But I digress.
So unless you've been living under a rock, you've seen the cover with Jamie Lynne Grumet on the cover of Time magazine, looking utterly beautiful and at ease breastfeeding her three year old son, Aram.
And controversy has ensued, as the folks at Time hoped it would. Why not? It it has opened a dialogue about breastfeeding and normalized it for those people that can't seem to get it through their thick skulls that breasts are first and foremost for sustaining, feeding and nourishing a child.
In case you missed that last bit, I will state it again: the female's biological reason for having breasts is to feed and nourish a child.
All the other stuff - sensation and sex, fashion and flaunting are just a great side benefit to the beautiful and multi-functional breast.
I breastfed both of my girls. Would I have done so until they were old enough to walk up to me, lift my top and attend to me like I was a walking, talking dairy bar? Not likely. But - I will loudly defend a woman's right to do so. Why? because there is nothing sexual about it (see point above). There is a significant amount of scientific research touting both the physiological and nutritional benefits of it.
And if a woman doesn't, or can't, breastfeed - that's ok too. There's no extra gold star.
The more disturbing issue here is yet another label for mothers (and parents) to adhere to. Really, do we need to define and have a set of dogma to strictly adhere to such as "attachment parenting?" Putting my baby in the bjorn or a sling wasn't really "attachment parenting" in my mind, it was convenient, kept her close and allowed me to wander freely at the lake or shopping. When my girls are sick, and my husband or I sleep in their beds or beside them on the floor, are we practicing "attachment parenting?" No. It's just common sense; taking extra pre-cautions to ensure they don't choke on their vomit in the middle of the night.
We have made parenting into a competition of sorts where the rules keep changing. And it doing so, "Mom Bashing" has become the norm as we snidely take in Jamie Lynne Grumet's beautiful face and judge her. She's too beautiful, too thin, too at ease ("why", sniffed one comment on the 'net "does she look so rested?")
Side note: I'll tell you one thing: the reason she is so thin is that breastfeeding burns an extra 500 calories on average per day. No treadmill or weights, just whip out the boob and call it a day.
Of course, the Time photo is meant to incite a response. The photo is taken to deliberately provoke. The fact that Aram is standing on a chair makes him seem older and obviously taller. But in reality he is only three.
Why do we care so much what other women do? Children need to be cared for, attended to, kept safe from predators (albeit rare) in our world, loved, hugged, kissed and told they are amazing little people. Whether or not a woman breastfeeds three months or three years need not be a concern. To me, it's just a choice.
