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<text>
<title>
(1950s) Permissiveness for Parents: Dr. Spock
</title>
<history>Time-The Weekly Magazine-1950s Highlights</history>
<article>
<source>Time Magazine</source>
<hdr>
TIME Magazine
October 21, 1957
Permissiveness for Parents
</hdr>
<body>
<p> Though the millions of squalling young Americans whose
lives would be most affected knew nothing about it, there was
big news for babies this week. Clattering off the presses was
a revised version of the gospel by which half a U.S. generation
has been raised: The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care,
by Pediatrician Benjamin McLane Spock. To the original edition,
which has sold more than 9,000,000 copies since 1946, Author
Spock has added some 100 pages. The gist of his revisions and
additions reflects the changing climate of the past decade:
parents ought to be more permissive toward themselves, rely more
on their own judgment and less on books--including Dr.
Spock's.
</p>
<p> "Trust Yourself." When Spock wrote his first edition, a
pseudoscientific strictness, introduced in the 1920s, was the
rule--"Don't pick up the baby when he cries, feed him only at
precise four-hour intervals." Spock stepped in to the head of
the pediatricians who were trying to encourage greater
flexibility in baby care. They succeeded too well, he now feels:
"Nowadays there seems to be more chance of a conscientious
parent's getting into trouble with permissiveness [toward
children] than with strictness." Keynote of Spock's latest
advice to parents: "Trust yourself." Instinct, he says, prompts
most parents to give children the "natural loving care" needed
in routine growth. All the emphasis on the child's needs--"for
love, for understanding, for patience...for protection, for
comradeship"--has given the impression that parents have no
needs or rights. Not so, says Spock.
</p>
<p> Parents who were themselves raised by a set code will tend
to rear their children the same way. They should go ahead and
do so with no qualms of conscience, advises the 1957 Spock,
though they must make due allowance for the more relaxed
atmosphere in families around them. They must not be overharsh,
but they have a right to get cross and spank the little darling
when he has deliberately provoked anger--as he often does.
What is more, he wants (at least unconsciously) to be
disciplined and made to behave responsibly: "By keeping children
on the right track, firmness also keeps them lovable. And they
love us for keeping them out of trouble."
</p>
<p> Two-Way Hate. Pediatrician Spock has waded hip-deep into
the psychoanalytic interpretation of children's unconscious
emotional reactions. Parents, he says, may have feelings of
antagonism toward a child that seem too horrible for them to
admit. The child absorbs the same dread of them, and develops
fears of imaginary dangers that the psychiatrist finds are
"disguises for ordinary angry feelings toward their parents."
The solution: parents must realize that no matter how much they
love their children, some antagonism toward them is natural. In
more down-to-earth matters, the revised Spock contains these
newly mined nuggets:
</p>
<p>-- Recommended inoculations are now far simpler than a decade
ago, thanks to progress in developing the three-way D.P.T. shots
against diphtheria, pertussis (whooping cough) and tetanus.
Spock recommends three of these shots, beginning at one month.
Also advised: vaccination against smallpox in the first year
and three shots of Salk polio vaccine at whatever age the
family's doctor recommends.
</p>
<p>-- Solid foods are to be added to baby's diet any time after
he is three months old, but are not to be forced on the child
just to satisfy some faddist theory or parental pride. "A big
factor in giving solids earlier has been the eagerness of mothers
who don't want their baby to be one day later than the baby up
the street."
</p>
<p>-- On toilet training, the 1946 Spock went all out for letting
children alone; warned parents that they must leave the
youngsters free to follow their varying habits. Spock's 1957
bill of rights for parents extends to the potty; while parents
are still warned not to be too rigid, they are invited to rely
on their own judgment as to when to start toilet training.
</p>
<p>-- The pacifier, ignored in the first edition, is restored to
respectability after a generation of contemptuous neglect, as
"helpful for colic and to prevent thumb-sucking."
</p>
</body>
</article>
</text>