Long after the children have left home, Dr. Benjamin Spock’s parenting books–tattered and dog-eared from use–tend to earn residence alongside other family heirlooms.
Some parents refer to the book, whose first edition appeared in 1946, as a bible that triggers memories of when Janie or Jimmy first suffered chickenpox or fell out of bed.
“Those were all middle-of-the-night experiences,” recalled Kathy Sheridan, 53, of Naperville, who reared five children with Spock’s help.
Her mother owned a Spock book. And when Sheridan learned she was to become a grandmother for the first time, she gift-wrapped the book’s latest edition and gave it to her daughter at the baby shower last year.
Projectile vomiting, appendicitis, potty training–the pages discussing those subjects all are well-worn, said Sheridan, who found herself consulting the book less by the time her fifth child was born.
Spock’s reassuring tone was like a balm for new parents who, until Spock’s book, relied on the clock and rigid schedules of feedings, weaning and potty training.
“It’s kind of assumed there’s an innate part of you that knows what to do, but you really don’t,” said Lynda Markut, 47, of Woodstock in McHenry County, who used the book in rearing her daughter, today age 23.
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“Dr. Spock really was the answer guy.”
To 70-year-old Mary Schmitz, “Dr. Spock’s Baby and Child Care” was revered.
“Everybody in my day was using Dr. Spock,” said Schmitz, an Oak Lawn mother of three, grandmother of eight and great-grandmother of one.
“Everyone talked about what you should or shouldn’t do according to the bible of Dr. Spock.”
Schmitz said she has tried to get her daughters-in-law to read Spock, but “they think he’s too outdated, too old.”
Daughter-in-law Michelle Schmitz, a mother of three boys in Willow Springs, agreed that she preferred author and pediatrician T. Berry Brazelton to Spock.
But now that her oldest son is 10, she said, she is beginning to appreciate Spock’s time-tested thoughts on child-raising.
“If you are really in tune with your child, you know what your child needs,” Michelle Schmitz said. “I believe (Spock’s) advice, `Listen to your instincts.’ “
Millis Gross of Skokie said she still keeps the copy of Dr. Spock’s book she got when her daughter was born 36 years ago.
“I can remember pulling it out when my grandchildren were being born,” said Gross, who has three children and four grandchildren. “It’s barely held together by a rubber band.”