Ellie kindly suggested we read books about how to tame babies, which will be very useful for me.
Babar at Home, or, Babar With His Children, by Jean de Brunhof. Teddy recommended this. It isn’t exactly helpful, because it’s full of all the disasters that can happen to babies, when they swallow their rattles or when their pram rolls away down a steep hill.
But there is a calming message at the end:
Baby and Child Care, by Benjamin Spock, Ellie’s recommendation. This is an old copy. The book has sold far more copies now. I like it. Dr Spock says that I must show the Baby comfortable affection, and try not to boss it too much.
Bedtime for Frances, by Russell Hoban. Gibbs suggested this, but I don’t like it very much, because it recommends threatening to spank the baby if it won’t go back to bed and sleep.
Burglar Bill, by Janet and Allan Ahlberg. Jenny’s recommendation. Burglar Bill steals a baby by mistake, and is then in rather the same situation as me, looking after a baby without any childcare experience. I find it encouraging, because the baby in the book does survive.
Feeding and Care of Baby, by Truby King. I thought this sounded useful, but it’s not very nice at all.
If you want to see why your ancestors grew up with problems, you can read it here: https://archive.org/details/b21512115/page/n27/mode/2uphttps://archive.org/details/b21512115/page/n27/mode/2up
Ellie says that Truby King did do some good work on child nutrition long ago, but Points says he was sexist and racist and he instructed parents to bully their babies.
Higglety Pigglety Pop, or, There Must Be More To Life, by Maurice Sendak. Jenny the Sealyham Terrier gets a job looking after a very difficult baby. It’s even more difficult than mine, because it has a friend who eats up anyone who displeases the baby.
Nandy’s Bedtime, by Errol Lloyd. This is Bimbo’s favourite book, and he recommends it at every Book Club meeting. But he’s right that it does show a good bedtime routine, which I might do well to try to introduce for the Baby.
Teach Your Baby To Sleep All Night. I hope this book works. It would be wonderful if the Baby would sleep even part of the night.
The Baby’s Catalogue, by Janet and Allan Ahlberg. This is a helpful book which has alerted me to many possibilities which the Baby hasn’t thought of yet.
The Elephant and the Bad Baby, by Elfida Vipont and Raymond Briggs. This book should actually be called The Bad Elephant and the Innocent Baby. I don’t think it gives very good advice about child-rearing, except that babies should be given whatever food they fancy, which does seem reasonable.