Instinctive Parenting : Trusting Ourselves to Raise Good Kids

by Ada Calhoun

• ISBN13: 9781439157299
• ISBN10: 1439157294
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-03-16
• Publisher: Gallery Books

Summary

From the founding editor-in-chief of Babble.com, a complete and completely reassuring guide that will show parents how to abandon their insecurities, trust their instincts, and enjoy raising a happy, considerate child.What's the right way to parent? Venture into any playground or online message board and you'll find as many opinions as there are adults present. Every subject -- from sleep training to time-outs to pacifiers -- has its supporters and detractors, and every viewpoint can be backed up by a truckload of research and statistics.It's enough to reduce a new parent to tears, if the 3 a.m. feedings and endless recitations ofGoodnight Moonaren't doing that already. Yet there is a way to end the madness, to calm your fears, and to make those precious early years a source of joy for both of you. Ada Calhoun, a young mother herself, infusesInstinctive Parentingwith the smart and candid approach that earned Babble an ASME nomination for General Excellence Online and close to two million readers. Her simple yet profound advice: Find what works for you and your family and ditch the anxiety and judgment.Everyone wants to do what's best for his or her child, yet the fact is there is no universal "best." Whether you start solids at four months or eight, whether you co-sleep or Ferberize, whether Junior's mac'n'cheese is dayglo orange or 100 percent organic matters a lot less than other parenting books -- and other parents -- might have you believe. What does matter is providing the few absolute essentials (love, food, shelter) while teaching your little one how to be a kind, responsible human being. With its compelling mix of entertaining, hilarious fi rsthand accounts and refreshing common sense,Instinctive Parentingwill show you how to do that -- and even show you how to retain your sanity, your friends, your sense of humor, and your personal life in the process.

Table of Contents

Introduction: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Baby	p. xi
Shelter
On Shelter	p. 3
A Design Opportunity	p. 7
Who Are the People in Your Neighborhood?	p. 11
How Much Negativity Is Helpful?	p. 15
Registering: What You Really Need in the Nursery	p. 20
The Thousand-Dollar Question: What Kind of Stroller Are You?	p. 23
The Disgrace That Is the United States's Leave Policy	p. 26
How We Think About Work	p. 31
The Truth About Cats and Dogs and Babies	p. 33
Blogs and Confessions	p. 36
TV or Not TV?	p. 40
Scary Stories	p. 43
Travels with Baby	p. 47
Marital Relations	p. 49
Those First Weeks Back from Leave	p. 55
Cars and Trucks and Things That Go	p. 65
Other People's Kids	p. 68
Share and Share Alike	p. 73
The Great Sleep-Training Debate	p. 77
Anxiety-Free Potty-Training	p. 84
Postpartum and Postpostpartum Depression	p. 86
Sex and Marriage	p. 89
Language Development Craziness	p. 92
The Almighty Nap	p. 95
Danger!	p. 97
School Days	p. 101
Becoming Like Our Parents-or Not	p. 105
First Friendships	p. 110
Cracking the Whip	p. 112
How Many Kids Should You Have?	p. 117
Food
On Food	p. 123
Defending Junk	p. 127
Booze and Drugs (For You, Not the Kid)	p. 130
Time to Eat	p. 132
A Modest Proposal: Bring Back Home Economics	p. 134
Snack Attack	p. 137
Allergy Alert Days	p. 139
The Evil Turkey Sandwich	p. 143
The Breastfeeding Wars	p. 146
Eating Together as a Family	p. 152
Love
On Love	p. 159
The Name Game	p. 163
When You're Pregnant, It Takes a Village ... to Judge You	p. 167
A Reality Check for Working Parents	p. 174
Here's to Babysitters	p. 180
Birth Stories	p. 185
Labor Plans and Realities	p. 189
Real Abuse	p. 193
The Hard Parts	p. 196
Party Time!	p. 202
Illness	p. 209
What We Talk About When We Talk About Our Kids	p. 213
Having Faith	p. 216
In Praise of Stepchildren	p. 220
Separation Anxiety	p. 222
Regretting Your Life	p. 225
Vaccination Paranoia	p. 231
The Great Circumcision Debate	p. 235
Toddlers in Love	p. 238
Taking Along the Kids	p. 242
Conclusion: Battling the Jinx	p. 251
Endnotes	p. 255
Acknowledgments	p. 261
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.