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‘When I hear a baby cry, I cringe!’
‘I am absolutely disgusted by babies.’
These are some of the remarks that have caused the latest hullaboo around Nadya Suleman aka the Octomom. The fact that she denied having made the comments to in Touch magazine and was then caught out by the journalist’s taped version of the interview just makes it worse.
But is it really so bad to say you don’t like babies? She’s not saying she doesn’t care for her own children, just that babies in general are not appealing.
Some people do talk in scathing terms about children in general, and some even talk like that about their own. I recently heard a mother saying she was so glad that her son was turning 18 so he was out of her hair.
Does that make someone a bad parent? Ambivalence is a natural emotional reaction to the tremendous responsibility of raising a child. It’s a rare person who can go through a series of sleepless nights without feeling at least a little negative about the experience.
But there is a line. There’s definitely something distasteful about a parent calling their child names, like Alec Baldwin calling his daughter, Ireland, a pig in a voicemail message. Although that was in private and he did apologise afterwards.
The worst is when parents talk scathingly about their children behind their backs to other people. Because if you aren’t your child’s greatest fan, how will anyone else take that role?
But to simply say that you don’t like babies, or that toddlers are annoying doesn’t seem to be grounds enough to pillory someone as Nadya Suleman has been.
Is it okay for parents to trash talk about kids:
‘I am absolutely disgusted by babies.’
These are some of the remarks that have caused the latest hullaboo around Nadya Suleman aka the Octomom. The fact that she denied having made the comments to in Touch magazine and was then caught out by the journalist’s taped version of the interview just makes it worse.
But is it really so bad to say you don’t like babies? She’s not saying she doesn’t care for her own children, just that babies in general are not appealing.
Some people do talk in scathing terms about children in general, and some even talk like that about their own. I recently heard a mother saying she was so glad that her son was turning 18 so he was out of her hair.
Does that make someone a bad parent? Ambivalence is a natural emotional reaction to the tremendous responsibility of raising a child. It’s a rare person who can go through a series of sleepless nights without feeling at least a little negative about the experience.
But there is a line. There’s definitely something distasteful about a parent calling their child names, like Alec Baldwin calling his daughter, Ireland, a pig in a voicemail message. Although that was in private and he did apologise afterwards.
The worst is when parents talk scathingly about their children behind their backs to other people. Because if you aren’t your child’s greatest fan, how will anyone else take that role?
But to simply say that you don’t like babies, or that toddlers are annoying doesn’t seem to be grounds enough to pillory someone as Nadya Suleman has been.
Is it okay for parents to trash talk about kids:
