Should A Christian Let A Baby “Cry It Out?”
Elrena Evans looks at Crying It Out from a Christian Point of View in Christianity Today. This is not a new article, but I just found it. It is a response to an article in Psychology Today called, Dangers of Crying It Out by Darcia Narvaez, Ph.D.
Twitter
Facebook
email
Print
Tumblr
Digg
del.icio.us
StumbleUpon
Add to favorites
Reddit
the very idea of “letting it cry out” was first expressed in the nazi parenting guide “Die deutsche Mutter und ihr erstes Kind” / “the german mother and her first child”. the guide was designed to produce obeying wehrmacht soldiers. every parent should think twice if they want to aplly nazi methodes.
“Cry it out”? That’s a nice way of saying “beg for help till they’re too exhausted to beg any more”.
As the parent of an 18 month old toddler and half brother to much younger twins I’ve had plenty of, sleep deprived, experience with crying babies and when I hear of people doing this I think less of them.
A baby is not capable of emotional manipulation, they don’t understand ‘want’ they understand ‘need’, if they’re crying it’s for a reason, discover the reason, resolve the problem and the crying stops.
If for some reason you are unable to resolve the problem then give them every comfort possible and if that is at the expense of your free time or your sleep then so be it.
You’re supposed to love your children, not torture them and any excuses for this kind of behavior ring hollow in my ears. If you cannot commit to caring for a baby then don’t have one.
I have no doubt that to ignore a child in need is abusive, a step away from a slap when frustrated which is a step away from a beating when enraged.
Well said, I agree. When my children cried I reminded myself that they were communicating and they needed help. I wouldn’t ignore my husband or a friend if they were crying, why a child? Just look at a crying child’s face – they are asking for help and comfort. It’s cruel to ignore that. When I couldn’t stop my child crying I stayed with them, holding, stroking or reading to them. It was incredibly tiring for me but the kind thing to do for them.