feedback for "Editor's Note: Why "Bad Parent"?"
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I really love the Bad Parent column and appreciate the confessional tone, the sense that it is "ok" to do some of the "bad parent" things. But I really get tired of the flaming. For instance, Jeanne Sager's TV column made me sigh with a me, too quality, but then the flaming made me feel worse than before I read the column. If you mission is to help parents feel better, I worry the format makes them feel worse. You let writers put themselves before a firing squad of sanctimony. If Sager is such a bad parent, help propose alternatives, give parents suggestions that offer both free time and less guilt. I know you strive to be hip and modern, but sometimes Babble comes off as more sanctimonious than Parents or Parenting.
posted by : LoveBabbleHateFlaming on 5/29/2009 at 10:53 AM Flag For Abuse
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I stumbled upon babble.com via a link to a bad parent column about a mother who smoked pot to help her relate to her two year old. I've been hooked ever since (to Babble, not pot)! This site has taught me not to be so quick to judge other people for things I think I disagree with. Bad Parent articles like the ones about kids running around naked and the article about formula not being poison opened my mind! Babble has made me a better mother and a better person. Thank you!
posted by : erinv on 5/30/2009 at 12:42 PM Flag For Abuse
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I used to love this column, but lately they all follow the same pattern: "I'm so much hipper than you that I do this. If you were a better parent/hipper person, you'd do it, too." I think Jeanne Sager is a perfect example of this, she's supposed to be showing how you can't be perfect, but instead she winds up saying that putting her kid in front of the TV makes her a better parent than someone who hires a babysitter.
I think the flaming happens because the writers all come off as so smug. How could they not? No one really wants to think of herself as a bad parent, so to write under the label "bad parent" means they have to be defensive. Why not retitle it to something that would let people more honestly discuss their choices.
posted by : getting bored on 6/2/2009 at 2:35 PM Flag For Abuse
