I Wanna Do It Myself: From Baby to Toddler-A Radical Three-Tiered Approach to Helping Your Child Achieve Independence

Rating:
Summary: helpful and frustrating at the same time
Review: When I started this book I was very optimistic that it would help us, and I'm still hoping it will. I came to agree with many of Sammons points: that children need the capability to self-calm, self-control, and self-entertain; that the roots of sleep problems are best addressed first in daytime hours, and that children have more capabilities than we give them credit for. What I didn't like was his "there's just one right way" attitude. While he suggested that all children have different needs for amount of sleep, that's where individual differences ended with him. He seemed overly judgemental and didn't allow for possibilities of difference. (My own personal experience plays into this as a parent of an adopted child). Also, the idea of a 20 minute time-out for a two-year-old is ridiculous, and our daughter exhibits none of the behaviors Sammons claims will happen if you don't use long time-outs. So I definitely have mixed feelings. It's a good start if you want to think more about independence for toddlers, but flawed.