Controversial Time cover sparks debate about “attachment parenting”

The new Time Magazine cover causing quite a stir about the image and the parenting approach it profiles (Time image)

The new Time Magazine cover is sparking plenty of heat
about both the image and the parenting style it espouses.

The picture shows a beautiful young woman with her 3-year-
old son suckling her exposed breast and the Internet is
abuzz about what’s being construed by some some as overly
racy and sexual, especially for a traditional publication.

“You put a lady with her boob hanging out on Time Magazine
and a kid attached to it, I think it’s a very provocative
picture,” opined Ross and Burbank co-host Luke Burbank.

“Really? This was a big story on the Internet? The
Internet where there’s almost nothing that’s too obscene
to be displayed or videotaped or tweeted what’s obscene
about this? C’mon,” responded co-host Dave Ross.

The picture is part of the magazine’s feature on
“attachment parenting,” an increasingly popular approach
that promotes a closer bond between parents and kids with
methods such as breastfeeding longer, sleeping with
children and keeping them physically attached to a parent
with a sling.

Putting the picture aside, Luke and Dave are both critical
of the approach.

“If I wrote a child rearing book, it would be called “My
Child, My Enemy,” says Luke.

“And the basic principle would be I’m really into my wife
or girlfriend, the mother of my children. The kids,
they’re the ones on the outside.”

Luke says he would call it the “anti-attachment” movement.
The father of a high-school aged daughter, he argues
couples that overly devote themselves to their kids end up
suffering as a result.

“This is what happens in every other relationship, the mom
falls in love with the kids, the parents stop having sex,
the dad ends up on Craigslist, it’s a
disaster…Everything
that made that relationship good is out the window,” says
Luke.

“I like this. This is the first 19th Century thought he’s
had,” agrees Dave.

Meanwhile, Dori Monson says he’s just irritated that the
breastfeeding issue has turned “militant.”

“I think there are some people, this mom on the front of
Time magazine is probably one of them, who it doesn’t
matter what laws are passed protecting breastfeeding moms,
they’re going to want to just go farther and farther to
shove it in everyone’s face just to try to make some
social statement,” Dori says. “What does it accomplish?”

For one thing, Dori is sure, it’s going to sell a lot of
magazines.

Dori’s listeners had similar reactions to the
cover. Lisa in Seattle says, via D-mail, that the reason
the photo is so creepy is because the mom has an issue
with letting the child go. Adam in Tacoma says, “Just
because you can, doesn’t mean you should.”

By Josh Kerns, My Northwest.com