The sleeping voices: Evaluating parenting ‘self‐help’ books, narratives of rule, routine and ritual

Putting children to bed is an everyday practice but under-studied in childhood research. Findings from this study of eight popular self-help parenting books for 2-to-5-year-olds show that the rarely, if ever, consider have voice/s, or social competence. Where child does appear, it was be silenced. Centrally, authors push failure and responsibility onto parents. We found advice crystallised around either attachment-led approaches, emphasising emotional availability, behaviourist approaches. The discourses sleep harness are professionalised external lenses. explore conflicting sometimes contradictory ways they position families.