Joy Cowley
December 9th 2011 05:15
In her book, Navigation: a Memoir, New Zealand writer, Joy Cowley, talks about when she and her husband were young parents.
I'd read books on mothering and childcare, but instinct discarded most of the
rules. If a baby cried, he or she was picked up. A hungry baby was fed whatever the hours. Awake or asleep, the baby was seldom alone in the bedroom cot, but with me - lying in the clothes basket while I did the ironing, tied into a shawl when I walked down the farm to change the electric fence. At milking time, the baby was in a carrycot in the dairy, while the others played in a sandpit built for them on the other side of the yard rails.
....All this appeard very primitive to some people with traditional ideas about baby discipline and hygiene; and now, half a century later, I could have a more cautious view of waking toddlers late at night so they could go out to see the stars and, on hot days, letting them run naked. Ted and I dressed up in each other's clothes to 'buy things' from a shop the children had set up in their bedroom. We allowed preschoolers to sleep on the lawn at night in cardboard boxes - because they wanted to - and showed them how to warm their feet in a fresh cowpat.
page 80
I'd read books on mothering and childcare, but instinct discarded most of the
Joy Cowley
....All this appeard very primitive to some people with traditional ideas about baby discipline and hygiene; and now, half a century later, I could have a more cautious view of waking toddlers late at night so they could go out to see the stars and, on hot days, letting them run naked. Ted and I dressed up in each other's clothes to 'buy things' from a shop the children had set up in their bedroom. We allowed preschoolers to sleep on the lawn at night in cardboard boxes - because they wanted to - and showed them how to warm their feet in a fresh cowpat.
page 80
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