It's the Birthday of Doctor Benjamin Spock

Doctor Benjamin Spock was born on May 2, 1903. He was an American pediatrician whose book Baby and Child Care, published in 1946, is one of the biggest best-sellers of all time.

Dr. Spock's Baby and Child Care: 8th Edition

Its revolutionary message to mothers was that "you know more than you think you do." Spock was the first pediatrician to study psychoanalysis to try to understand children's needs and family dynamics. His ideas about childcare influenced several generations of parents to be more flexible and affectionate with their children, and to treat them as individuals, whereas the previous conventional wisdom had been that child rearing should focus on building discipline, and that, e.g., babies should not be "spoiled" by picking them up when they cried. Dr. Spock was also an Olympic gold-medallist in rowing.

Dr. Spock: An American Life