There's an interesting discussion on the merits or otherwise of the Channel 5's Attachment Parenting Programme over at Playing it by Ear. Liz, who was featured, has contributed to it.
My feeling: that the essential goodness of the British family did indeed shine through, despite heavy attempts by the editors to make them look peculiar. I also agree with Clare that there was some strange goings-on in the single child American family - the child will in all probability suffer terribly from the mother's narcissistic investment. The other American family struck me as potentially suffering from a similar problem, the mother appearing so extremely zealous that the children run the risk of seeing themselves as products of her ideas, and not individuals in their own right, but I may be wrong here. This could well have been another problem of the editing, with the editor prompting mum to proselytize about AP instead of relaxing and just getting on with it.
The choice of adjectives was very revealing, even with the British family! The four year old breast feeding was 'demanding'...
ReplyDeleteIntriguingly, the reporter seemed most surprised by the kids not wearing nappies! Quite the least of the problems, I would have thought. Most people seem more shocked by long term feeding and bed sharing. I had so many arguments about the latter! As if some how we couldn't avoid incest.
But, all these articles seem to make it look like an either you are conventional or you are extremely weird, when there are loads of variations, mixing the two! Not all AP involves long term breast feeding, for example, as often the child doesn't want to do that; and others will opt to use nappies and so on.
D
As a parent of seven (breast fed) children and now a grandparent I think that this progromme gives much cause for concern. The childrens teeth will be affected by the continuing breastfeeding. The parents seem to be imposing their ideas onto the children and not allowing any space for personal growth. We dont OWN our children they are on loan to us for the time that they can not fend for themselves. Our job is to help them to become well rounded people who are able to function within the society that we live in. Constant stressing about who is on the boob at the moment is surely not a good thing.
ReplyDelete