Criticism
The Natural Child Project, a child advocacy group, expressed concern regarding the premise of the television show. In a letter sent by The Natural Child Project to NBC, the group expresses concern mainly over the emotional health of the babies and young children involved in the show. The letter goes on to mention that babies that lose their primary caregiver can go into mourning, emotional depression and have no way to know that they will be returned to their natural family. The letter also refers to the criticism over the original British version.
Additionally, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry made a formal request on July 2, 2008 to NBC to pull the show. The AACAP stated that "Separating babies and toddlers from their parents for extended periods of time can lead children to feel distress and anxiety. After prolonged separation, a child can feel distrust for his or her primary caregiver. Separation can damage a healthy attachment and a child's sense of safety." The president of the AACAP, Dr. Robert Hendren, stated "A child's sense of security should not be gambled with... a more constructive approach would have had the teenagers shadow a family of a toddler or baby, keeping parents close."
On July 7, NBC took the unusual step of setting up an online forum where parents who allowed their infants to be on the show could defend themselves against critics.
Read more about this topic: The Baby Borrowers (U.S. TV Series)
Famous quotes containing the word criticism:
“It is ... pathetic to observe the complete lack of imagination on the part of certain employers and men and women of the upper-income levels, equally devoid of experience, equally glib with their criticism ... directed against workers, labor leaders, and other villains and personal devils who are the objects of their dart-throwing. Who doesn’t know the wealthy woman who fulminates against the “idle” workers who just won’t get out and hunt jobs?”
—Mary Barnett Gilson (1877–?)
“Parents sometimes feel that if they don’t criticize their child, their child will never learn. Criticism doesn’t make people want to change; it makes them defensive.”
—Laurence Steinberg (20th century)
“Like speaks to like only; labor to labor, philosophy to philosophy, criticism to criticism, poetry to poetry. Literature speaks how much still to the past, how little to the future, how much to the East, how little to the West.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)