Today I was reading the blog Heir to Blair, which is fabulously snarky. Love it.
Anyhoo, one of her posts was about how she and a friend of hers were discussing the natural feelings that occur when your child has been screaming for no apparent reason, for hours. You can read that here. It's a refreshingly honest post, and it was great to read all the supportive comments behind it.
Afterwards, I googled "Is it ok to let a baby cry?"
It amazed me how many people out there believe that it is not ok for a baby to cry by itself, ever. There were many comments about how babies only have the one way of communicating, so we should always be right there to listen and comfort them.
Whatever. If a baby is fed, clean, dry, and comfortable, that's about all you can do. Sure, any reasonable person knows that babies need lots of contact and love. That's why God made them so cute--so people would want to pick them up and nuzzle them. But the idea that babies only cry because the caretaker is not doing something right is absolute madness. Some posts out there were downright terrible. No wonder some new parents feel like failures--they have people out there telling them it is never acceptable for their child to be inconsolable.
I think there has to be a healthy understanding that there is a limit to what parents can do to soothe a baby. And once you have exhausted all those options, there is nothing wrong with putting the kid in his crib and taking a shower with some music on. It's all about maintaining your sanity at that point, and that is what is best for the baby.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment