It seems to me that the way in which we are taught in books to raise our kids is simply rediculious. At least all of the popular methods. For one major example, what is up with letting your child lay in bed and cry, from a purely intellectual perspective. I mean, think about it in total amount of time. After two, maybe three years, the child will have grown out of this phase. And what is three years of your life spent dealing with this. It is a small sacrifice for the well being of that child as he grows older. To know that he can have someone who will be there for him. The way I see it is that If you child wakes up in the middle of the night and cries, why not rush to that childs aid. Especially in the first 6 or 8 months, when the newborn really has no idea what is going on.

While thinking about this, my 6 months old daughter woke up, crying. I wondered, why are you crying at 11:47 pm? I wondered this and looked around me as I rushed into the bedroom, starting down at my crying daughter. I guess from my presence in the room, she stopped crying. I suddenly thought about spirits and the supposed book of everything that God has and can review. The spiritual record of all occurences. I thought about time, ideas, and the wonderment at how much I must have been in that book. How my entire life, ideas… dreams and thoughts are all on record in some strange book about everything in all of existence. The moments of pleasure and pain, of love and hate, of anger and mercy. And then I thought about this moment. As I stood over the bed where my 2 year old slept, looking off to my left: into the crib, where my baby slept. The 6 month old child. My children. I dreamed of being left, for just a few minutes, from the book of everything. Just this moment. Preserved for no-one but myself. I asked, (from God and everything else), to be left out of the book of life for just three minutes. Just a minor deletion of time for the next threes minutes so I could study the looks of my children in peace. So I could adorn their innocence and childlike perfection without anyone ever being able to go back and enjoy it besides me and my son and daughter. Just one moment to be left out of the eternal book of eternity.

As they slept, I slowly smiled, enjoying the silence around me.

The below quote is from a Yale study done about raising children. It it rather interesting...

"Pick the baby up: Your baby's cry is a signal to you. The baby will not be spoiled if you pick him or her up. An infant who is picked up, cuddled and soothed is learning about forming a loving relationship, an important developmental lesson. Babies who get a loving response to their cries learn to trust and love others and may cry less often." -|-

By Jeff Nolan