steve biddulph - misogynist bully?

Yay worktostaysane, love your last post esp. preying on people's fears. Hate the way obnoxious people out to scaremonger are lauded for 'sticking their head about the parapet'. Jean Marie le Pen sticks his head above the parapet. It ain't necessarily a good thing to do - depends what you've got to say and whether you are trying to hurt.

guaranteed to make lax dad's feel guity.

like penelope leach best

I think his views are child centred. Agree with harpsi that he sticks his head above the parapet - what he has to say isn't currently fashionable but it's based around common sense, family, community rather than 'wrap around care' by instutions.

didn't see that GS! but thanks

i agree that full time nursery for small babies and possibly under 3's isn't the best option but even though he didn't have to convert me if still found him patronising and over emotional. and i really do hate his faux anecdotes. give me penelope leach any day.

[shudders at memory of Baxter]

unquietdad, did you see i'd nominated you as one of my favourite names the other day? [geek]

sorry I shold say he doesn't think it's a good idea for young children to be in f/t nursery. I don't think his views are misogynistic, fwiw I think his intentions are genuine

doubt it, katy. i'm showing you my softer side here because you were kind enough to take an interest in me, but i thought i might go and knock a few heads together on MN tonight. i've already left zammo weeping and stoned off his nut in the boys' toilets.

I only read the article in the guardian about his "research" into childcare. Reading the article I thought that his researches didn't stand on a firm ground. Actually got very irritated (and I'm a sahm). Decided not to read anything else, but then I don't really do parenting gurus.

I must say it was an enormous relief to read his book. at the time I was trying to decide about childcare and all the books/articles I read and all the people I spoke to just sat on the fence and said "well here are the options, you could do this and you could do that, or the other" and no-one said what they thought.
so it was hugely refreshing to read someone say "I think THIS i.e. under threes should not be in full time nursery and this is why I think it" and that was v helpful because I could test my own opinion against that, did I agree or not?
I think he has an interesting perspective about the place of the family and particularly children in our society.
I don't think by any stretch he attacks women who work, he just says he doesn't think it's a good idea and he quotes the studies that agree with him. good for him for sticking his head above the parapet imho.
(I had a baby in f/t nursery at the time I read that particular book)

I see - so are you staying as GS now? I didn't watch Grange Hill,so I'll never remember who you are!

I remember Gripper Stebson. Bullet Baxter shoved his head in the washbasin.

"I'll 'ave yer fer assault, Baxter!"
"I'll give yer good reason to, my son!"

Baxter's finest moment (apart from when he thumped Mr Hicks).

Has he done a whole book on nursery care then? I've read The Secret of Happy Children and the one he wrote with his wife (that's mostly about babies) - have started Raising Boys but ds is a bit small for it to be relevant, although my friend swears by it. Perhaps it's b/c I am a SAHM I just skip anything he says about childcare as it isn't relevant to me? I quite like the way he interviews - he is from Australia but never works there to protect his childrens' privacy.

sorry, am aitch. also was bitch. we are talking over a couple of threads, LL has just admitted to MNing on the loo. also as you can see i'm gripperstebson. you must remember him, he was the school bully on grange hill about a hundred years ago.

[relief]

When i first read The Secret of Happy Children I thought he and his wife were over emotional hippies( i was pregnant) after reading after I had my first child, I really enjoyed it, and found that it had influenced my style of parenting a lot, in fact I must dig it out again and re-read the new relevant chapters.
I read raising boys recently and it did make me feel a little down as some of what he was saying about full time wrap around child care did make some sense to me(work out of home myself) and also the fact that parents and family are so important in our society and that perhaps we are sitting on an emotional time bomb in our society. He is trying to get across to the government that perhaps trying to get all parents to work out of the home all of the time and out source their child care to insitutions may not be helpful and that we should be trying to move to a more flexible working, community driven, caring society. He is very pro fathers being involved in their childrens upbringing.
So not a misogynist bully IMO

I haven't read his books - think someone gave us a copy of Raising Boys or something but no idea where it is - but I have read interviews. And he struck me as a rather self-satisfied, middle-brow apologist for sexism. Happy to change my mind if someone can post anything to disprove it, though.

confused

Katy44, i changed it to give littlelapin a laugh. then i flushed her head down the loo for calling me a bitch.

i started to read the one about not putting under threes in childcare and gave up as i found its emotionally blackmailing tone offensive. i also disliked the way it assumed i was an idiot. i also didn't believe his 'experiences' eg the one where he saw a man in a big car roar past him (saint bidolph was jogging, of course), jump out, unfasten teeny baby from seat and go into a childcare establishment only to emerge seconds later to zoom off leaving our hero pondering the vile nature of a parent who could abandon his baby so swiftly. as i recall he ponders 'perhaps it was a one off and he was in a hurry' but concludes no, more likely the sort of person who is willing to leave a baby in a nursery probably behaves like that every day. honestly. i know women's magazines get away with this crap (you know, those articles that start i have three friends, sally who is morbidly overweight, chris who is dangerously underweight and susan who is just right...aaargh) I expect something a bit more robust, honest and well researched from a childcare 'expert'.
And don't start me on the bidolph message board. i'm still seething and i burned the book at least a year ago.

I found him very sensible, although a little unrealistic about nursery options for the under-3s. That was my only gripe with him though. I've only read "Raising Boys".

Yep, he has kids, and he is married - there is a really nice book he wrote with his wife. You may not agree with what he says about working mothers but his best book (The Secret of Happy Children) doesn't mention them very much and is more aimed at getting parents to think about how they talk to their children. The first few chapters alone really got me thinking both about my own childhood and about how I want to raise my own children. He also writes in a style accessible by men and my dh will read him wheras most parenting books bore him silly.

And a lot of what he says about working parents and the type of childcare available only backs up the research done by respected people like Penelope Leach. I don't find him remotely mysoginistic - I just think his message is unpopular.

BTO - are you AitchTwoOh? why the name change?