Baby abuse

A new TV series started this week in which families try out different approaches to babycare taken from classic twentieth century childcare "experts": Doctor Spock, Jean Liedloff (The Continuum Concept) and Truby King, who spawned the "put them on a routine, leave them to cry and dump them in the garden in a pram for hours" school of parenting. Angel and I watched in horror as a tiny baby (only a few days old) was left to scream while its parents and the mentor they had been allocated sat downstairs drinking a glass of wine. The baby's older sister - quite naturally - could not understand why nobody (including the mother) was allowed to cuddle the baby. The mentor was of the opinion that no rational parent wanted their lives interrupted by a baby, and there was no reason the baby should be "allowed" to demand attention.

I am not sure whether the government's E-Petitions site is worth its bandwidth, but there are occasions on which signing one at least makes me feel better. If you are a British citizen or resident you can sign one asking the Prime Minister "to take urgent action to protect infants and their parents from television programmes that promote outdated and discredited parenting theories" here.