Dear Parent: Caring for Infants with Respect Book

As D.H. Lawrence said, "How to begin to educate a child. First rule: leave him alone. Second rule: leave him alone. Third rule: leave him alone. That is the whole beginning."

I wasn't sure about this book at first. I mean, she advocates letting your child go down stairs head first because it's the way they want to do it and that's the way they learn. I think she has probably worked with smarter babies than what I have since I think mine would have split her head open if I'd let her try that.

Stair-mastering aside, I like the general philosophy of this book which is basically that babies may need you to feed and change them, but they're pretty good at figuring everything else out on their own because they're autonomous beings who deserve to be respected as such. I already follow some of the principles, like just childproofing everything and letting her roam free. Sometimes I discover too late that things I thought were childproofed actually aren't, but c'est la vie.

This book is probably the antidote to "helicopter parents" since it encourages attending to your child's needs and then leaving them alone to explore at will thus giving them self-confidence that comes from self-mastery. It's made me feel a lot better about skipping out on all the "baby and me" type classes out there.