More Parents On The Cross Shit: Sleep Training Versus Capitalism

Remember a nostalgic time where not everything fell into the culture wars?

My wife has this friend who is engaged to this dude. They are early-to-mid-30s, no kids. They’ve moved around a little bit, but I believe they currently might be in California. Whenever we interact, it’s pretty easy and they seem cool; sadly, some of that feeling might be from the “mutual no kids” (DINKs!) thing. Anyway.

The male partner in that group has this joke. You run into someone at Home Depot. They have young kids. You basically have 2–3, at most, things you can discuss with them in that aisle.

• “Oh, how old now?”
• “How’s sleep training going?”
• “Getting through the night yet?”

Basically, if you try anything else —

• “… any thoughts on Tortured Poets Department?”

— it will go nowhere.

Out of all the topics that new parents like to discuss regardless of who is around them, sleep training is far and away №1. Everyone has a theory, everyone thinks their theory is the best, everyone claims to use data but doesn’t really, every previous generation thinks the new generation has no idea how to do it, etc, etc. It’s…