Our maladaptive children
This story has been all over the news this week, and those families who forced their children to sleep through what we consider inhumane methods (listen to our “Crying it Out” podcast) are jumping for joy.
We, on the other hand, have created maladaptive children because we choose to parent our children at night. 
This is just another example of how you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t. The great thing about science/the media is that one won’t come to any conclusions without qualifications and the other will only come to the most sensational conclusions. This same story was told in Time but in a much more sensational way and was linked to other totally unrelated research studies.
What we can take from this? Do we assume that parents that meet their children’s needs are somehow harming their children? Or do we conclude that children that have more needs (which parents that might otherwise not be as responsive to) have sleep problems all through their lives? Remember, the study said that there was a high dropout rate. Who do you think drops out – parents whose kids started sleeping better through the night or parents with kids that weren’t? I’m guessing the former.
It is easy to reinterpret this (and nearly any) study in a way that supports your particular point of view. Let’s just say this – we know kids that have had their needs met and kids that haven’t. In both cases, you can find examples of kids that are “good” and “bad”. Does parenting play a role in this – absolutely. But, as we say, if you are Listening to Your Child and only meeting their needs and not their wants, you’re probably doing a good job – regardless of what the researchers say.
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