Ch5 now - programme on attachment parenting.

[Posey]

Looks interesting

the programme just seemed to make a mockery of these families, rather than try and show a different way of life

Another thread on this programme here

english man seemed fairly normal,and made many references to "its their choice",and they wernt saying that they wanted to "force their veiws"etc blah blah
english woman must have t*ts of leather,and clearly but happily barking mad!!
(but fwiw i think they are being a bit irresponsible not sending them to school,anyone clock the boredom from the eldest when the mum was trying to explain in a monotonous "ive been asked boring questions all day what a bean house was,he couldnt have given a sh**!)
think the yanks were being yanks.....insisting they know best,insisting that we all follow their ways...insisting they "invented it!" yardayardayarda!!!

Was it just me or are any of you concerned that this programme seemed to imply that breastfeeding was for oddballs? It didn't seem to balance out the extended breastfeeding with a more "normal" picture? (And I'm not suggesting all the mums and dads portrayed were odd, just some of them, some of the time

Whoops, just seen the other thread which covers my point nicely!

Looks as though I'll be shot down in flames for my view on this one, but here goes.

The parents depicted on this programme seemed to think that parenting is something that exists only at polar ends of an extreme scale - either full-on 'attachment parenting', as they practised, or total abandonment where the parents have virtually no involvement in their children's upbringing and just stick them in front of the TV 24/7. They completely failed to recognise that most parents fall somewhere in between these two extremes. They also failed to recognise that not everyone has the luxury of choosing to give up work and stay at home full-time with their child(ren), even if they wanted to.

I personally feel that they are essentially raising their children to be social outcasts and misfits. None of the kids shown seemed to spend any time interacting with any children outside of their immediate family, and both DH and I couldn't believe the English couple's intention that thir children would only take GCSEs etc. if that's what the children wanted to do in latter years. The father then mentioned that he'd like the children to go to university - well, hello! They will only be able to do that if they have the same qualifications as kids who go through mainstream education! IMO, this type of parenting doesn't encourage children to develop natural independence and form relationships away from the family environment.

I know breastfeeding is natural but I have to be honest and say that I found watching a woman breastfeeding a 5 and 7 year old totally revolting. It appeared from the expressions on other mothers' faces in cafes etc. when she just whipped out "boobie" in front of everyone that I'm not alone in this feeling! I was also appalled at the parents who had sex while sharing a bed with their two-year-old!

I couldn't help but feel that 'attachment parenting' was for the parents' benefit, not the child's, as if the parents needed to be needed, rather than bringing up their children in a warm, loving environment to be strong, independent and capable of dealing with anything. I was seriously worried for some of the children's futures.

Currant Bun

Totally agree with everything you said!

why, oh why, can't they run programmes about normal people who do attachment parenting and normal people who breasfeed...this is so unhelpful, no woder the uk has such a low bf rate.

Lilymolly - phew! I was awaiting a bashing!

Astrophe, I agree that the people featured on the programme were not really representative of 'normal' attachment parents. But I suppose it would not have made for a very 'entertaining' programme (from Channel 4's perspective) if they didn't show extreme examples.

well said currantbun,you should consider writing articles for mags and papers!!

That bloke from up north didn't do any good in advertising BF, on the way to the BF event he said something about how it was great a load of women getting their tits out!! yep thats really going to help increase the number of women to BF

I guess I'm in the middle. I just stopped breastfeeding my 2 year old a few days ago, she falls asleep in bed with me but I now transfer her into her own bed. I spend my time with my children though I don't suffocate them, I would love to be my childrens best friend but not ONLY friend whig ch is what I could see happening in the program. I found watching that woman breatfeed in the cafe pretty horrible not because of the chlds age but because she was SO indescete - she had been doing it for 7 years surely she should have mastered doing it without showing her boobs, to be honest people like that put people off brestfeeding!

the two girls werent 5 and 7 though were they? 3 and 5?

she had been BF for a total of 7yrs to her 5yr old and 2yr old daughters

Not sure Misdee. I thought 5, but then someone said she restarted when the little girl was 5 when the youngest one was born, which would make the elder dughter older than 5

I think the husband was trying to be funny with the 'loads of women with their tots out' comment, but I must say it set my teeth on edge a bit.

Older one was 5. and had stopped BF, mother restarted BF when youngest was born to stop jealousy!!! HTH

The girls where 2 and 5 but she also had a 7 year old son who no longer breastfed.

That British mum was an ex-secondary school teacher... I think some of the comments below on home educating/unschooling I think are quite ignorant of it is actually done... I do know several home schooled/educated kids, one is starting Cambridge next year..... they often/usually work with other parents so kids DO see many other kids when they cover a particular topic.
I also know 2 women who did/do EC... one did London/New Zealand with her 3 months old.... no nappy and NO accident! Once you get the hang of it it's not that hard and it also allows a child to (much earlier) have an understanding of his bowel movements. Most of these kids by the time they are one can well HOLD their wees/poos until a toilet is available ! If you type EC in google you can learn a lot about it... the programme was too short to realy explain how it is done, the benefits etc

news.independent.co.uk/people/profiles/article1222013.ece

article written by the woman with the 3 children...

I really like the article and she has amny valid points, she just seemed more booby obbsesed than her children!
Hoe schooling can be fab for children especially if you do have a network of other home schoolers close by.

I thought it was great that people can live like this, it is only society that has made us the gadget, nappy freaks that we are and given the chance I would be one of those parents.

I am certainly not knocking home schooling - my faith in the current education system in this country is severely limited - but I do think that children schooled in this way need to be prepared to enable them to enter mainstream education (i.e. university) later on if they wish to do so, rather than giving them the option of not taking standard examinations which will hamper their future choices.

Like it or not, the only way into university at the moment is with a handful of GCSEs and A-levels in appropriate subjects and with specified grades. I'm sure that children educated at home are equally capable (if not more capable) than their school-educated peers of achieving such qualifications, but this needs to be borne in mind by those teaching them. Not all learning can, or should, be done through play.

I think you have to bear in mind with programmes like this that they are heavily edited for shock value! They were concentrating on the breastfeeding issues with Liz and Gary not other aspects of their parenting, hence the amount of boobie we were shown! Say the film crew was there for a week they can edit the amount of breastfeeding occuring into a large amount on a 1 hour programme, whilst ignoring the rest of what occurs.
I no longer bf having older kids but am incredibly careful about what I feed my kids and could be made to look obsessive if a film crew filmed my every action involving food purchase and preparation whilst editing out or not filming the cuddles i gice my kids, play and story reading.

I missed a lot of this programme. I understand they didn't use car seats? How do they get around the law then?

That was the american parents, not sure of the rules over there, can't get my head around not using car seats or pushchairs as they are not natural yet using a great big gas guzzling car?