Saturday, February 21, 2009

When in Doubt

Since I haven't written on my favorite topic in a while, I was thrilled to see that Danielle Been did it for me. I particularly love that her reason for co-sleeping and not co-sleeping are the same!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I read Danielle's article, and ever since I've been rather seething about it and trying to sort it out in my head enough for a post. I didn't see her article as much about co-sleeping as it was about how parents of young children should view sleep.

I think the insinuation that if we value sufficient sleep, it makes us wimps and selfish is quite disturbing. To say that the only reason we should need sleep is if we operate 'heavy machinery'...well, how about being responsible for precious young souls and their safety each day? If there's any job where sleep is an absolute necessity, staying home with kids would be it.

Of course when children have needs, they come before ours, no question. But, well, I just see too many times that parents are told they have no right to sleep when they have young children. It's like saying we shouldn't want to eat! It's possible to put our children's nighttime needs first, while teaching them healthy sleep habits, and in general get decent sleep ourselves.

And with that I'm off to bed! :)

JimmyV said...

I'm constantly impressed that you read Danielle's articles even though they usually seem to cause some level of consternation.

I think Danielle's point was more that parents need to sleep and they do what it takes to get it. But they don't get uninterrupted sleep most nights, just like they don't get uninterrupted meals most times.

Anyway, I need to get me some sleep too!