Really?! Modern Family

Rarely does a TV show get me riled up – y’know I don’t get very riled up anyway, but the latest episode of Modern Family has me all red faced and steaming :grrrr:

I suppose it’s because adoption is so close to my heart and knowing the situations that orphans are kept in all over the world, I was very happy to see adoption in a main-streamed TV show in a positive light.  But Ferber?! Did these men have to take any adoption training?  Do the writers know anything about attachment theory?  C’mon Modern Family   Seriously. 

I would never ever agree with the cry-it-out method for any family (why not? this), but doubly so for an adoption situation.  Think about it – the baby has been abandoned, has possibly been in an orphanage, where she has probably gotten little to no adult interaction during the day, much less at night.  She is adopted into a wonderful new family and slowly begins to trust them.  She learns that new family loves her and responds to her needs.  Then new family decides that she needs to “learn to sleep on her own” and ignores her cries.  “Why?” she thinks, “I thought these people loved me and cared for me?  Now I need them and they are not there?  Will they come back?”  Of course babies can’t think that detailed, but it is true that babies don’t have object permanence and if you are not in front of them, they think you don’t exist.  And babies have no sense of time so they don’t know that you are watching the clock and will comfort them at 5 minute intervals.  All they know is that you are not coming when they call and they need you to. 
Babies need love 24 hours a day.
Heck, I’m almost 30 years old, and I get to sleep better if Brent is right there hanging out with me until I drift off (although it might be his boring tech ramblings).  Plus, if I were upset about something, Brent would catch **** if he decided to just let me cry and not help me through it and feel better.

So, Mitchell and Cameron, I hope you ditch the methods and just respond to little Lily needs, no matter what the time of day or night.