I lived in Switzerland for five years while growing up, from age 9 – 14. I remember when ordering salad at restaurants, there wasn’t generally the list of choices we’re used to in US restaurants – salad came with dressing. It was butter lettuce and dressing.

Recently a recipe for the ubiquitous “Swiss Dressing” was posted on a reunion page of the school I attended while there. It made me laugh – the inclusion of “Magi Wurze” as an ingredient sent me to google – it’s basically MSG in a liquid base.
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As I was scrolling posts on Facebook a few weeks ago, my heart broke. A friend shared the new method she’d been using to get her child to sleep on her own. It was a pretty standard sleep-training method: leave the child alone for gradually longer periods of time, periodic reassuring, tolerate the whining or crying a bit….

But it generated an extremely polarized conversation. In the one camp, “kids need to be trained to be independent,” and the other, “kids need to sleep with their parents as long as they exhibit the need; they will learn to be independent by having their needs met.”
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