 be warned, 2008-02-28
It is with sadness and horror that I read this book has become a classic. Whilst the underlying principle, keep your baby close and include her/him in your world, is valuable and essential, many other attitudes and instructions it conveys are repellent.
Jean Liedloff presents her own 1950s American white middle-class childhood as 'how we do it in the west'. Her book is written by her whilst in reaction to this, and with no children of her own, no family home to keep (or job to keep together too) and having rejected further education after a short time. She then went to stay with (as you do) a native tribe; and with these biased, anthropologically untrained, maternally ignorant eyes, wrote a pseudo-psychological, unsoundly philosophical, sanctimoniously white-guilt masquerading as radicalism, ridden text. The Continuum Concept overlooks the realities of many women's lives (particularly but not exclusively women) particularly those lacking in resources, or whose children have specific special needs, or those parents who need to work, or who have several children, or other family members, to care for. What role model for womanhood is this?
I have seen many children from many backgrounds, grow from in utero to adulthood over the years (including my own, thank goodness I did not read this book when I was young and impressionable) and Continuum Concept played no part in the most joyful, healthy, or successful lives that I have known. Those that I know did use the CC are a mixed bag - some lovely kids - but unfortunately includes some of the most troubled young people I have met, in that they expect to get what they want, and are very troubled by 'not getting' including their 'own way'. Boundaries are essential, and are culturally defined; they are not the same wounds as inflicted on the now ageing Liedloff; neither are they irrelevent, neither can they be determined harmoniously so by a small child. Setting a child up to be a tyrant is abuse, as they become their own tyrant later in life.
Continuum Concept colludes with patriarchal values, wrapped in trendy ethnic new-age-isms. It is a lie.
 Must read for all parents to be., 2007-05-24
This book is wonderful. The information is very important for parents to be to know. It will save a lot of problems due to wrong expectations. Very important!
Some things reasonate with our Inner Wisdom this is one of those things, 2007-10-28
I read this book about six and a half years ago as an expectant father. This book gave me more insight into the questions I had about life and what makes us tick than all the other self help books I read put together!
Remember Jean wrote this book as an anthropological work. Yet of course it speaks to parents so loudly as we all recognise the truth deep down.
My son was breast feed until two. We travelled with him when he was six months old in a van around Europe for four months and then spent six months in a ski resort. He is loving and confident. His self preservation instinct is very strong! He was allowed to learn about the environment with as little interference as we could manage. When he still put his finger in a candle flame after I had warned him he learnt the meaning of fire! Better a small burn then than a nasty accident which scarred him for life.
That for me is what Jean was describing in the book. Children being able to discover in the freedom of the relative safety of the village.
Reading this book will make your life harder to bear in many ways as we have strayed so far from our innate needs but the insights and wisdom you start to rediscover more than make up for that.
 does Jean LIedloff have children?, 2008-02-09
She certainly didn't when she formulated the Continuum Concept. It would be interesting to know if she had them now, but I can find no mention of her having children on the internet. Of course, not having children doesn't mean you know nothing about babies but it's amazing how many people talk starry eyedly about primitive cultures and the way they bring up their children, when they have NEVER had children. It's great in theory, but the practice is not always the same. This book is not a very helpful parenting manual, although it is worth reading for the fascinating descriptions of the Yukatana tribe, a very peaceful and happy tribe in the rainforest. Personally I think it would be better if she didn't put her interpretations of parenting in. She is very convinced that the answer to all ills is to carry your children everywhere, personally I think she has got the wrong end of the stick. Read it, with your sceptical hat on. Some babies like to be put down and to have their own space, for one thing. Some mothers get back trouble. I think the line in this book which really made me laugh was when she something like, 'Think of baby care as a non activity.' Only someone who has never had children could say that.
Unlearn conventional "wisdom" and return to natural instincts, 2008-04-02
This is unlike any other parenting book I have read, as there is very little instructional material. This is a GOOD THING, however, because the aim of the book is to help the reader to unlearn the conventional "wisdom" of our civilised society and return to our instincts.
So, if you're already convinced that the Continuum approach is right for you, then there's no real need to buy this book (although you will likely find it interesting and a good source of information to share with other parents who are intrigued by your "radical" approach to parenting). But, if you aren't yet convinced, then I highly recommend buying this book, so you can see the theory and evidence for yourself.
Even if you aren't a parent, or think it is too late to apply to your own kids, it is still worth reading, as Liedloff makes a convincing argument that most of the unhappiness we experience as adults, and the resulting problems we witness in our civilised society, are rooted in our non-Continuum approach to upbringing. Reading this book could well be the route out of depression for some people, and it could also be the stimulus for social change efforts.
(If you like the theme of this book, and want to learn more about where civilised society has gone wrong, I highly recommend The Fall by Steve Taylor, which proposes the "Ego Explosion" 6000 years ago as the root cause of all the problems humanity faces today, including anti-Continuum patriarchy.)
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