I am constantly amazed at just how brilliant a mother my daughter is with her 23 month old son, (my Wee Boy!)
As a mother myself, I still look on my own children as my Babies, and now my Babies have their own Babies!!
I must admit I do not agree with some of the Modern Methods for bringing up babies, but Modern Mums are lucky that they have the whole world wide web to confide in, if they need an answer, the WWW via Google, is a great source of information.
In my day all we had was a well worn book by Doctor Benjamin Spock!
Dr. Benjamin Spock has been at the forefront of child care since he first made a splash seven decades ago. His advice has been religiously followed by some, dismissed as kooky by others; controversy has swirled around his ideas for aeons. But despite the controversy, today - years after his death March 15, 1998 - new parents still follow his advice. They just might not realise they do.
When Dr. Spock's book was published in 1946, its simple core message was revolutionary: "Don't be afraid to trust your own common sense." Between that and his insistence that parents should show love and affection to their children rather than constant strict discipline, Dr. Spock challenged the conventional wisdom of early strict, spartan, unbending, cold, 20th-century childrearing like no one else.
Today, the basic tenets of Dr. Spock's child care philosophy might seem obvious to most parents. Hug your child. Tell him he's special and loved and unique. Feed him when he's hungry. Discipline with words, not corporal punishment. But in 1946, this was new.
Parents had long been encouraged not to shower their children with affection as this would make them weak and unprepared for the world. Feeding and naps were to be done on a strict schedule, regardless of the baby's immediate needs. And a child who just got a mild spanking for an offence got off easy - physical punishment was the norm.
Spock changed all that with his encouragement for parents to follow their instincts, be attentive to the baby's needs, and be generous with affection.
Although babies have been around for millenniums now, advice on how to bring up a child, changes every so often, but then the Bog Pendulum swings back again!!
SheWhoUsedToWear Kevlar, as do most Modern Moms, has adamant ideas about her son and once upon a time, when I quietly ventured an opinion, her retort was 'Mother the average lifespan in Zimbabwe is 37 years, here in the USA it is 79 years!!
I must admit the AAP (American Academy of Paediatrics) and I have done some silent fighting, I fight with them daily as to their proposed strict routines, but SheWhoUsedToWearKevlar usually abides by their suggestions - BUT ONLY TO A POINT thank goodness!! She is a sensible Yummy Mummy!!
I try to be a good Granny and not to voice my opinion on the up-bringing of My Grandchild, one knows one's place, although I would far rather be a Mother than a Mother-In-Law!!