Daisy Goodwin: Mumsnetters are "the self-righteous childcare fundamentalists of the internet."

[morningpaper]

You'll like this one.

Daisy Goodwin writes in the Times :

"As one Mumsnet post puts it: ?Watching Claire Verity abuse other people?s babies in the name of ?routine? makes my blood boil. She should be prosecuted under child protection laws, it?s disgusting.? As responsible programme-makers we observed due diligence on this for Bringing Up Baby and there is absolutely no scientific evidence that following a routine in infancy has any deleterious effect on the psychological health of the child... But this is heresy to the self-right-eous childcare fundamentalists of the internet who loathe Verity so much that she has been spat at in the street and received death threats."

Oh you've been there already Tamum

I love the way she says casually comments...

"There are some aspects of Truby King?s routine, such as putting a child in its own room, which are now challenged by cot-death charities such as FSID, which advise mothers to keep babies in the same room for the first six months, and the programme makes current guidelines on this clear. But apart from that there is no hard medical evidence to suggest the Truby King approach poses any threat to a baby?s physical or psychological health"

Apart from risk of the baby dying the TK method poses no real risk. Oh, that's ok then...

I'd never heard of Daisy Goodwin so I googled her. This resulted in my finding out that she is a) quite fit, b) a mother of two and c) some sort of television person. She "also finds time to dream up and edit poetry anthologies" apparently. Not at all a self-promoter, then.

Wtf can't anyone take an approach which is about moving away from the baby manual and relying on intuition and maternal instinct? Okay, so maybe we need a book or a series to help us do that but I really don't believe anybody needs childcare instructions.

Tried that too Marina, there are some papers in that name but not from Oxford. They are all from the 1950s... spooky twilight zone music....

I was involved in a prog Goodwin made - nothing to do with babies. And IME she is an arch manipulator who is happy to trash peoples' emotions in order to get a cheap TV thrill. She should really be producing Jeremy Kyle but, I bet, thinks she's more upmarket than that. Actually, she's worse. Because Kyle makes it clear what he's about. And isn't exploiting newborn babies.

What would have been hugely amusing would have been to find a paper by MarcowitzH and KingT.

Exactly, tcmummy. And in fact the programme doesn't 'make current guidelines on this clear' anyway.

IIRC, it doesn't mention the FSID guidelines at all in the first programme, and the second programme contained a mealy-mouthed 'some experts think...'

It doesn't say 'there is extensive evidence to show that keeping the baby in a separate room increases the risk of cot death and is in direct opposition to guidelines published by the Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths'. Which I would have found more satisfactory

1950s...Truby King...were ouija boards involved I wonder
My Harvey Markowitz is an American playwright I now remember. He writes fiction...

Snap tamum

Perhaps he is Truby King, now reincarnated under a different name?

Exactly- I said this on here earlier (or another thread I think)- these are some guidelines that a bunch of do-gooders have made up, they are based on extensive peer-reviewed studies. I despair. But CV hasn't lost any of "her" babies yet, so that's OK.

is this him?

these are not some guidelines... sorry.

Have mumsnetters sent this woman death threats? That is the implication of the article?

Come on. Own up.

oooh, Marina, I think you gottim

Oh well done Marina, yes that is clearly him. One of the few spellings I missed!

snaf -

edam - ooo, inside info!

Is it because I is a librarian?
The name did sound sort of familiar

Is it time for a "Daisy Goodwin straps rockets.." you get the picture. (Sorry MP)

Having said that he still doesn't appear on Pubmed. Very odd.

Chairs an ethics committee, huh?

Yes ll, he's clearly retired from Marina's link.

edam, I feel thoroughly vindicated in my loatheing for the woman after that bit of insider information, cheers