Magda Gerber, Seeing Babies with New Eyes
  • Home
  • Magda Uncut
    • Selecting toys for infants - Vol VII No 2 Spring 1986
    • Trust your baby - Vol I No 4 Autumn 1980
    • Welcome to Educaring - Vol I No 1 Winter 1979
    • Differences between a caregiver and educarer - Vol I No 2 Spring 1980
  • Blog
  • Resources
  • About Magda Gerber
    • Magda Quotes
    • Magda Speeches
    • Magda Stories
    • Magda, the Personal Side
    • Professional Library
    • In Memoriam

Find Your Passion For Parenting

5/12/2014

Comments

 
We are thrilled to announce that Janet Lansbury's warm and wise guidance has been captured in a new book. Below is the Introduction to Elevating Childcare, A Guide to Respectful Parenting. 
Picture

Finding A Passion For Parenting 

Parenting is one of life’s most fulfilling experiences. It can also be exhausting, frustrating and utterly confounding.
The difficulties I faced as a new mother caught me off guard. I had looked forward to motherhood all my life and assumed that caring for a baby would happen naturally. Instead, I soon found that I had no clue. 


My baby was adorable, yet never in my life had I felt so tired, lost, inept and disappointed in myself. The mothering instincts I had assumed would provide me with clarity and guidance never materialized. My life had become a monotonous succession of feeding, burping, diapering, entertaining, and soothing tears (lots and lots of tears, most of them my daughter’s). Though I combed desperately through stacks of popular parenting books, I found nothing that resonated. 


At my wits end, I fatefully stumbled upon RIE (Resources for Infant Educators), the respectful approach to parenting founded by infant specialist and child care pioneer Magda Gerber. The approach made immediate sense to me, and I embraced it like a drowning victim with a life preserver. 


Before long I had experienced a radical transformation in both perception and experience: first, by discovering my baby’s astounding natural abilities to learn without being taught, to develop motor and cognitive skills, communicate, face age appropriate struggles, initiate and direct independent play for extended periods and much more; then by realizing the tremendous energy and stress I had been wasting by struggling to entertain and second-guess my child.


Over the years, Magda became my dear friend and mentor, and her philosophy of child care my passion. I became a RIE parenting teacher, a lecturer at Early Childhood conferences, an active blogger with millions of readers worldwide, a personal parenting consultant, and an author.
This book is a collection of 30 popular and widely read articles from my website. They focus on some of the most common aspects of infant and toddler child care and how respectful parenting can be applied. 


You will find Magda’s name or a quote from her on nearly every page of this book. Everything I know and write about springs from her wisdom and my own experience – with the hundreds of infants and toddlers who have come to through my classes, and with my own three children (now 21, 17 and 12). Janet Lansbury, Elevating Childcare


Do less, observe more, enjoy most. - Magda Gerber 

Our Reviews: 

"More than anyone, Janet Lansbury has been responsible for faithfully practicing, sharing and spreading the concepts Magda Gerber introduced and taught for years. Janet has a gift for "seeing babies with new eyes", and for teaching, writing, and mentoring parents to do the same. She has built upon what she learned from Magda Gerber through her own parenting and professional practice. This book is inspiring, and will give you the tools and information you need to transform your relationship with your baby, and to find your own passion for parenting. Check it out today! You won't be sorry you did."  Lisa Sunbury Gerber

"This book is loaded with well thought out, valuable, caring and parenting suggestions. The approach presented is fine tuned by Janet Lansbury’s experience as mentor to parents and made personal with touching stories about her own children. Janet is an expert in sensitive observation, and the importance of allowing children to experience their own feelings, while learning and growing at their own pace. For me, it is especially touching the way she expresses these ideas so true to the way they were taught by my mother, Magda Gerber." Bence Gerber
Comments

Magda Gerber Uncut- Trust Your Baby

5/28/2012

Comments

 
Picture
Vol I No 4 Autumn 1980 

Beginning in this issue, Educaring will run a regular     advice column of letters and responses between readers and Magda Gerber, the Director of Resources for Infant Educarers. 




Dear Magda,

Ever since reading your manual, I feel much more confident in handling many situations with my child. But when something unexpected happens I would like to be able to ask your advice—like the other day when my child was biting me. Could you start a "Dear Abby" column in Educaring? Of course, I want the answers right here and now and not to have to wait three or four months until the next issue comes out. Any solutions?

Dear Parent,

The problems during infancy indeed change so fast that even monthly advice would come too late. Yet in reading the many letters which I receive which have specific questions, I believe it would be helpful to discuss them.

The answer is seldom a simple formula. The simple "do this" answer functions like a "fire extinguisher." Regardless of whether it works or does not work in a particular situation, it usually does not contribute to long term goals such as: a better relationship, a more peaceful living together. It means only surviving one crisis after another. If the goal is to prevent crisis, then you have to learn a whole new attitude, a whole new way of understanding your child, yourself, and the conflictual situation. I hope that even if your child is not a biter, a poor eater, etc., you may learn something from reading about these problems.



Picture
Picture


Dear Magda, 

I often feel insecure because I am unsure whether what I am doing with my child is right or wrong. What can I do to help my baby feel secure, self-confident, and relaxed?


Dear Parent,

The issue of what makes a person feel secure would deserve at least a book. All of us experience self-confidence under some circumstances and fear and doubt under others. Security comes from believing either that I can handle the situation I am in (self-trust) or that in some way the situation will be taken care of (trust in the environment).

Infancy is a time of great dependence. Nevertheless babies should be allowed to do things for themselves from the very beginning. Here are some examples of what I mean:

 —Mother places her nipple on baby's cheek. The rooting reflex moves baby's head towards the breast.

 —Father looks at baby with outstretched arms and asks: "Do you want to be picked up?" Baby is given time to make a choice.

 —A five-month-old boy reaches for a doll. He wriggles his body closer to it and finally is able to reach it.

 —An eleven-month-old's ball gets stuck under a shelf. His expression shows anger. He kicks his legs. Parent says, "Oh, your ball got stuck. What can you do?"

Child cries.

Parent waits quietly or may say "This upsets you," showing empathy without taking over. Child kicks ball and ball rolls out.

Had the mother thrust the breast into the child's mouth, had the father picked up the child regardless of the child's reaction, or had the parent given the doll or ball to the infant, these children would have been deprived of trying to handle the situation, learning by doing, and experiencing the joy of mastery. 

Trust your baby's competence: she wants to do things for herself, and she can do things for herself. You also know that your child does need help, but try to provide just that little amount of help that allows the child to take over again. Let her be the initiator and problem solver. We can look at life as a continuation of conflicts or problems. The more often we have mastered a minute difficulty, the more capable we feel the next time.    


© Magda Gerber  


Comments

    Editors

    Bence Gerber 
    Lisa Sunbury

    Archives

    February 2019
    May 2014
    April 2014
    October 2013
    September 2013
    July 2013
    October 2012
    September 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012

    Categories

    All
    Baby Classes
    Books
    Diapering
    Discipline
    Educaring
    Erma Bombeck
    Love
    Magda Gerber
    Magda Memoriam
    Magda Personal Correspondence
    Magda Quotes
    Magda Speaks
    Magda Stories
    Magda Uncut
    Parenting
    Play
    Resources
    Respect
    Rie Basic Principles
    Sharing
    Trust

Photos used under Creative Commons from honey-bee, andrewmalone, Jessica Keating Photography, Nina Matthews Photography, aarongilson, Tammra McCauley, kona99, DaGoaty, Netícola - Raúl A., MQuimayousie, storyvillegirl, kevin dooley, Alphagold1, Viditu, Tom & Katrien