Parenting Through Disaster (A Letter From Ground Zero, New Zealand)

When new mum Helena agreed to allow me to post her letters here from time to time — share her RIE-inspired parenting journey — I never dreamed she’d be reporting an experience like this one. Helena’s letter speaks for itself, and there is little I can say except that my heart, thoughts and prayers go out to Helena and all those suffering…   Hi Janet,  I am not sure if you have heard in your...

Breaking An Abusive Cycle Through AP And RIE (Guest Post by Suchada from Mama Eve)

Please, don’t let them grow up like me…  I have three vivid memories of growing up: The first is of my mother when I was five or six years old. I was getting ready for school and had difficulty putting my shoes on the correct feet (being slightly dyslexic), and my mother went ballistic. She hit me, over and over, all while yelling at me how stupid I was for not having it figured out by now. The second...

Life With Baby: A New Parent’s Struggles And Success (From My Mailbox)

One of the happy benefits of blogging about RIE parenting is the positive connections I’m making with some outstanding dads and moms (or, as in this case, a warm, exuberant ‘mum’).  As New Zealander Helena is discovering, learning to parent is nothing like acing a multiple-choice quiz. Developing our relationship with a unique other person — a much smaller, more fragile, non-verbal one — is an...

Baby’s “No Cry” Sleep Is Exhausting (More Wisdom From Eileen Henry)

Since sleep specialist Eileen Henry volunteered to answer parents’ questions here, I’ve received many. Sleep is undoubtedly the number one issue.  I could easily turn this blog over to Eileen and your questions, if she had the time. I’m trying not to overwhelm her! Below is a note from a parent (Masha) that I had forwarded to Eileen. As it turned out, Eileen’s private response to me as she considered...

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...

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...

Shhh…Babies Playing (Scenes From a RIE Parenting Class)

I have a reverence for babies at play. Actually, any child at play. Even when my 9-year old builds forts, or creates stories with his soldiers, knights and dragons (sadly, becoming a rare occurrence) my husband and I are careful not to interrupt. So, I had very mixed feelings about filming the 7-10 month old babies playing during “observation time” in my RIE parent/infant class. As I’d feared, holding up my...

RIE Parenting – A Culture Of Creativity

There was a buzz about RIE last week. The Daily Beast, Parenting and ivillage posted articles referring to RIE (Resources for Infant Educarers) classes as a trendy “celebrity craze”,  and even insinuated that participants constituted a cult. For members and advocates of infant expert Magda Gerber’s non-profit organization, one that’s inspired a diverse community of parents, early childhood educators and...