Need to cite someone””a friend, a celebrity, yourself””for questionable mothering? Feel free to post pictures, videos or stories here.
Today’s ticket goes out to TIME magazine for a magazine cover designed to make moms argue with each other.
Look, we all have different opinions about breastfeeding. Most of us agree it’s the healthiest way to feed infants, because, well, that’s what years and years of medical research have demonstrated. Nursing doesn’t work out for everyone, though–sometimes for medical reasons, sometimes because of lack of information and support, sometimes because of work logistics, sometimes just because. Formula is not rat poison.
Whether we’re walking around in T-shirts that say, “got milk?” or have Similac coupons spilling out of our diaper bags, most of us moms have figured out how to be nice to each other–maybe even love and respect each other. Because there’s more to us than this one parenting choice, right?? Right!
This is where TIME gets a citation from us for deliberate sensationalism.
Sticking a photo of a hot blonde mama with a very grown-up-looking child latched on to her boob–sorry, this is not what extended breastfeeding typically looks like–is a very desperate, obvious, “Please! Buy this issue!” move, and the end result is a lot of mothers re-hashing that decades-old debate about the “attachment parenting movement.” (As if it’s a cult. And not just a collection of decisions that many of us pick and choose from.) The amount of acrimony going on in social media and in our own kitchens is just staggering.
As mothers, we have so much to deal with. A little support within the sisterhood would be a good thing.
Jorie is the “Vitamom” who edits Momonomics.com. She has three kids, ages 18 months to 9 years. She wishes Ella’s Kitchen Organic Baby Food had been around when the older two were little.