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One reason: parents need sleep too. Some parents will be better able to care for a child if they sleep through the night, and after about a year, many kids are

One reason: parents need sleep too. Some parents will be better able to care for a child if they sleep through the night, and after about a year, many kids are ready to sleep through the night themselves. At around 1.25, we decided to see how our daughter would do if we let her cry a bit - we'd wait through 5 minutes of crying before going in. It was really hard for us all, but it took exactly 2 nights before she was sleeping through the night without crying. It's totally ... inhuman. Also, that's a little strong. At a point (e.g. 6 months), this is totally true, but at a point, families need to figure out what works for them.

jwecker 17y ago
The _kids_ need sleep as well. One thing we realized was that the constant waking up was not just difficult for us but seemed to put strain on the baby as well. After a usually very short adjustment (3 days or so) our babies would sleep through the night, and so would we, and the babies seemed so much happier and more rested during the day. So anyway I totally agree. On another point, I would point out that in general adults are very, very attuned to having emotional responses to crying children (the younger the more powerful the response), whether we have our own children or not. That's why a baby crying on a red-eye flight can have such emotional reactions from total strangers (often negative, unfortunately). It's a wonderful human instinct that I think serves us very well in general. But those who aren't experience parents need to remember the following (_please_): * Every baby has a different temperament and personality. * Babies sometimes cry to get attention and not because they are actually in any way uncomfortable or scared. The different sounds are easy for the baby's parents to hear and difficult for other people to distinguish. (as mentioned, newborn infants are easier in that they always have a reason when they cry). * They sometimes cry for a while and there's nothing you can do. Seems to always happen in public. Leg aches, colic, gas, etc.
- Calamitous 17y ago
  I'd upvote this twice if I could. Agreed.

jwecker 17y ago

The _kids_ need sleep as well. One thing we realized was that the constant waking up was not just difficult for us but seemed to put strain on the baby as well. After a usually very short adjustment (3 days or so) our babies would sleep through the night, and so would we, and the babies seemed so much happier and more rested during the day. So anyway I totally agree. On another point, I would point out that in general adults are very, very attuned to having emotional responses to crying children (the younger the more powerful the response), whether we have our own children or not. That's why a baby crying on a red-eye flight can have such emotional reactions from total strangers (often negative, unfortunately). It's a wonderful human instinct that I think serves us very well in general. But those who aren't experience parents need to remember the following (_please_): * Every baby has a different temperament and personality. * Babies sometimes cry to get attention and not because they are actually in any way uncomfortable or scared. The different sounds are easy for the baby's parents to hear and difficult for other people to distinguish. (as mentioned, newborn infants are easier in that they always have a reason when they cry). * They sometimes cry for a while and there's nothing you can do. Seems to always happen in public. Leg aches, colic, gas, etc.

Calamitous 17y ago
I'd upvote this twice if I could. Agreed.