Gentle Christian Mothers

Gentle Christian Mothers is an online community for Christian mothers who practice attachment parenting as popularized by Dr. William Sears.^[1] In 2006 Gentle Christian Mothers, or GCM, had hundreds of female members from around the world, mostly mothers." Salon.com has called it a "support community for mothers."^[2]

Early history

Gentle Christian Mothers began as a webring owned by Jeri Carr. Websites owned by Christian mothers who advocated attachment parenting were welcomed to join. After Yahoo!'s purchase of WebRing.com in 1999, Mrs. Carr declined to continue the Gentle Christian Mothers webring. Shortly thereafter, she formed a message board at ezboard. The new message board focused on the same principles as the defunct webring.^[3] In mid-1999, Mrs. Carr invited former members of the webring to join the message board. At its inception, Gentle Christian Mothers hosted only a few dozen users.

Gentle Christian Mothers Description and History

Gentle Christian Mothers presents a Christian faith-based approach to parenting and positive parenting. Shortly after its launch, Mrs. Carr introduced a forum to support mothers in the application of Grace-Based Discipline, so named by Crystal Lutton, and GOYB Parenting developed by Joanne Davidson. This forum has become both popular and controversial, as it advocates Positive Discipline (per Jane Nelsen) and logical consequences while discouraging corporal punishment for children. This paradigm shift away from punitive Christian thought about the "rod" verses in the Bible attracts as many users as it has repelled, and has led to debate among the message board members. Gentle Christian Mother's official stance is anti-corporal punishment.

GCM users are a diversified group of mothers, and the message board's forums reflect that. Topics including (but not limited to) vegetarianism, veganism, homeschooling, unschooling, marriage, exposing the faults of the parenting programs advocated by Gary Ezzo and Growing Families International, cooking, entertainment, and different ages & stages of childhood are found at GCM.

In 2002 and 2003, several issues of a print newsletter, Gentle Mothering, were published. The newsletter was available to members who paid dues. The print newsletter was discontinued, and GCM stopped offering a paid membership option. Membership to the GCM message board has always been without charge.