Isn’t it wild that so many popular ideas about parenting came from one dude? I’m talking, of course, about Dr. Spock. No, no Dr. Spock from Star Trek, but the Dr. Spock who wrote the most influential book about parenting of the 20th century. The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care revolutionized child care in the 1940s and 1950s and taught parents to see their children as individuals, all with their own individual needs. Before Spock, parenting books told parents to do everything on a rigid schedule and to give kids little to no affection, so they don’t get spoiled. Spock encouraged flexibility in child-rearing and told parents that every kid did things in their own time. He was also a massive believer in parental intuition, believing parents’ instincts were usually right. These days, there are a million “parenting experts” giving conflicting advice, so it’s strange to think of a world where virtually all parents were advised from one single book.
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