I am still “shaken” by this story (sorry). First of all, my disdain for the Whitmer family is disturbing even me. Their public relations initiative, their blogging, and of course their race and class are influencing me as well.
But on to the comments section, just for funsies:
“We know that the overwhelming factor in SIDs is formula feeding.”
“This should raise the cost of childcare so that we go back to the good ol’ days when mom stays home until the kids are good and old enough to fend for themselves.”
“This is yet another excellent defense (and article) about why mothers/women should be the care giver of their babies and children and not people outside of the home.”
“I seem to read more and more articles that point to the potentially harmful effects (such as those reported) of vaccinations in infants around this age and in bottle fed babies (SIDs). Additionally, though the parents, as many have mentioned, would like to blame the sitter, the choice for her to work outside the home was theirs.”
Variations on this theme abound.
There is a randomly-capped comment from “Shedidit” from “Guilty by a jury of her peers, USA.”
Anyhoo, I thank my lucky stars nothing ever happened to any of the children I babysat during my teen years. I sure as hell will never put myself in that position in the future, no matter how much I love the children or their parents. People (neither parents nor jurors nor community members) just cannot be rational when babies are involved.
I’m so horrified over the article, I haven’t even been able to process the comments yet…