It never ceases to amaze me how things that were the norm for parenting one hundred years ago are now the biggest controversies facing modern day parents. It’s like each generation has to build the whole parenting rules from scratch every few hundred years. They mercilessly pitch out any idea previously held and insist that the exact opposite is the way to go. Forget tried and true methods, the least logical and most counter-intuitive solutions to every day parenting problems are all the rage.
Consider two modern day issues that, in bygone years, were just common sense: Breast feeding and co-sleeping.
Breast feeding is hotly debated not only for the nutritional value, but for the sheer inconvenience of it. Mothers, who are infinitely busier with careers and other obligations than they were centuries ago, don’t have time to sit and feed their child every 2-4 hours. They don’t have time or the place to pump the breastmilk if they are away from their little scream machine, let alone convenient places to store it until they can get it back home. There’s also this weird hold over of prudishness that breasts should not be seen, especially if they are being utilized to perform the function that the creator intended. Poppycock, I say. Free the nips! Their function is to literally provide sustenance to human young. Why are humans so ashamed or offended by that?
Co-sleeping is the term now used by people to describe letting your children, often infants, sleep in the same bed as its parents instead of in a separate crib or bedroom. What people often times forget is that this is not a new phenomenon. From the dawn of time, humans have often slept in the same bed as their offspring. It was a way to promote closeness, and warmth. There’s nothing wrong with it now, except that some crackpot said it was better to separate the children from their parents early to promote independence. I am not entirely sure whose independence, but that is not the point of this blog post.
The point I am trying to make is that boobs aren’t the problem. Ignorance and denial of the methods that have come before are the problem. If you want to be a better parent, stop and consider the methods your grandparents used, and their grandparents before them.
Knowledge is power. Earn yours.
Azra
***Disclaimer***Azra has been around children for centuries. While not having any of his own, part of being an exiled angel means blending in on earth. As he traveled the earth, he picked up on a lot of parenting practices across the globe. This blog is meant to share his parenting wisdom with a new generation. And to win a bet.
*Note: any advice given is meant to be satirical and not to be taken literally. Please do not exercise it upon any living being, child or otherwise.*