I do, however, appreciate Natalie’s desire to spare teens the struggle that she had as a teen parent. I was surprised to hear that an AP mom participated and am glad to know that her past experience was at least part of the motivator for her to do the show.

I wish you the best of luck, Natalie, and hope you are able to find other ways to help teens, because you are obviously passionate about this topic and can offer the gift of your experience to the next generation.

At the end of the day, however, this interview did not change my opinion of the show. I still object to it, and do not regret that I participated in API’s Baby Borrower objection. You’ll note that our criticism was leveled at NBC and not at individual parents who participated, by the way.

A fascinating interview. Thanks Amy!

Julie Artz
Communication Coordinator
Attachment Parenting International
Mama to Gabriel (9.04) and Lily (5.06)

Thanks for your comments to my post, and I was not trying to say that you weren’t an AP parent, but like you said, you do things that come natural to you, because that is what feels right, not because Attachment Parenting tells you that you have to do so and so.

That can be a wide umbrella to operate under- some AP parents do subscribe to the AP principals, and try to incorporate them daily as a guide, and that is AP to them. Some just do what comes naturally and for them that is AP. I was trying to say from what I could gather that you probably were of the second train of thought.

I also want to comment that I am not judging Natalie or any other mother at all for their parenting styles/or choices.

What is hard for me to grasp behind this entire concept of the show- is how parents can risk the unknown on whether this type of separation could harm their child.

While I am far from a perfect parent, and do consider myself an AP parent, I still don’t “get” what greater good comes from this, if it risks the bonding attachment and puts unnecessary stress on an infant/child. I don’t see how the end result justifies the means.

I didn’t know the children were screened by psychologists, and that is good to an extent, but how can anyone really say for sure this social experiment won’t harm children long term? Psychologists aren’t perfect. They can make predications and educated guesses on how they believe a situation like this will affect a child, but they don’t know for sure.

I also don’t know how anyone could predict what kind of impact this would have on a baby, who can’t communicate verbally with a psychologist, and may not understand what is really happening.

While the motivation behind parents participating in this experiment may be noble, I still can’t help but wonder, at what cost is this to the children participating in the show?

Especially for AP parents, who generally try to reduce the amount of time their babies are separated from them, and try to reduce the stress for their baby during separations. This show, no matter how noble the motivations behind it may be, seems counter-productive for an AP parent, in my opinion.

Obviously, I still don’t agree with the show, but really thank you Natalie, for opening yourself up here for discussion and explaining your reasons for participating.

While I can’t say I would do the same, you have the right to do what you feel is best for your children and family.