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Seems rather bad. I live in Germany and lots of people I know have separate rooms for their babies, for example. Also I have been told having the baby sleep in

by Tichy 16y ago

Seems rather bad. I live in Germany and lots of people I know have separate rooms for their babies, for example. Also I have been told having the baby sleep in the same room reduces the risk of sudden infant death, so I wonder if the extra room really is a result of an evolved cultural advantage. Anyway, could it be that the US is simply bigger than most other WEIRD countries? A lot of more people would imply more people of the extreme variety. Also, I think you have a lot of space over there. So bedrooms are cheap, too, which would also explain the extra bedrooms. A lot of families in other countries simply can not afford extra bedrooms for babies. Also I didn't like the pattern of this article of building up authority by stating some random statistical facts, then using that artificial authority to put forward some random theory of cultural evolution.

sliverstorm 16y ago
> I live in Germany and lots of people I know have separate rooms for their babies, for example. Yeah, that was a weird example to talk about. I was immediately thinking, why is that weird? Excited parents are just preparing a separate room for their future, post-infancy child (which isn't unusual at least in the 1st-world, right?) ahead of time.
dagw 16y ago
Also, I think you have a lot of space over there. So bedrooms are cheap That was the first thing I though of as well. My baby doesn't have her own room for the simple reason that we don't have a room to spare.
brc 16y ago
I'm not in the USA, and I think most parents I know want a separate room for their baby - it's only for economic reasons in most cases if that doesn't happen. The only people I know who don't have their baby in a separate room still have an empty room in their house. It was a very strange factoid to put into the article, but because it was at the start I immediately skimmed the rest doubting it's research or authenticity.

by Tichy 16y ago

sliverstorm 16y ago

> I live in Germany and lots of people I know have separate rooms for their babies, for example. Yeah, that was a weird example to talk about. I was immediately thinking, why is that weird? Excited parents are just preparing a separate room for their future, post-infancy child (which isn't unusual at least in the 1st-world, right?) ahead of time.

dagw 16y ago

Also, I think you have a lot of space over there. So bedrooms are cheap That was the first thing I though of as well. My baby doesn't have her own room for the simple reason that we don't have a room to spare.

brc 16y ago

I'm not in the USA, and I think most parents I know want a separate room for their baby - it's only for economic reasons in most cases if that doesn't happen. The only people I know who don't have their baby in a separate room still have an empty room in their house. It was a very strange factoid to put into the article, but because it was at the start I immediately skimmed the rest doubting it's research or authenticity.