Attachment Parenting Examined

A breast-feeding three-year-old – and mom – on the cover of Time Magazine. We’ll talk with the guru of “attachment parenting.”

And the headline: “Are You Mom Enough?” The image was a grabber. The story was about “attachment parenting.” The school of parenting that says never let ‘em cry, hold them close, co-sleep, and breast feed ‘til… whenever. We’ve got the Time reporter, and the big guru of attachment parenting, Dr. Bill Sears.

This hour, On Point: attachment parenting.

-Tom Ashbrook

Kate Pickert, a staff writer for Time magazine. Her cover story "Are You Mom Enough" is here.

Dr. William Sears, is the father of eight children as well as the author of over 30 books on childcare, including The Baby Book. An Associate Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at the University of California, Irvine, School of Medicine, he is also known as the "guru" of the attachment parenting movement.

Dr. Kelly Ross, a practicing pediatrician at St. Louis Children's Hospital, she is also an assistant professor of pediatrics at Washington University School of Medicine.

Time "Sears’ most well-known parenting manual, a purple 767-page tome called The Baby Book, is ubiquitous, but his own story is not. In reporting this article for TIME, I was intrigued to find out how little had been written about Sears’ upbringing or how he came up with his parenting theories in the first place."

The Wall Street Journal "Today's bible of child-rearing is "The Baby Book" by William and Martha Sears, which trumpets "attachment parenting." You wear your baby, sleep with her and attune yourself totally to her needs. How you do this and also earn the money to keep her is rarely discussed. You are just assumed to be rich enough."

Christian Science Monitor "The Baby Book” has become a bible of sorts for moms like the ones in her story; moms who breastfeed their children through toddlerhood, who eschew date nights with husbands in favor of nursing, who never leave their children (ever), and who happily give the marital bed over to the baby."