The Continuum Concept: In Search Of Happiness Lost (Classics in Human Development)

The best parenting book that’s technically not even a parenting book. I read this when my baby girl was 3 months old and I couldn’t put it down. It reinforced everything that my intuition already knew to be true. I wish Jean wrote more books. It’s worth its weight in gold.

If you've ever questioned the medical professionals of the western world when it comes to your child care, read this book. It will open your eyes to the major differences between the cultish U.S and the rest of the world's parenting practices. An eye opener for sure.

A friend told me that this book picks up where Spiritual Midwifery leaves off. So, I read it while I was pregnant. Where the former book completely changed the way I view childbirth, Continuum Concept radically altered my view of childrearing. I knew I wanted to parent my child in a way that was very different from how I had been raised, but I wasn't sure just what to do. This book taught me to trust my heart and intuition. It taught me to know that if I listen to my son and learn from him as much as I teach him, then he will grow up strong and secure and loving, despite this crazy world. Her observations of the indigenous family structure were profoundly insightful, showing us that, sadly, we have lost a great deal in our material culture. True, there are many books related to parenting out there, but I encourage all parents to read this one. I have given a copy to every pregnant friend for almost 10 years now, and everyone has loved it and passed it on. Few investments are this worthy.

This book opened my mind to see beyond our own culture and view parenting and the family from a truly human perspective - taking into account the basic needs and expectations that are natural to the human condition, no matter in what culture one lives.I recommend this book to anyone who ever has a child, is thinking of having children, or ever was one.Parenting with this book as a guideline can change our society for the better, one individual at a time.

My husband and I read this book 9 years ago, before the birth of our son, and it spoke to our hearts. Employing the simple idea that a baby who starts life in the womb shouldn't be abruptly separated from the mother after birth, we maintained almost constant contact with him for the first few months. I was amazed at some of the resistance, resentment, even hostility, people sometimes demonstrated when informed that we slept with our newborn and never left him to cry. All their protests were based on nothing but groundless fears -- "You'll roll over and smother him! You'll 'spoil' him!" Etc. Well, he became naturally more and more independent and separate at his own pace, not an arbitrarily imposed one (that's the "continuum" part), and weaned himself from the breast at 11 months, rather than at a time decided by the "experts" or demands of employment. He is now 9 years old, and is a wonderful, happy, secure, well-adjusted boy, and I never cease getting compliments from everyone who meets him on how considerate, engaging, empathetic, kind, and well socialized he is. I credit Liedloff's book for all of this. If I could give one message to all would-be parents, I would say: Don't buy into the lie that material things are what's important to provide your child, and if you yourself are so wrapped up in financial gain that you won't temporarily sacrifice it to bond with him the first year of life, you're selling yourselves short. Invest the first 6 months to 1 year of his life raising him in your arms, and you will be giving him, and yourself, more than a billion dollars could ever buy.

This book is remarkable and I think it should be mandatory for new parents. If we still treated our children in this way, perhaps they would not be bringing guns to school or abusing their bodies in the search for the love they never received from their parents.