The producer of the controversial television series “Bringing Up Baby” will speak on parenting and its portrayal in the media to a conference at Cambridge University on Friday.

Daisy Goodwin will also be discussing the motivation behind the Channel 4 show, which explored different approaches to parenting and evoked an outraged reaction from many viewers when it screened earlier this year.

She will be speaking as part of a conference on parenting on Friday, December 14th, which will aim to answer why adults' approach to “parenting” has become such an emotive issue, and why for some it has even raised the prospect of an inter-parental “war” over how to raise children.

Even organiser Charlotte Faircloth, a PhD student at the University, said: “The culture of parenting today seems to be about making ‘choices' which in turn are meant to express your values as a parent.

“The media certainly has a role to play in how these options are perceived and ‘Bringing Up Baby' was a programme which reflected on the relationship between the media and expertise. We hope that it will provide an excellent basis for an informative discussion about how these two factors shape the experience of being a parent today.”

As well as Daisy Goodwin, those attending will have the chance to hear from a panel of academics, journalists and parents about whether there has ever been a “right” way to parent, and why the issue has become such a hot topic in the modern age.

Historian Christina Hardyment will argue that childcare methods have always reflected contemporary social and psychological theories as well as medical knowledge and that parents who are aware of such shifts in social “fashion” might be better able to cope with bringing up babies.

The event will also aim to explore the increased media interest in parenting, which has grown rapidly in the last 10 years. Jennie Bristow, a journalist on parenting issues, will argue that the growing interest in individual parenting practices by mass media and policymakers threatens assumptions about privacy in the home, and the roundtable will discuss some of the ramifications of this.

Dr Ellie Lee, from the Parenting Culture Studies group at the University of Kent, who will also be speaking at the conference, said: “The response to ‘Bringing Up Baby' showed that our culture is encouraging a very insecure attitude to child-rearing.

“Parenting gurus have always said that they know better than each other and they have always given far greater import than is warranted to differences in parenting style. What is new is the polarisation amongst parents themselves, and what is most worrying is the prospect of a war amongst parents about the best ways to bring up kids.”

Bringing up baby: Parenting, expertise and the media will take place at the Centre for Research in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (CRASSH), Cambridge, on Friday December 14th from 10am until 2.30pm. All are welcome to attend. Further details can be found by clicking the link to the right of this page.

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