Tag: motherhood

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Are You Mom Enough? – A Parenting Moment

 By now everyone has seen the cover of  Time’s Magazine May 21st edition showing a woman breastfeeding her soon to be 4-year-old son.  (If  you missed it, click here.)  If the picture doesn’t get your attention, the headline, “Are You Mom Enough?” will certainly get the conversation started.

Here are my two cents.  I breastfed both of my daughters until they were six months old.  I understand the benefits of breastfeeding and enjoyed that time bonding with my babies.  I encourage other mothers to do the same.

In my opinion, continuing to breastfeed a child past a year is taking a good thing too far.  If breastfeeding is a means to supply nutrients or food to your child, what is the benefit of continuing to do so when that child is eating solid food?

My rule of thumb is as follows:  If a child can drink from a cup, eat solid food and has a mouth full of teeth, they don’t need to be sucking on anything.  That includes a breast.

What are your thoughts?  Moms, did you breastfeed?  Did the Times Magazine cover go too far?

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A Night of Firsts – A Parenting Moment

When you become a parent, you find yourself celebrating a lot of firsts.  First tooth, first word, first steps and the first day of school.  We try to prepare our children for the firsts in life.  Maybe we should focus on preparing ourselves as well.

Two major firsts took place in our family this weekend.  Princess had her first date which coincided with her first prom.  Good times!

Lost in the excitement of finding the perfect shoes and getting a mother-daughter mani and pedi was the fact that this was a first for me too.  My baby is careening toward adulthood at an alarming pace.

After all the pictures had been taken on Saturday, I stood there and watched my daughter.  The little chubby cheeked toddler has grown into a beautiful young lady.  I hugged her and told her to have fun.  I released Princess to  her date.  She smiled and waved.  Then she was gone to experience a new adventure.

I was left with conflicting emotions.  A part of me was happy that my daughter reached this milestone even as the mother in me mourned the little girl who only lives on now in memories and old photographs.

Yes, parenting is a moment of firsts.  I’ll continue to help prepare my kids.  And take lots of pictures.

Which parenting “firsts” have you recently gone through?

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Fake Mommy Wars: What We Moms REALLY Want

Here is a follow up to my post earlier today about the “mommy wars” from the website, My Brown Baby.  This is the quote that resonated with me:

 But are we women really this politically naïve that we’d toss our valuable vote into the ring of a man who neither understands nor gives two crap-filled diapers about what mothers want? What mothers need? Are we really so politically stupid that we’d let this man, his rich wife and their equally rich-and-out-of-touch cronies distract us from the real issues while we bicker and get all emo over who works harder—women who work solely in the home vs. women who hold down full-time jobs outside the home? When, exactly, do we mothers come together and demand politicians—whether Republican or Democrat, rich or poor, black or white—get down to the real issues that affect us mothers? When do we stop arguing over stupid s**** and start exercising our political might to affect real change?

via Millionaire Ann Romney and the Fake Mommy Wars: What We Moms REALLY Want.

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The “Mommy Wars” Don’t Exist

Do we really need this?

By now everyone has heard about Hillary Rosen and the statement she made to Anderson Cooper on his talk show.  As a reminder, here is what she said,

“What you have is Mitt Romney running around the country saying: ‘Well, you know, my wife tells me that what women really care about are economic issues. And when I listen to my wife, that’s what I’m hearing.  Guess what?  His wife has actually never worked a day in her life.”

And everyone lost their minds.  It didn’t seem to matter that Hillary was talking about Mitt Romney’s economic policies.  No, what people heard was an attack on stay-at-home moms.  Please, stop.

By making this non issue a major news worthy debate, Republican politicans are pulling the old divide and conquer routine.  I believe there is no such thing as the “mommy wars” and here’s why.  Some mothers work outside of the home.  Some work at home.  Whether that decision is make by choice or circumstance, all mothers want the same thing.  We want our families to be safe.  We want access to quality health care (including reproductive health care) and good schools.  We want safe neighborhoods.  And while women are not some monolithic interest group, all mothers make decisions every day that they feel benefit their children.  I don’t think our beef is with each other.

 

There is no such thing as the “mommy wars”.  But there is a war on women.  It seems as if some men in this country want to roll back the clock.  Why are they questioning a woman’s right to affordable health care including contraception, abortion and equal pay for the same job?  Why are issues that were decided years ago in some cases up for debate?  We, as women, need to stay focused on that.