Lessons From The Women In My Life (Guest Post by Michael Lansbury)

My eldest daughter turned eighteen two months ago, a milestone loaded with implication and emotion. As her father, I felt an intense (self-imposed) pressure to mark the occasion appropriately, to acknowledge my genuine love and pride as openly and honestly as this East Coast WASP could manage. Certainly, this was the moment to pull out all the stops and come up with something more meaningful than a handshake and a...

What Will My Baby Really Need? A New Parent’s Checklist

Hello all! I’m a first-time poster, and an expectant mother (due May 2011)! I find that I’m overwhelmed trying to determine what our little one will truly “need”, versus what mainstream parenting says we need. My sister just had her first child in July, and she and my mother have offered a lot of advice to me (with the best of intentions). I’m just trying to get to the meat of it and...

Expectant Mom Questions ‘Babywearing’

Hi Janet, My partner and I are expecting our first baby in a month. I stumbled across your site when I found myself frustrated and overwhelmed by the language people are using to talk about babies and young children. It started with a woman telling me that she was ‘babywearing certified’. I tried to keep a steady heart rate while she explained to me the benefits of ‘wearing her baby’ and how...

Toddler Readiness – The Beauty Of Waiting

When my daughter was 2 ¾ she told me she wanted to ride a merry-go-round. I never figured out where she got the idea, but she loved books and must have seen a merry-go-round somewhere in one of them. We picked a day to visit the classic carousel on the Santa Monica Pier and talked about it for days ahead of time. We imagined the experience – choosing a horse, the music, fastening seatbelts, riding up and down,...

Changing Toddler Sleep Habits (Guest Post by Eileen Henry)

Parents of infants and toddlers have a collective wish – a peaceful ending to the day. We deserve it. Our days are long, often taxing, and we hope our babies will fall asleep easily and stay asleep through the night. We don’t have the patience or the energy to deal with a fussy baby. Even though we sense that our child’s cries are a healthy release of tension, we’re too tired, too vulnerable to hear them....

Creative Toys Engage Babies

A recent question in the community forum about infant toys and play gave me an idea. Shana, the mother of a 9 month old, expressed concern that her boy’s occupation with books and “cruising” might not be “enough”, and asked if I could give “examples of what happens in your classes with this age group.” So, I made this video tour of our play space at RIE (Resources for Infant...

Babies Learn Through Frustration

Janet, thank you again so much for answering my questions and for your wonderful articles. We have made huge progress and are so much calmer and happier in just a few days of changes. Here is my next question: I’m trying to get this right, and observing my baby carefully really does help to figure out what he’s crying about. But I’m unsure how to handle his cries after he trips or loses...

RIE Parenting – Dispelling The Rumors

Over the years I’ve heard a lot of words used to describe RIE parenting: mindful, thoughtful, respectful, intelligent, illuminating, eye-opening, natural, common sense (or uncommon sense, as I sometimes call it), life-changing, life-saving and (surprising, to me) a friend who didn’t even practice it with her children referred to it as “the high watermark for child care.” But before last month I never dreamed...