to him now. This small world created by the mother for her child helps him to understand the mother and which is why; he can distinguish his mother from the other people who are there in his daily life. After about three months, the baby starts to recognize his mother's face clearly, but he is also friends with everyone. We can say that for the first six months, the baby is very friendly and smiling and allows everybody to pick him, touch him and love him. Although he is pleasant to everyone, but side by side he is generating a special bond with his mother.

As you must have noticed that after six months of age, the baby starts to behave quite dramatically. He only wants his mother and cries every time a stranger approaches him. Even the father and grandparents are avoided at this point of time as the mother has become his safe place. The father and grandparents are puzzled due to this behavior but the baby just wants to stick to his mother. We should understand that it is not like the baby has been spoiled. In fact, we should take it in a positive point in baby's development as the baby is now able to recognize the strangers. The baby clings to his mother as he has felt that bond with his mother. His mother has helped him during his illness, gradually master his body, identify his non spoken words and this closeness has made the mother as the most important person in his life. The good thing is that now the baby knows the other world apart from his mother, and he is fearful of the strangers; that is why he always wants his mom, with whom he feels secure. You do not need to worry about this behavior as it is just a phase, and it will pass on. This phase is very important for baby's social and emotional development. You can say that it is the first step of baby towards the tact of dealing with strangers and those he loves.

At the nine months of age, the baby will start interacting with the father, but it totally depends upon the availability and involvement of the father. The more interacting the father is, the more will be the strength of the baby's attachment to him. Although, the baby starts to attach with the father, but it is very less as compared to the mother, as the role of mother is still greatly different and important in the baby's life. As the time goes by, the importance of father will become equally important as of the mother's.

Now the baby starts to make the relationship with other family members or maybe the close family friends. He is still not friendly with the strangers; that mean he has learned the difference between family, friends and strangers. This kind of relationships totally depends on their involvement with the baby. He is not aware of the blood relationships yet, and that is why; he may be much close to a neighbor aunt rather than a distant grandmother.

After the first year, as the baby approaches towards his second year of life, he starts to behave more closely to the parents. He wants to share his food and other things with them. He wants to cheer them up, if anyone of them is unhappy. Now, he has started learning new behaviors by exploring the outer world and other people. As his age grows and he meets new people, his social behavior develops, and now you can see him behaving differently sometimes as this is the effect of his social interactions and new exposures.