Reader: Attachment parenting creates crybabies

Time magazine started the whole thing, with a cover that featured a toddler smirking like a teenager while latched onto his mother's breast. The cover story, on attachment parenting, inspired a response from both Westword writer Jef Otte, who thinks attachment parenting sucks, and local comic Andrew Orvedahl, who doesn't...

By Patricia Calhoun

May 22, 2012

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Time magazine started the whole thing, with a cover that featured a toddler smirking like a teenager while latched onto his mother's breast. The cover story, on attachment parenting, inspired a response from both Westword writer Jef Otte, who thinks attachment parenting sucks, and local comic Andrew Orvedahl, who doesn't. The two faced off first on the web, where they argued attachment parenting, and then in person on Sunday night.

A big crowd gathered at Vine Street Pub for this installment of Arguments & Grievances, a regular comedy gathering, that featured a hastily organized segment on attachment parenting.

The argument can be summed up easily, says Beercrabs:

Who wants to deal with a crybaby for the rest of its sorry life....

See the video of the attachment parenting debate here. (A preview: Otte won.)

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Patricia Calhoun is editor-in-chief of Westword, the alt-weekly she co-founded in September 1977. She’s been inducted into the Colorado Press Association Hall of Fame, the Association of Alternative Newsmedia Hall of Fame and the Colorado Restaurant Association Hall of Fame. She’s also received dozens of local, state and national awards for writing, including first place for feature writing and first place for column writing with the Society of Professional Journalists. Patricia is a weekly commentator on Colorado Inside Out, PBS 12's public affairs roundtable, which has won two Emmys.

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