Because I need feedback on my idea
I was thinking about it as I shelved a book I had blown $20 bucks on when S was born. "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child". I think it's bullshit. S just doesn't respond to his methods like I had hoped. AUGH! I hate that. Then, I waste all my time online trying to figure out new ways to get her to sleep better.
And then I thought, why isn't there a set of books, in volumes that have tons and tons of different methods, interesting cross cultural methods, advice from noted professionals and old wives tales alike. HOW COOL WOULD THAT BE. It would be a very, very big book so I would propose volumes that you could buy separately or as one big set.
That way, when you buy the book it has a bunch of different methods and ideologies to try! Not as in depth as a whole book on a particular subject, but a good gist. Kinda like test driving until you get the right one, where in which you could buy the whole book or devote your precious time to research, knowing it's the right way for you, your child and your lifestyle.
I would call it: "The Instruction Manual(s)" There would be one about Methods of Feeding, Potty Training, Sleep in Infants and Toddlers, Sleep in Adolescents, Education, Healthy Eating for Older Children and Adolescents, Colic, and any other subject I can think of later.
I wouldn't write it alone, I would need help from 5-6 other writers not to mention researchers.
Heres the little premise I came up with:
You've heard it a thousand times, "Kids don't come with instruction manuals." Yet, it seems like every other day a new book claiming to FINALLY have the answer to [insert your parenting problem here]!!! You, the desperate parent might put down $20 for one of those thousands of promises. Or maybe you spent hours of your precious time Googling and Googling. You try a method that you've invested in and YOUR CHILD IS THE ONLY CHILD EVER THAT COMPLETELY DOES NOT RESPOND AT ALL. Back to the bookstore or search engine, you call more friends and relatives, you consult your doctor. Lots of lots of time while your still at your wit's end trying to crack this whole parenting thing open.
What if there was hand held one-stop resource you could turn to? One, more importantly, you can take into the bathroom with you because, lets face it, it's the only "free time" you actually have as a parent. At a glance, peruse the index and read up on different solutions, discover interesting ways in which parents from other cultures deal with what you're researching. Root through carefully selected old wives tales to maybe find that time honored hint you were looking for.
Pass your volume along to a friend after you've mastered a particular aspect of raising your child.
What do you think? It would be like a crazy-hard project. It's one of my life's goals to put something like this together.
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Some thoughts:
1) I think most of those books are written to SELL. They play on desperation, without ever addressing the basic problem that most parents face in this society (complete and utter lack of support from the community at large). They mostly have that "top down" viewpoint, written by so-called experts because we, parents (read: moms) don't know jack diddly. They think.
2) What about a w*kipedia format? Where other people write the articles? What about (I haven't researched this) actually creating a section, like "anecdotal parenting tips", in w*kipedia itself? It might be a place to start, to see if the project could go forward.
PS Kids don't sleep through the night. That fact wouldn't matter so much if moms got enough support that WE could sleep through the night, or that WE could take a nap during the day, or that WE wouldn't have to parent all night, then get up and go to some crap-ass job, or care for another human being or two all by ourselves all friggin' day. See where I'm going with this? The problem is NOT with kids' sleep patterns, it's with trying to make them into little, autonomous adults. Or with trying to make mothers into workerbees for soul-sucking corporations.

All little girls should be told they're pretty--even if they aren't.
--Marilyn Monroe

All little girls should be told they're pretty--even if they aren't.
--Marilyn Monroe
It took me baby # 3 to figure that out. With the first I was always trying to do it "by the book"
There is no "secret". Kids just do or don't and its up to mamas to deal w/ it.
I still think that its a good idea though.
well said!
not only do babies not sleep through the night, they shouldn't! infants should never be in such a deep sleep as it increases the risk for SIDS. i think parenting manuals tend to drown out our natural instincts. (at least that was my experience.) we start to distrust ourselves as mamas and also our babes natural inclinations, then we feel like failures when we don't measure up or fail at various methods.
i'm with you newleaf. what we need is tangible support.
"There are times when silence becomes an accomplice to injustice." -Ayaan Hirsi Ali
"Bombing for peace is like fucking for virginity."
Don't you have to get permission from each author?
i like your idea, lady.
i'm not too far into this mumhood thing yet, but i learned a while ago to take EVERYONES advice with a grain of salt.
it feels like a lot of times, advisers (be it moms, dads, books, docs, friends, whatever), forget that circumstances, temperment, timing, wiring is different for every kid... and sometimes i find that it gets hard to discern what my OWN knowledge of and intuition about my baby tells me, what with all the chaos of noise of clashing philosophies ringing at my ears...
all that to say, i would LOVE to have a book i could reference, which offered OPTIONS in philosophies and approaches, that were being presented as simply that- ideas, options. eliminate the fear-mongering.
i would totally be into that.
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