Editor’s note: This is a weekly digest of stories we’re following — trends, news you can use and provocative parenting reads. Do you have a good read for us? Write emurray@parentmap.com.
1. Coverage of the Time Magazine "Are You Mom Enough" cover. By now, you’ve probably seen the image on Time's Mother's Day package on attachment parenting: An L.A. model (yes, a model) breastfeeding her three-year-old son as he stands on a chair, a pose that’s not only unrealistic but seems designed to make him older than he is.
The good news is that, sensationalized as it may be, the cover did spark an online discussion among bloggers that’s as thoughtful as that image is one-dimensional. Read blogger/comedian Jason Good's funny and forthright piece on the male/dad perspective "From Breasts to Boobs and Back Again"; Motherlode blogger's KJ Dell'Antonia incisive deconstruction of the loaded question "Are You Mom Enough and follow-up post on the U.S.' dismal ranking on breastfeeding support; Lisa Belkin's look at a number of recent breastfeeding-in-public controversies; a Boston pediatrician mom's personal take on attachment parenting ("My co-sleeping and baby-wearing weren't about making anybody well-adjusted. I just wanted to get some sleep and get stuff done"); and finally, Ask Moxie's "Open Letter to Time Magazine," a Gettysburg-address-short plea to Time.
2. The Time stories. If you can get beyond the cover, you'll find no less than a dozen articles on some aspect of modern parenting -- and some of them are quite good. If you're a subscriber, you can access an in-depth story on Dr. William Sears, the mega-influential author of The Baby Book, on the evolution of his attachment philosophy and how it's changing even now. Also worth a look is a column arguing that feminism gave rise to "intensive mothering"; and, my personal favorite, the very wry "Confessions of an Accidental Attachment Parent."
3. The New York Times Magazine bypassed typical Mother's-Day fluff or parenting debates entirely and published a chilling look at the question of whether you can diagnose psychopathy in young children, and how to treat them.
4. In a bit of hopeful news, Seattle Children's cancer patients -- who made the now-viral video of "Stronger" by Kelly Clarkson -- have videoconferenced with the singer and may get a visit from her soon.
5. This is the number-one thing you can you to avoid sleep problems in your children as they grow older, according to pediatrician blogger Craig Canapari.
6. And speaking of sleep, blogger Ask Moxie raises a question that hits home for a lot of moms: Why do we all stay up so darn late, what are the costs, and how can we stop?
