Outdated instructions for motherhood goes viral

A guide for mothers dating back to the 1950’s is blowing up online with its questionable recommendations raising eyebrows, and certain points just raising confusion.

The guide to ‘baby’s day’ was pulled from a somewhat dated parenting book, and shared to Facebook by Mum’s Grapevine group.

The guide designed for the ‘four-hourly feed’ model structures a baby and mother’s day from 6 am to 11 pm.

Among some of the more old-fashioned recommendations are ‘sunbathing’ your baby, a daily ‘hold out’ (whatever that means), and a mixture of water and orange juice for daily fluids.

A regimented day

According to the guide you, and your baby, should be up at 6, at which time bub must be fed, changed and ‘held out’ before being placed back in bed for a quick kip before 9 am when the process starts agin.

The baby, according to the guide, should be bathed once in the morning and once in the evening which for anyone who has tried to simultaneously wash and grip a wet baby is torture of the highest order.

‘Mothering’ is somewhat ominously allocated a time slot of precisely two hours after lunch, but has to contend with more ‘holding out’, feeding and an ‘outing’ - wether for you or the baby, unconfirmed.

At 4pm someone - not sure who - is treated to a glass of orange juice before being put to bed in full Oliver Twist/ Victorian England mode.

“Lights out, window open, door shut, no dummy,” the list reads, in the bleakest sentence of all time.

The upshot of the list is that it promises a full night of sleep for your baby from 11pm to 6 am and encourages plenty of naked kicking time for all the nudist infants of the world.

Hilarious reception

The list has predictably been received with hilarity by mums and dads everywhere, and the original post has gone viral attracting over 1000 likes, and 2,000 comments.

Many jokingly tagged friends, advising them to follow the list, others laughed openly at the strict schedule.

“Works really well once you get the baby to “read the rules” and take their naps on queue,” one jokingly recommended.

“Yikes screw having such a strict routine throughout the entire day,” another shuddered.

“Oh wow! The days of strict routine and no nonsense!” another said.

These days it is recommended that babies under 6 months old stick only to breastmilk or formula.

Most parents these days also stick to the recommended ‘demand feeding’ whereby they follow the baby’s natural prompts and feed when they are hungry.

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