Friday, May 11, 2012

Time...

Time magazine featured a woman breastfeeding her almost four-year-old son this month.  I'm sure I'm not the first, nor will I be the last person to blog about this, but I digress.  Here is my problem.  Not that she is breastfeeding a child who could conceivably prepare his own lunch (hey, my two-year-old can throw together crackers, cheese and grapes if someone opens the child safety lock on the fridge for her), not that she breastfeeds in public (hey, she's had plenty of time to lose the baby weight).  Nope, my problem with the ad is that what she appears to be doing is neither nurturing or loving.  Hand on her hip, I dare you to tell me I can't attitude.  Not holding her child IN ANY WAY.  In fact, the ad and everything she seems to say gives the impression that she made her kid go in the other room and get a stool so he could just help himself.  To say nothing of the creepy "you'll be next" vibe I get from her kid.  I breastfed.  Sometimes I did it in public.  Sometimes I wore leggings.  Occasionally I was even standing up.  But I did it not because the world said I shouldn't.  I did it because I felt that it was the right choice for me and my children.  (Plus, I was too lazy to bottle feed.)  Why on earth if you feel so strongly about breastfeeding would you choose to allow a magazine to turn it into something that looks creepy and odd?  If you really feel you are making the breast...sorry, BEST...choice for your child then why exploit him?  So, long story short (too late) my problem isn't with you breastfeeding your almost four-year-old in public.  My problem is that you make all those other breastfeeding mommies (even the lazy ones) look like crazy voyeurs.  Way to motivate people to your cause.