The "friendly fair warning to neighbors of a 4-month-old baby"... and some options:
https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1338581273724514309/
the author of that note is very well intentioned and obviously wants to be a good mother. she's polite and caring.
for obvious reasons we grow up in certain ways because of how we ourselves were raised.
its such a part of you, one can not see certain behaviours unless they come into question.
and then for the first time you can understand that those behaviours are in fact not universal, nor are they unassailable.
a baby left to "cry itself to sleep" is considered abnormal in many parts of the world.
in these places a baby learns that crying is its real call for help when needed. and learns to cry when it really does need help.
in these places the baby doesnt learn that it needs to cry to get its way. it doesnt overuse crying as a tactic to get its way.
in America the phrase used most often with "cry itself to sleep" is "we dont want to spoil it by thinking it can cry to get its way".
many, probably most, cultures in the world do not think this way.
parenting is the ultimate culturally based character shaping framework, it self-perpetuates its ideas. its the reason for cultural differences even between different cultural groups within America itself. the hand that rocks the cradle...shapes people.
but the phrase "let him cry himself to sleep" or "let her cry herself to sleep" , to me, is the most cruel and damaging phrase in an American's parenting toolbox.
