I was forced to parent like a lunatic for a night. It wasn’t pretty.

On Friday night we spent the night in New York City at a friend’s apartment. They are vacationing in Florida and were kind enough to let us stay at their place following a Moth StorySLAM.

Clara slept in their son’s crib and Charlie slept in a crib in the bedroom where we were sleeping. As we tried to quietly climb into bed after midnight, Charlie awoke and began crying.

At home we’d let him cry himself back to sleep (as we did last night), but on Friday night Elysha jumped out of bed and picked him up, worried that his crying might awaken our friend’s neighbors on the other side of the wall.

I had no idea that “crying it out” was not an option.

For one awful night, we were forced to live like the lunatics (I use this word with the utmost affection) who refuse to allow their children to cry it out and spend their nights rocking and nursing their children back to sleep or (even worse) taking their babies into bed with them.

It took more than an hour to get the boy back to sleep.

One night was enough to confirm two things:

1. Allowing your baby to cry him or herself to sleep is best for everyone involved, including your baby. Learning to sleep is a skill that is only acquired through practice. My daughter sleeps 10-12 hours every night without exception because she has been trained to sleep. Even at the age of four, she has thanked me for letting her cry it out when she was little.

2. Parents who refuse to allow their babies to cry it out really are lunatics. I don’t know how or why you people do what you do.

Again, I say this with the greatest affection.