Advice to New Parents

In the last 100 years, experts from fields such as pediatric medicine, psychology and child development have offered a plethora of advice to new parents. Beginning with the medically-based advice of Dr. L. Emmett Holt (1894) and the psychological counsel of Dr. John Watson (1925), we can see the seeds of more modern (and still relied-upon) works, such as those of Dr. Benjamin Spock (1945) and Dr. Penelope Leach (1979). Examined comparatively, these books provide a fascinating window into the ideas about children and childhood that characterized their respective eras. As such, this paper focuses on the similarities among and differences between the seminal works of these four experts, with specific attention to the ways they have influenced our understandings of the very experience of childhood.

EARLY WORKS: PRESCRIPTION AND CONTROL

At the end of the 19th century, pediatrician L. Emmett Holt created a short pamphlet on caring for children as a tool for teaching nurses. Although he did not originally intend for the work to be used beyond the hospital, by 1894 Holt had expanded, revised, and published the first edition of his "catechism" under the title The Care and Feeding of Children. Over the years, the book "became the infant bible of the nation" as it was translated into several other languages and underwent 12 revisions and 75 printings (Duffus, pp.116-17).

At the time of writing, parents and nurses were eager to have a reliable reference source, and the book was prai

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ombine the fields of psychology and pediatrics and offer parents a useful resource for child-rearing advice. He did not want his advice to be prescriptive, however. Instead, he wanted to "write a book that increased parents' comfort and independence" (Bloom, p.101). In that important way, Spock's work differed a great deal from that of Holt and Watson; the importance of parental discretion had entered into the mix. This emphasis on parents' instincts and common sense is pervasive throughout Spock's book. He implores parents to "trust your own common sense" (p.1) and "listen to the signs" (p.256) babies offer. Unlike Holt and Watson before him, Spock clearly notes the differences among babies. He explains that "parents do the best they know how with the kind of child they receive" (p.19); he encourages parents to "love and enjoy your children for what they are, for what they look like, for what they do" (p.4). In contrast to Watson's ideas about control, Spock argues that since all children are different, they must be respected and allowed to grow into the adult they are meant to be. Despite widespread acceptance of many of his ideas, Spock was criticized for encouraging parents to allow their children too much freedom. Even he,

Category: Psychology - A