Has nobody mentioned this yet? ((WARNING: Contains graphic images of SHE WHO MUST NOT BE NAMED))

[Picante]

HERE.

Yikes, I've never seen so many deleted messages on a single MN thread!

What is it about her? There's something very staged, very unnatural and she looks uncomfortable in her own skin.

KIMI!!!!! Am PMSL!

Am I the only one who does think weight comes into it a little bit. I would find it hard to take advice on healthy diet etc for my child from someone who may not have a handle on their own even if the advice is correct

That woman is awful.

Her diktaks made my time as a new mother with my baby daughter an absoloute misery.

I know that we can't talk about her without the risk of trouble from her 'people' but she's a disgrace.

What a really nasty thread.

GF made me finally enjoy being a mum.

A lot of the comments on here are akin to playground bullying. I find that a disgrace not GF.

Glad she talked sense to you Mila. But for me, and a lot of other women I know, her advice was less than helpful.

The way she acted in trying to shut down Netmums (which is a place of free speech and debate) is shameful. She's the bully. She should expect that if she's 'out there' she will have people write things about her from time to time that may not be nice and fluffy. It's the way things are.

Sorry, Mumsnet, not Netmums!

MilaMae - Good to hear tha GF made you a happy mother .

On the other side of the coin alot of mothers/fathers became unhappy , got stressed etc and didn't get on with the routines , so out went the book !

A bit like Nick Clegg and his wife , but Nick Clegg spoke out and said it didn't work for him and dared to critcise her. Her response to it was somewhat strange. Dont you agree ?

People who act like GF in matters like this dont really help themselves do they ?Anyone who is in the public gaze or puts themselves in the spotligth is somewhat fair game for criticism , unfortunately a fact of life.

i wouldnt let that woman any where NEAR my child.

I think you'll find an awful lot of parents disagree hence her success. I know stacks of other mothers for which GF was extremely helpful.

The vast majority of nursery workers have not had their own children and are often very young without half the experience GF has had. Should they not be working with babies/advising parents then?

I'm appalled at the abuse that gets aimed at her just because she advocates parenting in a way that doesn't suit others. I have a very dim view of AP for various reasons but would never level the abuse that GF gets at authors advocating it or mothers that follow it. If it helps other mothers then good luck to them.

Having actually got the book,read it and followed it I'm very familiar with how GF looks as her picture is on the back. I'm appalled at the way her perfectly normal looks have been pulled apart on this thread. It's nothing less than immature playground bullying.

A mother knows what's best for a child, thats why those of us that follow her routines follow it,we like it,it suits us and our babies.

My babies were all transformed within days from miserable over tired hollering babies to happy and serene babies. I was transformed from a miserable,clueless wreck unable to even drive a car into a confident happy mum who could actually get on and enjoy my babies.

We loved it,it works for many,many mums. If it's not your bag so what- go get a life,concentrate on your own kids or pick somebody else apart if you really need to. The whole let's rip GF to shreds is soooo boring and completely last year.

News Flash- WE ALL PARENT DIFFERENTLY-live with it!!!!

"A mother knows what's best for a child"

Why the need for Jabba and her doctrines then?

Blimey O'Reilly - if I looked like that I would steer clear of the old photographers lense too! (My opinion not a fact that she can argue so I think I am safe!)

But then I totally admit to being shallow and even thinking that Yvette/Yvonne woman who was the education minister should get her eyebrows done, buy a skirt, have her hair done by someone who was using scissors and not shears and put on a bit of slap before dictating hopw my child should be educated!

GF champions controlled crying doesn't she?

I think its cruel - live with it

Not sure what there is about AP that one can take a dim view of. Cuddling your child too much perhaps?

'
News Flash- WE ALL PARENT DIFFERENTLY-live with it!!!! ' - please someone tell that to GF !

Does that mean if the lib dems get in then she will banished to the tower??? i might even consider voting for them!

If so they get my vote!

what gets me about GF being a nanny, and advising other parents on parenting skills, is that her childhood was awful. Clearly, she has unresolved psychological issues. For someone who was emotionally abused as a child to go onto rear other people's children is frightening.

I would go so far as to speculate that her childhood has made her unable to form close, emotionally mature relationships with adults, never mind recognise the tight bond that a parent forms with their child.

That's unreasonable (imho) Highlander -- lots of people with bad childhoods pull themselves together and become good parents to their own DC. I agree with those who say the Telegraph blog entry in OP was mean-spirited. Not that I like GF's methods in the least, though, let me make that very clear.

I think a public backlash against GF was inevitable, though, she has foolishly put herself on a pedestal, ripe for knocking off it (self-styling herself as world's most popular maternity nurse, etc.). She has made herself into a public persona and then can't seem to roll with the inevitable criticisms that come with that.

I mean she's made herself into a brand, effectively, hasn't she? And people have passionate feelings about brands, don't they? I like Levi's, you prefer Gap or Wrangler, whatever.

Highlander - I have read her book Good Mother Bad Mother where she writes a fair bit about her childhood, and from what she writes she was very very close to her mother.
Indeed what came across to me was that she grew up in a very happy extended family. Yes her mother suffered from PND, so are you saying that all mothers who suffers from PND do not make good mothers ?

Also can you link me to where she has responded to crtics in the past, because I certainly can't find anything.
Apart from the time she threatened legal action against Mumsnet for the personal attacks made here on the forums.

priyag - you call them personal attacks, I call them people objecting to her methods. And a few people making comments which were clearly not serious at all - only a loon would pretend they would honestly affect her reputation.

Anyone in public life - and that includes best-selling authors who make their money advising on behaviour - would have been advised not to make themselves look so ruddy stupid. The legal action demonstated that GF has very poor judgment.

There are rumours about why that might be but obviously they can't be discussed in public.

Edam - Sorry your post has lost me. The point that I was trying to make is that I doubt Highlander has met she Gina Ford or her family, and it is clear that she has not read her book where she writes about her childhood. So I am not sure why she is made such comments, which I think are very personal.

Oh, sorry, yes crossed wires, thought you were talking about the so-called personal attacks GF made such a fuss about.

Thing is, until GF got so ridiculously huffy, I used to defend her against the 'she has no children of her own line'. I do think it's relevant for reasons of emotional detachment but often used to point out GF had said she was not childless by choice so it was a bit mean to use it to dismiss her. Kicking someone when they are down.

But after she chucked all her toys out of the pram in such spectacular fashion, I have no sympathy for the woman at all.