The word paradigm comes from a Greek word meaning model, pattern, or example. There are no parenting instructions telling you how to raise your children. But now things have changed. Dr. Spock is dead, baby showers are co-ed, and the extended family has become an endangered species, with the nearest grandmother sometimes several hundred miles away. Dr. Benjamin Spock was not only the foremost baby doctor of the post-WorldWar II era, but he became a cultural icon whose influence literally touched every parent after 1946.
Today there are as many philosophies on child-rearing as there are books.
The previously standard American book on childcare by John B. Watson, warned parents never to kiss, cuddle or rock their children. Spock, in contrast, espoused nurturing and warmth. He advocated respect for children and stressed that children should be treated as individuals. He wrote that strictness or permissiveness was not the real issue. Instead, he said that good-hearted parents who were not afraid of firmness could obtain good results without being either overly strict or overly permissive.