Quantified Self Parenting -or- The Wisdom of Nature

[Ego]

http://hereandnow.wbur.org/2013/07/30/d ... -parenting

[lilacorchid]

If you aren't hurting your kid or yourself, then go ahead. I personally don't have the drive to do that with my toddler, but then some people would consider me a jerk mother because I didn't AP and I vaccinate.

I highly suspect that if her kiddo was talking at six months, data tracking didn't have much to do with it. That kid must be rather advanced to use words so early. And as long as the belly is full and other needs are met, then I think she is just optimizing and eeking out a few percent gain.

[Ego]

If you aren't hurting your kid or yourself, then go ahead.

I guess it depends on how one defines "hurt".

[jennypenny]

wow

I completely get why they started that after the miscarriages. I'm sure their lives felt out of control, and it was a way to take control back. When it comes to parenting though, it seems a bit much. Their daughter is living a life that's somewhere between an old Soviet-bloc child athlete and The Truman Show.

Comments like "We want to make sure that we have the best, most amazing child we can possibly have." made me shiver. Maybe I'm just old school. I want my kids to be happy and healthy. The rest is gravy.

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What they probably don't realize is that they'd figure most of that out without spreadsheets and data collection if they'd just take a break and be with their daughter.

[Ego]

Yeah, I can understand wanting to make sure you're (youse ) are not doing something that might cause a problem. But at some point.... Working towards goals is important and it's good to have data. It begs the question, as we get better at measuring every aspect of life, are we going to reach a point where we never have moments when we're not working toward goals?

The next 13.2 minutes is a vegetation break where my mind is resting so that I am optimally productive.

If I were brought up under this regime then I might not know that it is possible to do nothing.

[lilacorchid]

If you aren't hurting your kid or yourself, then go ahead.

I guess it depends on how one defines "hurt".

Too true. I suppose my standard is pretty low. I don't think you are going to get CFS involved because you keep track of your child's BMs in a spreadsheet unless you are tying the kid to a bucket and keeping them there until they produce. I would question the parent's motivation at keeping this kind of data though.

As the mom of a toddler, I can see where this comes from. Part of it is the luxury of having the time to fill out said spreadsheet, and part of it is wanting to have the most awesome kid you know, but being up against an entire internet's worth full of other awesome kids. And I can see why the control issues too. There is therapy for that though.

At lot of kids don't know what it's like to do nothing anymore, spreadsheets aside.