I think it's really sweet that Time magazine brought this out in time for Mother's Day. Nothing says "hallmark moment" quite like having your seven-year-old say "eee-yeww." I imagine this is the kind of card Volumnia would send to Coriolanus on his birthday; or that Lady Macbeth would give her husband to scare the crap out of him.
There's so much to be said here, I'm not sure where to start. So I'll just dive right in:
1) Bill Sears' wife Martha raised eight--that's right eight--kids using the attachment parenting method. She is also a nurse and co-author of The Baby Book. So how about a little glory for the woman who clearly did more than half the work here to make her husband a "guru"? (Not to mention the work she put in to changing the sheets on what must be one big-ass co-sleeper bed over the years.) I devoured that book like it was a Snickers Bar laced with rum when I was pregnant. It's incredible how Martha gets to have her "say," but only in the sidebars.
2) When is the mainstream media going to stop creating more reasons for women to doubt their parenting skills and goad them into beating up on each other? I know it's a great way to divert our attention away from real issues that affect women and families, but could you please stop? Or could we all get smarter about not taking the bait? Please?
3) If that woman on the cover says one word about how nursing keeps her skinny, I'm going to scream. (See, I took the bait.)
I worry about that kid down the line. Not only is he the guy whose mother breast fed him until he was 5, he was on the cover of Time Magazine demonstrating with his mom exactly how it's done. All any girl interested in him has to do is spend 8 seconds on Google before she gets so creeped out she deletes him from her contact list and posts an image of the cover on her Facebook page. He'll be so heartbroken, he'll go running back to suckle mom (hopefully she'll be home from pilates).
ReplyDeleteI like Seth Meyers joke from last weekend's SNL: If Time really wanted to be provocative with their cover, they should've photoshopped out the chair he was standing on.
Oh, I will be here to read! And I am compelled to comment! :) Love the pics...
ReplyDeleteI find it interesting that discussions of breastfeeding never seem to touch on just how odd it is that some human populations, a worldwide minority, can continue to consume milk after they have been weaned.
ReplyDeleteThe phenomenon of lactose intolerance, or lactase deficiency, is treated as if it were an illness, as the names suggest, yet it is the normal condition of all mammals, including humans.
In some countries, 90% of the population cannot consume products containing lactose. Mutations that allow children and adults to consume milk have occurred in several parts of the world, but they are not the human norm.
Medical websites offer "treatment" for this condition, even a cure. The NIH website offers an answer to the question, "Who is at risk for lactose intolerance?"
Not offered is the simple statistical point -- the great majority of African Americans and almost all Amerindians.
How many Americans know this? How many African Americans have been routinely warned to watch for the signs? Who would think twice about offering a guest canned soup, or potato chips, or processed meats, such as bacon and sausages?