It was described as a report by Hadley Freeman about Attachment Parenting and alleged maternal masochism. The article may have presented itself as a report about the rise in popularity of attachment parenting, but it was actually just a highly subjective opinion piece which rehashes tired clichés, unhelpful stereotypes, myths, presumptions and tropes, etc., not just about AP but mothering in general.I don’t actually see what the point for this article is, apart from criticising, sneering at, judging and dismissing the choices of mothers who practice Attachment Parenting. It is certainly not being written out of concern for children whose parents believe in AP, as it’s pretty hard to argue that a baby is being scarred for life by having someone come to them when they cry in the night, or that they’re not smacked, or that they get carried around in a baby carrier. Instead, it feels like yet another excuse to feed the insatiable public demand to see women criticising other women (I realise that I’m reluctantly doing similar in writing this), confirming all their base prejudices and stereotypes about women being divided, being their own worst enemy, being masochistic, neurotic, and so on. It’s the journalistic version of ‘girl on girl’ fighting for the members of the Left which like to delude themselves they’re not misogynistic or patriarchal.
Source: Mothering is not masochism | All Mothers Work
