Parenting, A Job Without Pay?

Parenting is not a job.  If it were a job, we would have managers telling us exactly what to do (no, not our mothers and fathers), and we would have a manual.  These things do not exist.  What we do have are little beings with their own unique traits, that we, as parents, have been given the rights to help shape and mold but not sculpt and dry.

With the influx of baby books and other ideas on how we should raise these unique beings, it is a wonder that any of us gets it right.  I read almost every single one.  The other day, I was cleaning out a closet and found over 20 books which I had read through my pregnancies on how to raise a happy baby, healthy baby and everything I was supposed to do during my pregnancy.  Out of the mass amounts of books, I remembered one.  The book, “Secrets Of The Baby Whisperer”.  Why that book?  It was the only book that taught me how to listen to my baby and not what is supposedly text-book… There is no such thing as a “textbook” baby.  It is probably one of the few comments made in books that make me want to throw the book away.  My child may have a number of traits similar to a “type cast” per say, but, my child is clearly not text-book. 

The teachings (or should I say the way things were communicated to me) in “Secrets Of The Baby Whisperer,” taught me to treat my daughters from birth, as if they were little people.  I introduced them to our home, our dog, and everything else like they would have been as adults.  I realize this sounds funny but it worked.  I respected them from birth and now they demand the same respect.  I cannot talk to them as if they don’t understand what I am saying.  They do.  Sometimes, this can be tough but overall, the results have been positive.  I could go on forever how this book helped me with my daughters, their colic, and how it helped me with their learning and growth but I would rather leave you with wondering more about the book and buying it for yourself or for the next person you know, who is about to embark on the most rewarding career in their lifetime, becoming a mom or dad.