May 10, 2012
If you haven’t seen it, just in time for Mother’s Day, Time Magazine’s May 21, 2012 cover of a young mother breasfeeding her three-year-old son has been getting quite a bit of attention. It comes complete with the subtitle: “Are you Mom enough?”
Inside, the magazine profiles Dr. Bill Sears, a long time proponent of attachment parenting, who has written numerous books on the topic. Attachment parenting promotes extended closeness and limited punishment in raising children.
Advocates of attachment parenting believe that children develop in natural stages and need to receive as much love as possible from their parents in the early years until they no longer need it so that they can grow to become independent and confident human beings when they are ready. Attachment parenting encourages breastfeeding until a child weans himself or herself, or as long as possible, co-sleeping if a baby cries at night, carrying a baby in a sling or carrier so as to promote the close bond between mother and child, nursing on demand so that that a baby’s needs are met when it is most crucial, and responding to all of a baby’s cries so that it is not left alone in emotional deprivation.
The philosophy relies on the understanding that infants need strong attachment to their primary caregivers and that they will naturally separate and become independent once their needs for closeness, love, and attachment are fully met. It also relies on the closeness between the mother and child to make a mother feel more loving and attuned to the child, in part through the release of hormones in the mother’s body by virtue of that closeness.
In profiling attachment parenting, Time Magazine has relied on powerful, controversial imagery to shock people about the concept. Some have pointed out that this imagery is misleading. I agree. In the photo, the child is fully dressed in mature clothing and standing on a chair, which makes him look older, taller, and closer to the height of his mother. The mother is fully dressed and standing defiantly facing the camera. While it is true that attachment parented babies tend to nurse into toddlerhood, this photo appears intended to dismay the average American into seeing attachment parenting as ridiculous, outlandish, and abnormal.
Additionally, the general depiction of the concept refers to Dr. Sears as the guru of the attachment parenting community, attempting to paint it as cult-like. In fact, many parents recognize that closeness between mother and child and early attachment are important without feeling obligated to follow specific rules which according to some portrayals define attachment parenting.
Numerous studies have shown and mainstream child development psychology currently holds that attachment to the mother early in life is critical to healthy emotional, psychological, cognitive, and moral development.
The magazine’s choices as to what subject matter to portray in profiling this issue and the slant with which it describes it betray a prejudice in favor of more punitive parenting styles. Unbiased journalism it is not.
See for yourself: http://ideas.time.com/dr-william-sears-meet-the-man-who-remade-motherhood/