The Baby Borrowers

The babies won't remember the experience, so it won't hurt them." So goes the justification for NBC's new reality series, "The Baby Borrowers," in which babies and toddlers are sold by their parents to be mishandled by teenagers for days at a time.

What year is this? We now have almost a century of research showing that babies and toddlers are impacted for life by early separations, which, by definition, they don't remember.

During WW2, John Bowlby documented the stages of grieving in babies and toddlers who were temporarily left with unfamiliar care-givers, from initial protest to confusion to despair. These kids were more vulnerable, later in life, to anxiety, panic and mood disorders as well as alcoholism. Neuroscientific research in the past five years has documented the permanent brain changes that result from early separations and other traumas and which underlie these adult mental illnesses.

Producers of this show may justify it by claiming they're teaching birth control, but let's be clear: letting these teens sleep in the same bed night after night hardly gives that message. NBC is after ratings. And the parents of these babies and toddlers? They should be prosecuted.

About the Author

Dr. Laura Markham, the Dear Abby of Parenting, is a clinical psychologist who hosts the popular advice column "Ask Dr. Laura" at the parenting web site YourParentingSolutions.com. The New Dr Laura's positive approach to raising happy, cooperative kids helps parents bypass power struggles using the everyday secret that strengthens the parent-child relationship: limits accompanied by empathy and respect. The Good Dr. answers questions from parents of infants through teens, giving parent-tested solutions you can use every day to connect with your kids and create a richer family life. Her work appears regularly on a dozen parenting sites and in print, and she frequently speaks with groups of parents, both online and in person, about transforming their parenting. Dr. Laura lives in New York with her husband, son and daughter.