Imagine you\u2019re sleeping; you\u2019re warm and cozy under a few soft blankets, dreaming of wonderful things and then all of a sudden you hear your husband vacuuming outside your bedroom door.\u00a0 You jump up, open the door and tell him, \u201cI was sleeping!\u201d\u00a0 To which he replies, \u201cI know, that\u2019s why I\u2019m vacuuming.\u201d\u00a0 You, perplexed, ask him why he simply couldn\u2019t wait till later.\u00a0 He responds by saying that you need to learn to sleep through noise.\u00a0 A bit crazy, isn\u2019t it?\u00a0 So why do we do this to our babies?<\/p>\n
I read a lot about how you have to essentially train your baby to sleep through noise so that they don\u2019t get used to sleeping in silence.\u00a0 My first thought was to myself because I don\u2019t know about you but I personally like to sleep in silence.\u00a0 I turn off my radio, close my computer screen and jump under my duvet to enjoy a nice nap, why shouldn\u2019t my baby enjoy the same?<\/p>\n
Life is busy and life is noisy so of course, live life while your baby is asleep, my concern was over the intentional noise we make because they\u2019re asleep.<\/p>\n
After converting a lot of the information I got regarding babies into an adult context I realized it was a little absurd and even a bit unkind.\u00a0 This could be because it\u2019s not meant to be seen in that context or it could be because it is in fact absurd and unkind.<\/p>\n
One piece of advice that sticks out for me is, when a nursing baby falls asleep, instead of just gently laying her in her crib, first wake her and then lay her down because this will teach her how to fall asleep on her own. Now again, imagine you fell asleep on the couch watching TV and then your husband came and shook you awake only to say, \u201cNow go to sleep.\u201d\u00a0 You\u2019d probably exclaim, \u201cI already was!!\u201d\u00a0 So when we do this and our baby cries (perhaps communicating the same thing) we think, gawd, why can\u2019t she just fall asleep on her own?!<\/em><\/p>\n I feel like the ends are noble.\u00a0 Yes it\u2019s important for your baby to be able to sleep through some noise so when you are laughing with company or making dinner it won\u2019t startle her awake.\u00a0 And yes, it\u2019s important for your baby to learn how to sleep by herself.\u00a0 It\u2019s not the ends I question\u2014it\u2019s the means we use to get there.\u00a0 This notion of \u2018spoiling\u2019 our babies always puzzled me.\u00a0 I agree that too many toys and too many sweets and too many yes\u2019s can create an entitled child but too much love and too much tenderness creating a spoiled child?\u00a0 Well I\u2019m ready to challenge that notion and speak about it at the finish line.\u00a0 Because I wonder if the only thing we\u2019re really spoiling by creating all these rules is love itself.<\/p>\n Lena Hassan<\/p>\n Lena Hassan lives in Ottowa, Canada. She is mother to one little girl.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Imagine you\u2019re sleeping; you\u2019re warm and cozy under a few soft blankets, dreaming of wonderful things and then all of a sudden you hear your husband vacuuming outside your bedroom door.\u00a0 You jump up, open the door and tell him, \u201cI was sleeping!\u201d\u00a0 To which he replies, \u201cI know, that\u2019s why I\u2019m vacuuming.\u201d\u00a0 You, perplexed, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1572,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[828,41177,1181,1213],"class_list":["post-364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-parenting","tag-muslim-mom","tag-parenting","tag-sleeping-through-the-night","tag-spoiling-babies"],"yoast_head":"\n