Mainstream judgements

[lovinannah]

I'm in a School Counseling grad program. In class today, a Counseling Children and Adolescents class, a very disturbing comment was made by the prof. She was recounting how an 8 year old client of hers was having trouble separating from her mother and didn't like school. She (my prof) blamed it on the single mother letting the child co-sleep. Then she went on to recount a former student of hers who once disagreed with this sentiment by stating that many cultures around the world practice the family bed. The prof mockingly stated "not any culture that she'd ever heard of". Grrr. OK, I didn't speak up in class but would really like to email my prof with some links about articles on cultures who do this, and somehow make it less abnormal to her. If I try to validate the practice by refering her to our natural parenting movement, it might actually turn her off more than convincing her. I know there's a lot of info on this site about cosleeping with infants and young children, but older children? Especially those going thru major transitions, as the example my prof gave was of a child of newly divorced parents. Any suggestions?

[Ms. B. Sprout]

She could read Our Babies, Ourselves by Meredith Small.

[butterfly_mommy]

Well one of the biggest cultures is the Japanese. In Japan the children sleep with the parents or the mother until they are in their teens.

Here is a link to James McKenna's website with some great FAQ's and some references. He is quoted a lot in "Our Babies, Our selves" he is a researcher that has done tons of laboratory work on co-sleeping.

I would seriously have a hard time "learning" anything from someone so ignorant. Seriously she is supposed to be college educated, man that is just crazy.

[lovinannah]

Great, thank you!

Yes, it is difficult to "learn" from many of my profs. I just try to take everything with a grain of salt, do what I have to do to get my degree so I can get on with my life and do what I want. It stinks that I have to pay for this kind of experience, but right now college is just a means to an end. I would rather it be a place of open and accepting dialogue, but I can't put my energies into forcing that. My fellow students rarely question anything they're told. Sometimes I think it's just their age, I'm 35 and most of them are 23-25. But my profs lean towards superiority and take advantage of their position in many cases. I will pass this along and see if I receive any feedback in class on cosleeping.

[blessedwithboys]

how bout "The Family Bed" by Tine Thevenin (sp?) or maybe send her to the Jane Leidloff site?