Mothering (magazine)
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Mothering is the bimonthly magazine of natural family living started in 1976. The current editor is Peggy O'Mara. Articles cover pregnancy, childbirth options, breastfeeding, educational alternatives, family health issues, anti-vaccination, anti-circumcision, homeschooling and co-sleeping.
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[edit] History
Mothering was founded in 1976 and in the 80's, editor and publisher Peggy O'Mara took the helm of the magazine.
[edit] Web Presence
"MDC" or "MotheringDotCommune" is the web based discussion forum that Mothering magazine hosts. With a membership of currently 65,381 with almost 20,000 active posters this site is one of the largest Attachment Parenting/Natural Family Living forums on the Internet.
The discussion boards, like the magazine, take a firm stance against spanking, routine infant circumcision and the sleep-training method known as "Cry It Out" or CIO. Members are not allowed to advocate for these subjects.
[edit] Controversies
- While claiming to uphold Attachment Parenting/Natural Family Living standards of parenting, Mothering magazine editors accepted advertising money from a company that was in conflict with these standards without researching the company completely enough. It was discovered that the advertiser advocated spanking, which purportedly goes against Mothering's ideals. Mothering confered with an attorney regarding the advertiders contract and was required to complete the contract terms. After the contract expired Mothering never renewed it, however their reputation was damaged among many long time members of the community.
- The pro-spanking advertising controversy is a facet of a larger debate centering around the increasing commercialization of the forum, as well as the magazine. Both were relatively ad-free until recent years, when a larger community, therefore more bandwith expense, led Mothering to seek ad dollars from a wider range of mainstream sources. The most recent being "Google Ads". The administration is working fervently to filter out the inappropriate ads. Although staff were made aware before instituting the ads that members believed they would fully contradict the mothering priciples they claim to uphold the ads were still introduced. "MDC" is now and from this point forward will be known as a resource that has advertised formula to new mothers for a profit. This saddens the staff and they are trying to rectify the situation.
- The discussion forum employed a volunteer moderator who publicly forwarded an internet bulletin that expressed overtly racists views at another internet site. The issue was acted on immediately and privately by the administration. MDC does not govern the actions of members at other websites or in their private life, and thus, because the moderator in question had not shown any racist actions while on MDC, was not willing to remove her from her position. This caused many members to be outraged. The other MDC members who also forwarded the racist joke were not penalized in any way either. MDC does not have rules that govern the actions of members outside of the MDC forums. The moderator in question stepped down of her own accord.
- MotheringDotCommune will not host any conversation on the forums with any form of sexual content unless it remains in the context of healthy parenting partnerships, as stated in the MotheringDotCommune User Agreement. [1]
- The administration has been widely criticized for the User Agreement or UA that members must adhere to in order to be members of the message boards. The UA states, among other things, that the administration can choose to host, or not host, anything they choose. Any questions that members have are requested to be sent via Private Messaging (PMs) or through email.
- Many long-time members claim that the administrators of the boards are discriminatory towards them, particularly if they are a minority group. In particular women of colour and gay and lesbian members. The moderating team is consisted of women of many different backgrounds and take great umbridge to this accusation.
- Many long-time members who the moderating staff claims left on their own accord, have claimed that they've been locked out of their accounts and effectively banned without actually being banned. Many members take issue with this because they feel it is a deceitful and underhanded way to handle member controversies. Unfortunately many members refuse to believe the truth. Members are NEVER banned without warning several times (with the exception of members who joined and only post spam with nothing else).
