"If You're old enough to ask for it, you're too old to have it"

I agree with this ... don't care where you do it or for how long, but my initial thought was that this kid is going to grow up to be the biggest pussy. And I think Brad McGuire and I have a few friends in common. I'm at the age where people are starting to have kids, making my facebook news feed fucking unbearable.

 

Of course two years ago Time had a different story: Breast-pumping on rise as moms choose not to breast-feed.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1975328,00.html

Trend stories: Our greatest national treasure.

 

This week: Trend Stories - An inexhaustible resource!

Next Week: Is the so-called "Trend Story" in trouble?

 

As an Indian sportswriter, I would have been proud to see our man Sachin on the cover.

 

You'll forgive my curtness, but the I Am Mother And Thus Know All Answers movement frightfully chaps my hide, and leads to some horrible "science." Don't start down this path. I beg you.

 

Not sure what you mean about the science, which is fairly cut-and-dry, but yeah I'll forgive your curtness if you'll forgive mine. I've breastfed 2 kids for a total of 3+ years. I've sacrificed. I made it through the tough early days, the judgmental looks and the competitive bullshit. I haven't had cheese or chocolate or alcohol in close to 2 years. And when this is all behind me in a few weeks....

Mommy gonna celebrate with a bottle of tequila.

 

The next logical step:

 

Lugz, if I can say one thing about you based on nothing more than what I've seen you share here over the last few years, it's that I'm 1000 percent confident you're a great mom. Do whatever works for your kids, and shrug your shoulders at people's condescending judgement.

I shake my head at all the quips about how this kid is going to be a huge pussy, and mommy-dependent into his late teens, and he'll have mommy issues with women for years. I know so many hard-as-nails tough guys who are colossal failures in life. Guys in miserable marriages because they don't respect their spouses and can't communicate with them, guys who hate their mothers and blame them for all their problems.

There's no exact formula or science to parenting. In fact, some studies suggest that almost all of it is out of parental control beyond simply keeping the kid alive. I was a pretty sensitive kid growing up, certainly closer to my mom than my dad. And yet I was good at sports and had lots of friends. Instead of picking on weaker kids, I was one of the few jocks in high school who stood up for them. Some of that "softness" in me probably made me the writer I am. You never know what's going to shape you.

 

Great post. Thanks, DD.

 

What Lugs has described is really not the crux of the issue on this whole breastfeeding thing, though. She is still providing nutrition to her child -- even moreso because of the allergies, but there's nutritional value to any 2-year-old.

What we're talking about is kids beyond 3 years old, up to 5 -- and if you read the cover mom's interview, she says she herself nursed until she was 6 -- and the nutritional value there is insignificant. So it's purely about the emotional bond, and I question (based on my firsthand interaction with "attachment theory" moms and their kids) that part of it. Really I don't even think it says as much negative about the kid's future as it does the mom's; they tend to have issues separating and re-starting their "other lives" when the kids are at an age where they're more independent.

 

You're condescending and judgmental. But I think you have a point about the attachment issue and its root.

 

30 years ago, this would pass for porn.