Pediatrically Enraged Moms Kick Brazelton

This is in response to Robin Abcarian’s article, “Brazelton Gives Care That’s Pediatrically Correct” (April 24).

As a stay-at-home mother of a 2-year-old, I found this article enraging. Abcarian sang the praises of T. Berry Brazelton because of his views on women’s rights.

She said she had her daughter sit on his lap because “ . . . pediatrically speaking, you just don’t get closer to God than that.” Her article adopts the tone that all women subscribe to the feminist agenda. Just so you know, this reader thinks moms and babies belong together if at all possible, and it may be possible more than we care to admit. And while it may be music to your ears that Dr. Brazelton’s mom performed abortions, it is just death to mine.

ELIZABETH MAGNESS

La Mirada

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While I respect Dr. Brazelton’s popularity and sincerity, he is absolutely not the definitive voice in childhood development.

His position that children do not suffer from a parent not at home is at odds with the Carnegie Corp. study that he touted in the article. I have always been dismayed by his need to psychoanalyze and generalize. Burton White and William Sears are two other Harvard-educated experts in the field of childhood development whose philosophies provide more coherence to many parents than those of Dr. Brazelton. I do not mean to say that Dr. Brazelton is undeserving of praise or his popularity. But as a mother, former teacher and student of childhood development I cannot allow Abcarian to say, “T. Berry Brazelton: every mother’s dream date.” It just isn’t so.

KATHERINE BORTZ

Orange