The Day of Black Sun 

04-16-2007, 7:35am (EDT)

Let 'em cry

I have decided that I need to avoid talking to other parents about the issue of whether or not to let infants cry themselves to sleep. Sarah and I don't believe in this, but it seems that a rather strong majority of parents think this is the way to go. That doesn't bug me -- to each his own -- but what does bother me is when the cry-it-out parents "defend" their positions by claiming it is the "hardest thing they've ever had to do." Hard? Really? Hey, I didn't ask these folks if it "hurt their feelings." Of course it hurt and it should. I would hope that any good parent would feel badly for ignoring her/his infant's screams for help (especially because the child is too young to understand the lesson). But difficult? Feelings of guilt aside, how hard is it to let a crying child to scream for 15-20 minutes straight for two or three consecutive nights? Compare that to the effort of losing days of sleep for the first year trying to nurture an infant into good sleep habits. Heck, an infant/toddler will cry for longer than 20 minutes just because of teething pain. Bet that 1 hour spent doing cry-it-out doesn't sound so terrible now. Let's be honest here: the cry-it-out method is used so often because it requires minimal exertion and it gets immediate results.