The diabolical genius of the baby advice industry - Deepstash
The diabolical genius of the baby advice industry

The diabolical genius of the baby advice industry

Curated from: theguardian.com

Ideas, facts & insights covering these topics:

6 ideas

·

1.36K reads

7

Explore the World's Best Ideas

Join today and uncover 100+ curated journeys from 50+ topics. Unlock access to our mobile app with extensive features.

Baby advice industry

The baby-advice industry targets people at their most vulnerable - at the start of the weightiest responsibility of their lives - and suggests that they have some information that will ensure the future happiness of the child.

Even the most skeptical readers fall prey to books that promise a happy and healthy child.

25

274 reads

The two camps of parenting advice

  • Baby Trainers urge parents to get their newborn on to a strict schedule to integrate him into the rhythms of the household. 
  • Natural Parents emulate the earthy practices of indigenous tribes in the developing world.
Although these two camps are hostile toward each other, we should realize that baby advice is not mainly about raising children. Instead, it is a vehicle to suggest that it might be possible to bring the terrifying unpredictability of the world under control. A brand new baby makes it possible to believe in that fantasy.

    32

    210 reads

    Nobody really knows 

    • For a start, nobody can remember what it was like to be a baby.
    • Most parenting gurus only have direct experience of parenting two or three babies, which isn't much better as a sample size. They can't assume that whatever worked for them will work for everyone.
    • When you have read all the parenting books, your baby will possibly follow an entirely different manual of instructions.

    37

    226 reads

    Parents are anxious

    Whether new parents try to follow advice from well-known parenting experts or rejecting outside expertise in favor of their own instincts, all guidance fails to quell anxiety away. You'll find yourself constantly questioning whether the advice is the best for your child.

    39

    235 reads

    Children were mostly "ignored"

    For most of human history, children were largely ignored until they were old enough to begin contributing to the survival of household or tribe. It is only in our modern society that children have become the center of attention from day one. 

    Parenting books promise that there are techniques and expertise that parents can acquire to help them accomplish the goal of shaping their children's lives. That this should be a goal is a recent development. Yet, almost every human in history has been raised without the insights of a multitude of parenting books.

    47

    212 reads

    Secure attachment

    Parenting is not about using techniques or thinking in terms of methods. Anything as complex as a relationship between humans can't be reduced to a set of consciously manipulable variables.

    Secure attachment in children is not a result of using techniques, but from the overall quality of the relationship between children and parents who are reasonably consistently available and in tune with their children's emotions some of the time - basically, loving parents.

    36

    211 reads

    IDEAS CURATED BY

    phammond

    Time is precious, waste it wisely.

    Patricia Hammond's ideas are part of this journey:

    Learning A Foreign Language

    Learn more about parenting with this collection

    How to practice effectively

    The importance of consistency

    How to immerse yourself in the language

    Related collections

    Read & Learn

    20x Faster

    without
    deepstash

    with
    deepstash

    with

    deepstash

    Personalized microlearning

    100+ Learning Journeys

    Access to 200,000+ ideas

    Access to the mobile app

    Unlimited idea saving

    Unlimited history

    Unlimited listening to ideas

    Downloading & offline access

    Supercharge your mind with one idea per day

    Enter your email and spend 1 minute every day to learn something new.

    Email

    I agree to receive email updates