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We aren't perfect. We nurse, but
sometimes he has chocolate. |
(How about that blog title? It's like I'm Buzzfeed or something!)
I've always done a lot of things that are apparently considered strange or crunchy, but I haven't given much thought to them. My front yard vegetable garden has been there for almost ten years, and no one's said anything negative about it. My clothes are pretty much always hand-me-downs, and no one's commented that I look homeless. I cut my own hair, and no one says it looks bad. (Maybe my friends are just really polite.)
I also am still nursing my 18-month-old, and no one has said anything to me about it. Well, a couple of family members have reacted with surprise, but not with negativity. Truthfully, I haven't given it much thought. I have no problem nursing my toddler in public sans cover, but it's not meant as activism -- it's just normal.
If you're wondering, I'm still nursing because
- I can
- It's not an inconvenience (anymore), as I work out of my home ...
- the World Health Organization recommends it until at least age two.
- He loves it and
- It's kept him from catching the severe colds that have been rampant this season.
We all know I'm not even close to a perfect mother, but please refer to #1 on the list -- this is something
I can do. I'm not a natural at motherhood, like so many of my friends seem to be, but I got the breastfeeding thing down, I tell you.
It's been almost 18 months now, and I've received nothing but positive comments. Until last week.
It wasn't a really horrible comment, but I found it snarky and way out of line. One of the workers at the wee boy's Mother's Day Out program (where he goes once a week for 4 hours) said that the reason he was having such a hard time with the drop-off was "because you're still breastfeeding." I suspect that she was well-meaning -- or the Pollyanna in me is trying to view it as such -- and I shrugged the comment aside at first. I've been sitting on it for a week, though, and it's only getting more and more upsetting to me.
He's deep in separation anxiety at the moment -- he hates it when I leave the room, much less drop him off somewhere unfamiliar for four hours. I think he'd be that way whether or not I was nursing. It's not like he's never away from me, either, as I have childcare when I'm working.
The comment annoyed me so much that I'm pulling him out of this particular program. I'll talk to the director about it when I calm down, but for now, I just can't take him back there.
What really upsets me, though, is how it
could have affected me (and may have affected others). If I weren't so confident in my decision to continue to nurse, a comment like that from an early childhood educator could really turn me off of breastfeeding, which is, I think, a huge shame.
Enough soapboxing from me. Have a cute baby picture. Yesterday he found his shadow! Chased it up a driveway. It was adorable.