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A major part of parenting is knowing when to let go of your child. Parents will try to protect their kids for as long as they can, but parents have to let their kids live and make mistakes. Parents (especially white ones from middle america) are trying to protect their kids from every little danger. They try to create this perfect little world. The result of this are kids who are use to the easy life and don't know how to deal with any sort of struggle.

While letting your kid have freedom is good, at the same time there needs to be limits. As a parent its your to teach your kids that they cant do what ever they like. They have to learn that they can not get a candy bar just because they want one. Also when a kid does something wrong, you need to blame the kid. It seems like these days parents are ready to blame everyone but their kids when their kids do something wrong. These days everything from music to children's shows are being blamed for the problems in todays youth. Your kid isnt fat because the blue monster on sesame street eats cookies, he's fat because all he eats is candy that you keep buying for him.

I think the idea of self soothing has some merit. I think when a baby is first born you should respond right away when he cries because at that stage they cry because something is wrong. But as the baby gets older you should let them cry for abit. I think this will prevent the kid from thinking that crying will get him what he wants. When my son or daughter reaches the age of 5 crying for any reason besides sadness or because they are hurt will be overlooked. When the kid knows crying will not get them what they want they will look for other ways to get it. Best case senerio this means they will use their words.

The article about physical touch reminds me of the experiment where they put new born monkeys in a room alone. In this isolation they were given no other contact other then a stuffed monkey. The quickly grew attached to this monkey and never let go of it. When the doll was taken away they flipped out. This shows us just how important physical touch is to the development of children.