A fellow on his blog asked as an aside

Speaking of which, if anyone has any tips on getting a six-month old baby to stop waking up every two hours at night I’d sure be thankful.

To which one reply was

As far as the baby goes, if you get up and go to him when he cries in the middle of the night, you are encouraging him to cry for attention. It can be difficult but try to let him just cry himself to sleep. It takes a few days / weeks to train him but once you do, your life will be much easier. Promise!

Sweet Jesus on a ferris wheel.

You call yourself a father, Private Pyle!?!

It’s a baby, not a dog. You’re raising a human being not crate training a puppy. He’s not crying for attention you, unremarkable stain, he’s crying because it’s dark and he’s alone and he’s scared. He’s an itty bitty primate and loves to be cuddled and held and sung to.

You want life to be easy? The moment your sperm lanced into her egg it stopped being easy and became a lifetime slog of burps, barf and heartache. The only consolation is to see your children grow up into self-sufficient adults.

This is what it’s all about.

I saw this as no particular expert in anything. I’m not the world’s best father and I frequently fall short of my own expectations in that regard; I have a bad temper, at times I have absolutely no patience with them.

But with all my faults I know that you don’t train babies to lie still and alone in the dark you hold them and love them.

Aside to Daily Brief readers – I had to get this off my chest – thanks for reading. Now back to your regularly scheduled Briefing.

Cross posted to Space For Commerce.