From: danwell@IASTATE.EDU (Daniel A Ashlock)
Subject: Re: The Woman Deceived (was ? for SW)
Reply-To: danwell@IASTATE.EDU (Daniel A Ashlock)
Organization: Iowa State University
Date: Fri, 24 Jul 1992 14:38:38 GMT

In article <1992Jul24.134901.5284@bcrka451.bnr.ca>, seanna@bnr.ca (Seanna
Watson) writes:
> And regardless of what Chuck meant, there are in fact fundamentalists
> who do believe that babies should be spanked.  A few years ago, one
> pastor here in Ottawa was spanking his 8-month-old with a wooden
> spoon (for crying in the night), and telling the members of his church 
> to do the same.  (One of the members of the church reported him to
> the Children's Aid Society.)

   Good.  I hope they find him unfit.  

   This being talk.origins, I want to draw a paralell.  The current thinking 
on how not to get a child to scream at night seems to center on a couple of
principles.  The first is that a "betime" ritual, e.g. reading of stories,
a bath, brushing teeth, etc. at a regular time and in a regular sequence gives
the child cues as to when they are supposed to fall asleep, easying the path and
making sleep calmer and less stressful.  My wife and I do this and it works for
us.  The second is to try and correlate night screaming with diet and avoid
trouble causing foods.

   Beyond these measures however is a good old dollop of "the world ain't
fair".  Kids vary a lot and some of them scream at night because they are
genetically predisposed to do so.  Most people with >1 kids will notice
strinking differences between their kids in sleep behavior.  I sure did.  My
daughter needed about 10 hours per day newborn and screamed like a banshee when
she woke up.  My son slept 14-16 hours a day and would lie happily for about 30
minutes after waking if no-one came.  I noticed this while working in the same
room with him; I was waiting for him to start yelling while getting just a few
more lines written and he let me have 30 minutes.

   This jerk Seanna mentioned that whacked his kid for crying at night was
apparently certian he was doing the right thing based on a philosophy that, in
my experience, is never questioned by those that hold it.  I doubt the guy ever
read a book on what other people think is the righht way to raise kids.  He
just decided with his glands what a "Christian" would do.  It strikes me as
strongly paralell to the way many of the Creationists decide where life, the
world, and the starry sky came from.

   This "I know what's right, don't confuse me with information" attitude 
that is subverting parts of Christianity, our textbook publishers, and our
politics terrifies me.
 
> [BTW, kids are normally toilet-trained at about 2 yrs.  Before that,
> they do not have voluntary control of urination/defecation.  Of 
> course, apostate that I am, I subscribe to the naturalistic theory
> of toilet training, which explains a child's compliance in this 
> area in terms of physical ability, instead of in terms of the
> spiritual ability to overcome Satanic influences.]

   If they try and burn you at the stake for your apostacy _I_ will bring a
bucket of water.

> Seanna Watson   Bell-Northern Research,

   Have you guys still got one country up in Canada?  Been awhile since I
heard anything down here in the states.

Dan
Danwell@IASTATE.EDU