It's been over a year since I've managed to write anything here. This morning as I woke up around four am because I was worrying about something at work that is entirely out of my control (as I am oft to do), I followed some of the coverage of the Time magazine cover of a mother with her breast in the mouth of her three-year-old son. Is he actually feeding? Is she neurotic for breastfeeding a three-year-old? I have no idea. More importantly, I don't CARE.
People are up in arms - all camps (e.g. "eww, gross vs. totally natural", "Dr. Sears is nut vs. Dr. Sears is a hero", "Boy will be messed up vs. Boy will be well-adjusted"). It's not that I don't fall into some of these camps, it's just that it's irrelevant to most other people. I can only speak for myself but I think it's hard enough just getting through the day, trying the best I can, within the confines of who I am and who my child is. I can figure out what good parenting is or isn't without some editorial team telling me. "Are you mom enough?" You bet, Time. Mom enough to shout, I'm NOT BUYING.
Turns out, Time is just causing a stir to get us to buy magazines. However, something more insidious is afoot. The media is fueling a much more hostile tenor in our cultural dialogue and forcing people into extreme camps. Enough already. It's bad enough that we do this with political discourse, but for heaven's sake parenting is hard enough what without all this chatter.
This Mother's Day, my gift to all mothers everywhere it to tell Time et. al. to "Drink a Nice Warm Cup of Shut the Hell Up!" Join me. Don't buy the magazine. When someone asks you your opinion say, "All parents love their children and do the best they can as they believe it to be." Then, practice your greatest mom skill, the well-developed raised eyebrow look of death that says, "Don't even think about it..."
