Radio host Jackie O has sparked a public row about parenting, with several high-profile women jumping to condemn or defend her.
Jackie attracted criticism last week when a newspaper columnist complained she had returned to work too soon after giving birth to her daughter Kitty last December.
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New South Wales Families minister Pru Goward escalated the argument on Sunday, blasting Jackie for bottle feeding baby Kitty as she walked across a Sydney street. Goward said Jackie had unnecessarily endangered her baby, and compared the action to Michael Jackson’s infamous “baby dangling” incident.
“We all were horrified when Michael Jackson dangled his baby out the window and this woman is crossing the road not just holding a baby but feeding a baby and I think it was unnecessarily cavalier,” Goward told The Sunday Telegraph.
“There would be no mother, no parent probably, or even a hardened feminist, in the country who would think that was a good way of feeding a baby, particularly a little tiny baby.”
Related: Politician claims Jackie O ‘endangered’ her baby
Goward’s comments have infuriated several high-profile women, who have angrily spoken out in Jackie’s defence. Today host Lisa Wilkinson, newsreader Georgie Gardner, talk show host Kerri-Anne Kennerley and Federal Women’s Minister Kate Ellis all publicly defended Jackie, saying the attacks were too personal.
Jackie said she was “in tears” over the attacks which made her feel like a “second-rate mum”.
Jackie gave birth to Kitty last December and starting working on her radio show from home two months later.
Your say: Do you think Jackie O deserved to be criticised for returning to work two months after her baby was born?
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