Friday, May 11, 2012

7 Quick Takes Friday: #3!


--- 1 ---

Today was the last day of Paul's first year of law school!  We survived!  That means that over the course of the five and a half years we've been married, he's been a graduate student for four of them.  Four years down, two years to go.  When I think that when the new baby is Mae's age he will have graduated (God-willing!) the amount of time remaining doesn't seem too horribly long!  And with the crazy intensity that is law school, I imagine those two years will pass nearly as quickly as this last year has!



--- 2 ---

The end of the year has thrown me into a cleaning/organizing frenzy that must be completed by midway through next week.  Today I hung a couple paintings (Finally the Last Supper is on the wall!  We had bought new hanging equipment because what had worked in California wasn't working here, and I finally got around to installing it today!), put together a book shelf (I'm thankful that my birthday present was a drill, because it's so much quicker than using a screw driver like I did for all the other shelves!), and then moved around all the other book shelves so that the shelves we bought from a graduating 3L and his wife would fit in our bedroom.  The new shelves are going to make getting organized so much easier (every time I say that Paul makes a face that says he doesn't believe me).



--- 3 ---

Did you see all the hoopla yesterday over the Time Magazine breastfeeding cover?  The thing that annoyed me about it was that the photo seemed designed to stir controversy rather than to attempt to create an actual meaningful dialogue about extended breastfeeding.  On the other hand the thing that disgusted me about the entire situation were the comments I read in various comboxes that condemned breastfeeding past ______-number of months (with blank being usually less than 12).  Of course the contrived pose, eye contact, and the selection of a three year old who, like my three year old, looks quite a bit older than his actual age, was like gasoline on the fire of the reaction that would have resulted simply because of the topic.

I do wish they'd opted for something a bit (or a ton) more natural, while perhaps also not acting as if motherhood is an extreme sport/cult.  Something that might have helped the people who are already freaked out about breastfeeding understand the benefits, so that they might be a teensy bit less likely to harass some poor mother who's decided to go past 12 months (or 24 months!).  And of course, more than that (much, much more!) I wish people who have major issues with breastfeeding would realize that the issues are theirs, not the babies... and that breasts are actually made for producing milk.  Babies can't help if our hyper sexualized culture has turned something perfectly natural (throughout history and worldwide most babies have been nursed for much longer than 12 months) and highly beneficial into something that a good portion of the population thinks is perverse.



--- 4 ---

I've also really started to notice that it seems like moms of little boys get way more flak for extended nursing than moms of little girls (in my personal experience).  I nursed both of my rather giant girls until 21 months (when they were wearing 3T outfits) and no one ever said a word (we likely would have gone longer but alas, my milk has always been gone by mid first trimester...).  I know women who've nursed boys and begun getting rude comments at a much younger age, with much smaller babies.  I think this goes back to the hang-up mentioned in paragraph two of the Quick Take 3, sadly...



--- 5 ---

I told Sadie that when we finished cleaning and organizing in a few days we'd leave for California.  Later, after working for a few hours I paused and announced that I was tired.  She looked at me and said it the sweetest voice:  "It's okay Mommy.  You can still work when you're a little bit tired."  Yeah. She's ready to pack up and go.


--- 6 ---

Mae Bae loves accessories.  Sunglasses, shoes, helmets and purses are all things that she obsesses over. Sometimes she throws her lifejacket into the mix and wears it with her helmet around the house.  I can't wait to see what combination she comes up with next.



--- 7 ---

Is anyone else more than a bit tired of facebook this week?  If I read one more status update that includes the words "Obama," "North Carolina" or just Catholics bashing Church teachings while clearly revealing their own ignorance about what is actually taught I might need to take a facebook break.  Or at least a break from my facebook homepage.  Maybe I'll just keep the blog facebook page up and refresh it.  I'm getting tired of hiding insulting updates by people who feel like sounding off, but don't actually know what they're talking about (today I read about how someone was rejecting the Church teaching and thus rejecting hate...).  I guess ignorance (of what the Church actually teaches) is bliss in their eyes... or at least a hearty dose of self righteousness... I'm used to disagreeing with people, I'm used to the Church being slammed, but for some reason it really bothers me when it's slammed by people who are Catholic...  

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

8 comments:

  1. I've nursed all my children past age 3 and I've never gotten flack about nursing any of them, and I've continued to nurse in public up to age 2 1/2-3 and no one's ever said anything. I don't even use a nursing cover, and I still haven't gotten any comments. Granted, none of my kids looked significantly older than they are. My oldest was always big for her age, but she was also bald and didn't have much hair...which made her look younger and more babyish. My 2nd and 3rd are on the smaller side.

    I saw that Time cover. That was just ridiculous, they purposely staged the photo so this 3-yo boy looked at least 5-6..total sensationalism.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think, from what I've gathered from people who've been hassled, is that is usually comes from family members or people very close to you that think it's gross/weird/whatever... we never got that because it was the norm for me growing up too.

    ReplyDelete
  3. WRT #7, I am so with you there! Actually, before we joined our current parish and put our kids in the school, our oldest attended public school in Kindergarten. My husband and I figured it would be way less confusing for our kids to be at public school and learn and live their faith with their family than it would be to go to a Catholic school where teachers and administrators openly dissented from the Church. Thank God we found our current and orthodox school...my kids get heavy doses of authentic Catholicism at home and at school. :)

    I was only ever able t breastfeed one of my babies...but I'm very supportive of breastfeeding. Clearly TIME wanted to shock, so they went for that...it's too bad we can't just have an intelligent conversation about extended breastfeeding on an even playing field (i.e., without trying to poke fun or embarrass one side)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Finally, at least this post is coming through. I left you a message basically saying anything I click on of yours isn't working.

    As for the extended nursing with boys....no comments so far, but I'm also closeted about it when it comes to acquaintances and not so close friends. I already feel like I attract enough attention without getting into it with people who clearly only want to start a fight.

    And I agree that the Times went overboard with the cover. I'm guessing the mother isn't very tall but her son is (or they doctored it to appear that way) so people just looking at the cover couldn't tell if the photo was faked or the child was much older.

    http://lightbox.time.com/2012/05/10/parenting/#2 This picture would have been better or

    http://lightbox.time.com/2012/05/10/parenting/#5

    Where you can't even really tell what the boy's age is.

    My personal fave is the tandem one, but that's because of the crunchiness of the cloth diaper have dressed baby and it reminds me of my family.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Your blog is still redirecting to some other site for me...but if I click the "stop" button right after your page loads it stays on your site. I've never seen that happen before! You might send a note to blogger and see what's up, as it's definitely not something you did (probably not something you can fix either!).

    #7 - oh I know how you feel. I got rid of Facebook awhile ago, and have never looked back. I'm on sort of a mission to get others off Facebook too...then this week I learned my mom and sister had to create profiles (my mom is a sub delegate for our state and that's how the group communicates....and my sister "needed" one for a class she's taking, guess the prof requires it. GA!). Facebook is eeeeevil...they steal and mine your information, and anything you post up there they can take and use as they see fit. Anyway I could go on and on...but yeah I know how you feel!

    ReplyDelete
  6. What amuses me most, I think, is that you're hanging pictures and assembling bookshelves--and you're moving out soon!
    As far as the magazine cover goes, yes, I think Time deliberately staged it for sensationalism and debate, and I think it actually does a disservice to nursing moms everywhere. They deliberately chose a child who looks much older than he actually is (perhaps, like one of my son's friends, he simply gets it from his father, a big man), and deliberately posed her in a way that hints sexy more than maternal. I'm all for nursing, BUT by that age, it should be a private affair, and Time has chosen to misrepresent it, so no, I don't like the magazine cover at all.

    ReplyDelete
  7. LOL! It would be crazy if I were hanging pictures and moving permanently!

    We're only going back to California for two months and then we'll be back here, so it's more of a late spring cleaning so everything's nice and neat when we arrive back in Florida at the start of the third trimester! Early nesting!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Ooohh! NOW I get it! Okay, I'm sorry I thought you were crazy, lol.

    ReplyDelete

I love comments and I read every single comment that comes in (and I try to respond when the little ones aren't distracting me to the point that it's impossible!). Please show kindness to each other and our family in the comment box. After all, we're all real people on the other side of the screen!