Here's an extract from an article which is published in the PTA magazine which comes from school:
"Should I allow my 10 year old daughter come with me to a scan (I am pregnant with my second child)?
I am pregnant and my oldest daughter is delighted. She would like to come with me when I have my scan. I am hesitating...
ANSWER: You are right to hesitate. And you should refuse to allow her to acompany you. Some parents do agree, and their desire to share this type of life-changing experience is understandable. But they are forgetting that a scan is not place for a child: it is the couple's business. The foetus which is in the mother's stomach [sic] is too intimately related to sex for brothers and sisters to be present at the scan. Even bigger children should not get mixed up in the sexuality of the couple. A little boy will feel that he is his father's equal, especially if he is still in the Oedipal phase. A little girl could feel like she has to take on the maternal role, and could feel responsable for the baby in the future."
I think there are very good reasons NOT to take older kids to a scan (because a scan is first and foremost to bring abnormalities to light, and if that sadly happens, older childen's presence is not desirable) but the reasons outlined here strike me as utterly bonkers.
But I am prepared to be put straight by the MN jury.
FI, we are abroad and the above is a back of the fag packet translation. I live in a country where I feel like I am constantly swimming upstream against mainstream thought because I am forrin. But maybe I read too much into my forrin-ness and all this stuff is completely normal. If so, please do tell me.