The Family Bed: An Age-Old Concept in Child Rearing

by Vickey Lansky and Tine Thevenin

Book Overview

Great book about the pros of having a family bed. How it makes your children happy and secure. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0895293579
• ISBN13: 9780895293572
• Release Date: January 1987
• Publisher: Perigee Books
• Length: 178 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

found on mother's shelf

I found this little gem on my mom's shelf while looking for something to read. My son is 6 months old and he has slept with me since the day he was born - even in the hospital. After a few sleepless nights of sitting up to breastfeed, I finally realized that lying down to nurse was wonderful. So - to the book. My parents had all of their children but me sleep with them. (Mom says she was "reading a different book" with me). Once they discovered LLL and co-sleeping that was it for them. It was wonderful to finally read the book that changed their minds, even at a time when the "experts" were against co-sleeping. The author does a great job of laying down why the family bed is the best place for children. Just as breastmilk is the BEST food, co-sleeping is the BEST thing for kids. She never says it is the best thing for parents...but that's the point. Being a parent is about sacrifices...but who better to sacrifice for than this sweet wonderful little person who is yours to raise into a BIG wonderful person. For the money, this book is a great WHY book. I agree with other reviewers that not a whole lot of HOW is found. If you are already a co-sleeper and want something to give to your parents or in-laws to explain WHY...this is great.

An excellent book.

I read this book in 1978, while I was pregnant for my first child. It fit so perfectly with my own thinking and also gave me much more information. This gave me the ability to defend my own family bed practice. I grew up being one of nine children. We were all welcome to our parent's bed. So it seemed normal to me. I was so glad to actually read a book about it. Recently, I bought this book to give to my niece at her baby shower. She really enjoyed it, too. It is written in an easy-to-read way with just enough historical facts to make it credible. I will give it as a gift to young mothers again.

Salvation for all!

As very young parents, we were forced by circumstances to put our first child's crib right up against our bed in our room. I made the crib mattress level with ours, dropped the railing on the side against the bed, lashed the legs of the two together, and filled the small gap with a few old towels. Well, he never slept in the crib itself (it filled with toys and stuffed animals), but its presence made it safe for him to sleep with me in bed on that side, and NOT between me and my husband. We did it this way again when our daughter was born years later, though we didn't have to. I recommend this to everyone expecting a baby. Between this and breast-feeding, we avoided nearly all the problems other new parents moan about, like sleep dep, colic, earaches, and bedtime tears (my daughter never cried AT ALL til she was 3 or 4 months old!). And no, our sex life was never hindered. Happy babies sleep SOUNDLY! This book came out the same year my son was born, and i discovered it a year or two later...it was not the source of the idea for me, but it saved me many times from "expert" opinions that what we were doing was wrong! It is a bit dated and yes defensive, but bear in mind, in 1978, in a major metropolitan hospital, i had to FIGHT to be allowed to breastfeed at all! Our son is now about to graduate from college with honors; both children are very secure, focused, and wise people, with none of the self-destructive or reckless characteristics common in youth. I do attribute this LARGELY to the family bed approach.

This book worked for my family - it's beautiful.

This book is really wonderful. My husband and I read it before our baby was born, and felt that it made good sense. We loved seeing our baby and young child so happy and secure with us. He's grown now, and we always felt the closeness and security contributed to his self confidence. This book presents a good argument about why it doesn't make sense to isolate the youngest and most helpless members of the family.

If you have considered taking your baby to bed, read this!

This book is helpful because it does not imply that there is one correct way to raise children. The author, Tine Thevenin, has a wonderful theory that a good parent is one who really listens to what a child asks of them. I was one of those people who vowed never to let my baby sleep with me, but after having my son in June 1998 and not sleeping more than 3 hours at stretch since, I have changed my attitude. I was sick of angrily getting out of bed every two hours to try to comfort him and finally tried bringing him in bed with me and my husband. Now we all are much happier-my son has the comfort of his parents nearby, I get a lot more sleep and my husband does not have to try to deal with a crying baby and a psycho wife in the middle of the night. This book is wonderful because it tells you to trust your instincts and not worry about what other people think of your parenting choices. It does not say that people who share their beds with their children are better parents, it just says to do what works for your family. Good common sense, if you asked me. Each child is different and each family is different. Many babies have not read the books that say they should sleep through the night at 3 months! If you too are tired of getting out of bed many times a night, taking your child into your bed may be the answer and this book can give you some background about this age-old practice. It is good to read if outsiders give you a hard time about it, too! If you are an attachment parenting advocate, this book will be right up your alley.