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A new approach to child caring

Several Globe readers have complained about the Globe's decision to end the Child Caring column that has appeared in the Thursday Life At Home section.

Mary Beth Miotto, a pediatrician from Northborough, sent this note last week:
It has come to my attention that you have discontinued Barbara Meltz's parenting column from the Boston Globe. I am writing to implore you to reinstate this column.
I am a pediatrician who is also a child advocate in the Bay State. My husband, who is a surgeon, often comments that my patients seem to lose more sleep over parenting issues than over any other issue affecting their children. In this world of transient jobs,family moves across the state and the country, and on-the-go neighbors, some parents have literally NOBODY to turn to for parenting advice. They may seek out their pediatrician's advice, but that is sporadic. Their mothers may now have escaped the snow and be living in FL, and their neighbors are not having a coffee klatch. They are shuttling their kids around to activities or working.
Ms. Meltz's column tackled tough issues for parents - some issues like divorce and interfaith families that one might not even ask a friend about. I can assure you that this column is needed in today's Massachusetts.
Please consider reversing your decision. I know that Ms. Meltz may be asked to write features on occasion, but we are losing a valuable resource if her column is not a reliable part of the paper.

Barbara Meltz's parenting column, which has appeared in the Globe for 17 years, is being dropped as part of the new Thursday Arts & Style section that is set to debut on Thursday, Jan. 12. I received more than a dozen emails (many of them prompted by notices posted by internet websites).

A note from editors that has appeared in the Thursday Life At Home section explains that Meltz will continue to write on parenting and child care issues, but her weekly column will no longer appear on Thursdays.

Stephen Greenlee, the Globe's Living editor, offered this further clarification this week:

Her (Meltz's) column is not being killed. With Life At Home gone, Barbara moves to the Living staff, where she will continue to cover children and parenting. She will continue to write under the "Child Caring" label. She may not appear in the paper every week, because she will focus on the ambitious kinds of stories she has done in the past while probably not doing many of the straight advice columns.
She will, however, continue to chat online with readers, and some of her chats will be excerpted in the Sidekick section.

Barbara has clearly developed a loyal following with her column. It's reassuring that her insights won't disappear completely from the paper or from Boston.com. On Tuesday, I asked her for comment about the development and reaction from readers, and this is what she had to say in an email:

I'm happy to and appreciate the chance to say something, especially after writing the column for 17 (!!) years.
I think that I would say simply that I'm heartened to see the readers' comments, and especially to know that the column made a difference in their parenting lives. I'm sad to no longer be writing it and I wish the decision had been to simply move it from one section to another. But since that isn't what happened, I've been assured that I will still be able to write about some (but not all) of the same issues in a slightly different format.