Like the thing about giving a baby a toy while you read a book so that they'll sit still and listen -- which doesn't seem like it's really got anything to do with the book, anyway... so I still don't get it
Veering off topic, but I do get the toy thing. Some kids just need something else to do to allow them to settle enough to listen. It's like people who knit while they listen to a lecture or watch TV.
My daughter Hanni, not yet two, will hand me a picture book to read to her, and then pick up another one to "read" herself. I finally figured out she really does want me to read the first one, but she can't just sit there and do nothing! (Eventually she does settle down and focus on the book I'm reading.)
Anyway, I do get your main point, about other people's advice sometimes being way out of whack for your child.
