I am by no means an expert on parenting. These are just my views and opinions on how kids, (mainly babies and toddlers) should be trained.
Yes I say trained. Babies are like dogs, they need to be trained so they know how to behave. Nobody likes annoying dogs that crap all over, jump on you, wake you up in the middle of the night to play and tear up everything in site. So who would like a kid that does that? A lot of people, won't agree on many of the things I will say in this entry. I don't care. I think they are right and yes I think everyone should do these things.
First of all, who came up with this crap that says if you let your baby cry it out they will have emotional damage when they are older? Seriously? Who comes up with this stuff!! How could anyone possibly know that emotional damage can be linked to crying as a baby?! I am all for letting my babies cry it out. Of course if it's for longer than 30 minutes then something else it wrong. But sometimes if your baby just won't stop crying and you are going to go insane, you just have to put the baby down and go into a different room for a few minutes so you can breathe and gain some sanity back. I've had to do this several times.
Let's face it, when you first have a baby, they will not have a schedule right away. You have to make that schedule gradually. From the very beginning, I put my kids to bed at 8 pm. Even if they had just eaten an hour before, I would feed them again right before bed so they would sleep longer. By 6-9 months they would be sleeping through the night. It wasn't easy, but to do that, I had to let them cry it out.
Babies wake up during the night to eat, because they don't get enough to eat during they day. So I always made sure my kids got plenty to eat all day. If they did happen to wake up, I would go in there, rock them for a minute, then put them back to bed. If they would cry again when I walked out, I just shut the door and let them cry. After 20-30 minutes they would give up and go to sleep. Same thing would happen for the next couple of nights, only they would give up sooner. Usually 5-10 minutes. After that they always sleep through the night. (Unless of course they are sick.)
I don't know how people get any sleep or sanity with kids who wake up multiple times a night. Or with kids that don't go to bed at a decent time. I have people in my life who will say "I couldn't get my kid to go to bed last night until 11." I just want to smack them and say "Who is the parent here?!" Get a child lock and lock them in their room! Sure they will probably play for a while but eventually they will go to sleep! I have done this with both of my kids several times.
I'm sure we all know people who have kids that rule the house and get whatever they want. To those parents: Stop it! You are turning your kids into self entitled spoiled little brats and nobody will ever want to be around them! Another thing, don't baby your baby. Kids are tough and can get over things quickly if you let them. But if you baby them whenever anything happens to them, that's what they will be their whole life. A baby.
Welp, there's my 2 cents on this subject. These things have been on my mind for a looong time. Not sure why I never wrote them down until now. These are my opinions so no need to get all angry and judge mental on me. This is how my parents, some of my siblings, and how I have done things with kids. It's what I know is right and what works right.
