

The Caveman Guide to Parenting - somberi
http://nautil.us/blog/the-caveman-guide-to-parenting

======
riffraff
I am an italian male engineer, and my wife is an hungarian female
psychologist: trying to grow a baby together causes cultural clashes about
every 2 hours[0].

Moreover, my feeling is that, much like diets, parenting is a very fashion
driven thing. At some point french style parenting was hip, then nordic style
parenting, then asian style parenting...

I find it unsurprising that new fads come up, and something good will probably
stick, but personally, I am a firm believer in the CTFD method[1].

[0] weaning at 9 months, are you crazy? why the heck are we allowing her to
eat by herself, she only makes a mess! Of course it's ok to eat parmigiano at
6 months! Stop picking her up! Pick her up more often! Do not let her cry!
Kids should learn to calm themselves! etc etc

[1] calm the f* down, kids will be ok
[http://www.thedaddycomplex.com/post/55268573331/latest-
paren...](http://www.thedaddycomplex.com/post/55268573331/latest-parenting-
trend-the-ctfd-method)

~~~
m-r-r
What is "french style parenting" ?

~~~
jboynyc
Presumably something along the lines of what is outlined in this book:
[http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/809937327](http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/809937327)

~~~
TheSpiceIsLife
And this one
[http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/738336560](http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/738336560)
\- which I've read, and it seemed to make some sort of sense at the time.

------
arethuza
"The family is asleep before 8 p.m. and awake before dawn, as Wolf imagines
our ancestors were millennia ago, before artificial light interrupted our
“normal circadian rhythms.”"

How does this approach work in areas that have large seasonal swings in the
length of the day? Even here in Scotland (which isn't _that_ far North) the
days are far too long in summer and far to short in winter to based your day
on sunrise and sunset. Personally, I need 7 hours sleep (no more no less) and
get very grumpy if that gets disturbed - which means shutters and curtains in
summer!

~~~
TheSpiceIsLife
Yeah, I've always thought the idea a bit whacky, like we haven't had fire or
full moons to light the night. I'm at 41 degrees south - Launceston, Tasmania
- and in July go to work in the dark and get home in the dark in, then in
December it's the other extreme with 15 hours of daylight at on the solstice.

~~~
pc2g4d
I don't think it's wacky. Modern electric lighting really is a different
beast. There are differences of both degree and light spectrum between
fires/moons and full illumination of your environment by way of electric
light.

~~~
TheSpiceIsLife
Oh yeah, for sure, that's a very good point actually.

I'm hugely opposed to fluorescent lighting in the home, especially at night. I
only run incandescent / halogen, or 2700K compact fluoros / LEDs, and in the
late evening all the over-head lights go off and we light the living spaces
with tricolour LEDs and dim 2700K desk lamps.

I was at a relatives house a few months back and sitting under the fluorescent
lights in the their house was hugely irritating.

------
drb311
If children can thrive in a cave they can thrive anywhere.

Happy and loving children come from happy and loving parents. Enjoy them and
do what feels right and kind.

------
mkesper
Paleo diet: Big brains needed carbs
[http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/08/150806133148.ht...](http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/08/150806133148.htm)

~~~
TheSpiceIsLife
We don't need to eat carbohydrates because we can make our own, the metabolic
pathway is called Gluconeogenesis[1].

1\.
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gluconeogenesis](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gluconeogenesis)

~~~
danieltillett
You do need some glucose in your diet for your brain. A complete absence of
glucose will kill you.

~~~
TheSpiceIsLife
It would probably be impossible to eat a diet completely void of glucose, even
meat contains some sugars.

People have been known to survive for weeks without food, and therefore
dietary glucose.

------
JohnyLy
This article is so true. We evolved/improved in so many ways, especially
technologically speaking but when it comes to parenting, we should go back to
the basics. We know how to work, create an app, market a product... but when
it comes to raising a child, this is another issue. Parenting is a basic
knowledge, which is getting lost. The importance of parenting and the ways to
raise a child could be more taught at school.

~~~
danieltillett
The history of parenting suggests the bar is very low. As long as you don't
spend every day beating your children or completely neglecting them they will
be OK.

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somberi
To me a lot of this was similar to how parenting is done in India even today -
Carrying the child and having relatives take care of the child etc. Just
unbelievable how resource-intensive these tiny things are :)

------
et2o
The enamoration we have with "paleo" lifestyles is slightly absurd. The
naturalist, primitivisy concept that things were superior in the past is a
fallacy.

Humans didn't live for very long 10,000 years ago, so the effects of chronic
diseases (the most important ones today) were not very pronounced. Most
infants died before the age of five, so it seems quite ridiculous to take
parenting tips from them. You are much more likely to kill your infant if you
sleep with him or her in bed, as this article seems to suggest.

People would find it quite ridiculous if I suggested we model our political
system after caveman politics, or perhaps we didn't teach children to read and
write (weren't we happier before written language?), but somehow every "paleo"
suggestion related to healthcare is assumed to be superior.

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bad_user
We are speaking of a period of time in humanity's timeline that lasted 2.6
millions of years without any significant development, in which the life
expectancy was apparently 35 for men and 30 for women and during which we
suffered at least one near extinction event.

I would find the "paleo" trends to be funny, if it wouldn't be so disturbing
that people can believe such bullshit.

Like, maybe children were constantly carried around because otherwise they'd
be eaten by other animals, or even other humans, with the baby stroller being
a luxury of modern life, made possible because of _science_. And there's no
mention that before Christianity children were regarded not as being precious,
but as being unworthy and disposable half-humans that are the property of
their parents. And also, why no cave?

~~~
coob
Those life expectancy figures are driven lower by much higher infant
mortality. Plenty of 50/60 years olds around in cavemen times.

~~~
mdpopescu
Thank you. The whole thing is driving me nuts - everybody seems to believe
that people were dropping dead at 35.

------
simplexion
This guide is short and contains very little useful information.

~~~
dpc_pw
And was posted on "Hacker News".

------
marze
Any time and energy a baby expends crying is that much less time and energy
they can apply to learning and brain development.

