Review by SU-MAY TAN
THE NEW BABY ANSWER BOOK
From Birth to Kindergarten, Answers to the Top 150 Questions About Raising a Young Child
By Robin Goldstein with Janet Gallant
Publisher: Sourcebooks
The New Baby Answer Book provides you with just that – answers to raising your little one. More precisely, answers to the top 150 questions parents ask about bringing up kids aged one to five. This includes everything from first year concerns, eating and sleeping to preschool blues and tough questions like divorce.
Think of it as a giant Frequently Asked Questions anthology, organised in 11 chapters. If you like your information cut and dry, relevant and to-the-point, this handbook makes the perfect companion for parenthood.
In fact, it’s not unlike having your own private consultant on-call at your bedside table and it would be perfectly happy sitting next to that What to Expect When You’re Expecting manual you already have.
Author Robin Goldstein, PhD, is a parent educator and specialist in child and adolescent development. She advises educators on improving schools and helps parents with the everyday challenges of raising children. She has previously written The Parenting Bible, another how-to guide for parents as the name suggests.
The New Baby book follows the same sentiments but focuses on the early years in an easy-to-read Question and Answer format. Goldstein subscribes to the more liberal school of parenting where it is okay to pick your child up when she cries or let them sleep in the same bed as you.
She advocates feeding on demand, following your child’s schedule and generally being more patient and flexible during these early years. Gina Ford practitioners may baulk at some of Goldstein’s suggestions but ultimately, the latter argues that displaying adequate care and love in the early years are the keys to raising a happy and secure child.
Goldstein tackles relevant first-year issues such as: Is my child too dependent on me; is it normal to feel guilty or upset by a crying baby; should I give my child a pacifier; and what questions should I ask my paediatrician.
The book progresses chronologically to other issues like how often should your child be napping and does spanking really help. In the preschool years, she sheds light on why your child might not want to share, how you can encourage her to use polite words and choosing the best toys for mental development.
The later chapters, however, are I believe, the more outstanding. School Success gives tips on how to encourage learning at home. Family Life with Young Children addresses questions like why siblings are so different from each other, whether it is okay for parents to argue in front of a child and whether shyness is normal. These are questions which you won’t find in your usual parenting dictionary and is reminiscent of a motherhood magazine.
Goldstein’s advice, in fact, has appeared in numerous womens’ publications such as Redbook, Working Mother and Good Housekeeping. In The New Baby Answer Book she dishes it out in its full glory. Like any good magazine you don’t have to finish it in one sitting. Pop it in the car or leave it on the coffee table. It’s sure to come in handy when your usual guidance counsellor is not around.