I encounter this attitude a lot with the local moms, including my wife.
My anecdote... our baby was a year old or so and waking up once or twice a night crying. Wet? no, hungry? We fed her a lot before going to bed, so unlikely. I recommended a few times that we let her cry herself back to sleep, and get some rest ourselves.
Barring an emergency, my philosophy is that a child will be better served in the long run by happy, well-slept parents for 16 hours a day than harried, miserable ones 24 hours a day. Pretty simple really. The wife disagreed. It wasn't until another month or two later when our old-school pediatrician recommend the same thing in different wording--"you're part of her routine," that she agreed to try.
By the second (maybe third) night the night-time crying had stopped /permanently/ and we went on to live happily ever after. Later, another mom we know was having the same problem, and my wife gave her the advice. "I don't believe he (the pediatrician) said that!" she replied incredulously...
Do you know she laid down with her son every night for an hour until he went to bed, and then got up twice a night for the last two years? (And we're the crazy ones).
There's a good bit by George Carlin called, "Child worship" that is good commentary on this mindset. The sooner it goes out of fashion, the better.
My anecdote... our baby was a year old or so and waking up once or twice a night crying. Wet? no, hungry? We fed her a lot before going to bed, so unlikely. I recommended a few times that we let her cry herself back to sleep, and get some rest ourselves.
Barring an emergency, my philosophy is that a child will be better served in the long run by happy, well-slept parents for 16 hours a day than harried, miserable ones 24 hours a day. Pretty simple really. The wife disagreed. It wasn't until another month or two later when our old-school pediatrician recommend the same thing in different wording--"you're part of her routine," that she agreed to try.
By the second (maybe third) night the night-time crying had stopped /permanently/ and we went on to live happily ever after. Later, another mom we know was having the same problem, and my wife gave her the advice. "I don't believe he (the pediatrician) said that!" she replied incredulously...
Do you know she laid down with her son every night for an hour until he went to bed, and then got up twice a night for the last two years? (And we're the crazy ones).
There's a good bit by George Carlin called, "Child worship" that is good commentary on this mindset. The sooner it goes out of fashion, the better.