Making it Up As I Go

I finished The Wee Free Men a while ago, and it was quite fantastic. It’s the story of a young witch and her attempts to save her little brother (and the world) from an evil Queen. She’s helped in the effort by the Wee Free Men, little pictsies who bear a very intentional resemblance to the Scottish. It’s written by Terry Pratchett, and while it’s intended for a younger audience, contains a lot of humor that would soar right over their heads- but not confuse them. It’s really a true all ages book, there’s something there for everyone. I really highly reccomend it, I really enjoyed it.

I also just finished The No-Cry Sleep Solution by Elizabeth Pantley. It’s about that time to help Zoe learn how to sleep through the night, and I picked up this book and Ferber’s to see which direction we should go. This one was really helpful, with a lot of really good ideas that I know we will use.

The one thing that I didn’t like, and it’s something that bugs me about a lot of these types of books that have a strong philosophy, is the apparent need to villanize other philosophies in favor of their own. I finally just quit reading the introduction, because its whole point was to explain how appalling, cruel, terrorizing, insensitive, and “rationalizing” the cry-it-out method of sleep training is. (She used all of those words.) Now, we probably won’t use the cry-it-out method, but I don’t need someone trying to prove to me that their method is the way to go by demonizing other methods, and insulting me if I chose to go with them. If your method works, then let it stand on its own. If I’ve already purchased the book, then obviously I think the idea has merit, so just give me the information on the method and philosophy, rather than try coerce me into doing what you think I should. To top it off, there always seems to be a bit about how the people who use the other techniques will try to convince you that what you’re doing is so wrong, and how they’re so bad for doing that– not noticing the hypocrisy in that. She also seemed to be making some snide comments about Ferber that indicated that she didn’t really understand what he was trying to do (at least as I understand it), but I could have been misinterpreting those.
Anyway, despite the introduction and a little bit at the end that ventured back into the “if you ever let your child cry you’re neglecting them and they will never be as good of a person as a baby that never ever cries”, it was a really good and insightful book. Now, on to Ferber, which I expect will be far more similar to Pantley’s book than she might suspect.

Current total: 68

Just finished: The No-Cry Sleep Solution by Elizabeth Pantley

Currently reading: Solve Your Child’s Sleep Problems by Richard Ferber