Dr. Spock’s Baby Book, has been dog-eared by so many million parents it is hard to imagine it wasn’t always at hand to inform and reassure. Yet it was only in the post-World War II baby boom, that it first appeared. At a time when young families were sprouting everywhere, mostly removed from older generation s and traditional approaches to child rearing. For such a gentle and informative manual, the book was nearly revolutionary: it held that a baby was a person too, with a need for affection and understanding. Necessary discipline will follow. For his insight the Doctor was condemned. That charge is heard no more. Instead he is viewed as the father of us all.
His famous line to parents,"You know more than you think you do.” was in a way very reassuring to the new parents. The theme, that new parents are fully up to the task at hand, that successful parenting is , above all, a matter of relaxing and trusting one’s instinct would alone have been enough to set the book apart from its grim predecessors; so , too the work’s extraordinary thoroughness in covering the physical and behavioral problems common to small children.
Dr. Spock’s Baby Book, has been dog-eared by so many million parents it is hard to imagine it wasn’t always at hand to inform and reassure. Yet it was only in the post-World War II baby boom, that it first appeared. At a time when young families were sprouting everywhere, mostly removed from older generation s and traditional approaches to child rearing. For such a gentle and informative manual, the book was nearly revolutionary: it held that a baby was a person too, with a need for affection and understanding. Necessary discipline will follow. For his insight the Doctor was condemned. That charge is heard no more. Instead he is viewed as the father of us all.
His famous line to parents,"You know more than you think you do.” was in a way very reassuring to the new parents. The theme, that new parents are fully up to the task at hand, that successful parenting is , above all, a matter of relaxing and trusting one’s instinct would alone have been enough to set the book apart from its grim predecessors; so , too the work’s extraordinary thoroughness in covering the physical and behavioral problems common to small children.
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