Wednesday, January 02, 2008

Impatient

When you got pregnant, did you sign a contract with the universe guaranteeing you unbroken nights' sleep when the child hit 6 months/1 year/ 3 weeks (delete as appropriate)?

If no, then stop considering leaving your poor child to scream alone and BE THE PARENT. It's a 24 hour job.

Thank you.

That is all.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I never lacked any sleep.

Anonymous said...

It's not very helpful to scream at people "BE A PARENT." And to say "I never lacked any sleep."
Parents that can't sleep because their babies cry have a problem.

emma said...

You said you never lacked sleep, I didn't!

I've lacked sleep, sure. But there are ways of minimising that lack without leaving a baby to scream.

Anonymous said...

ITA Emma

Anonymous said...

I know I said it, it's good to be able to self-criticise, you know. It's the ideas that matter.

If there are ways to minimize lack of sleep, it's better to talk about those.

And I wouldn't infallibly cling to the idea that leaving a baby to cry is psychologically harmful or traumatizing.

Carlotta said...

"And I wouldn't infallibly cling to the idea that leaving a baby to cry is psychologically harmful or traumatizing."

...though you would agree that in leaving a child "to cry it out" that a parent is are not taking the child seriously?

And would you not say that if a child had their needs repeatedly ignored by a person who should by rights attend to their needs, that the child is quite likely to end up with the idea that he probably didn't matter very much to the person who ignored him or some such negative message?

Willow said...

I was assured by midwives, mainstream childcare books, other parents in the local community etc. that my child would be sleeping through by 6 months.

No wonder people expect it.

emma said...

Good gracious.

I was assured by a close friend that her son was regularly waking up in his own bed in the mornings by the time he was 7 or 8. "but he'd still often come in for a cuddle", she said.

I had that older-child-who-likes-company-at-night thing to balance against the sleeping-through-from-day-one nonsense.