Dear Babydaddies:
Thank you. Thank you for helping me make my beautiful babies. They are my greatest treasure, and my One True Reason for living.
Thank you for staying out of their lives. I know it sounds crappy to say it like that and I wish I could say it better but I don’t quite know how. You’re out of state and can rarely visit, and I want you to be more than a Disney Daddy to them.
(You know what a Disney Daddy is, right? The guy who shows up, spends the weekend with the kids at an amusement park, completely ignores all of Mommy’s Rules of Behavior and ultimately leaves the kids cranky/nauseous/disoriented and upset when you go back to your life and they’re stuck with the realitysmack.)
Thank you for everything you’re (not) doing.
The way people find my blog never ceases to amaze me. A very few friends have me bookmarked, but the vast majority of people come from google searches - with one glaring exception.
Back in July 2006, indignation rippled through the blogosphere. Pro- and anti-breastfeeding mothers the world ’round spouted their opinion of a baby obviously nursing on the cover of BabyTalk Magazine. Obviously (at least, to me) ANY magazine about babies these days is going to show a little boob.
Wet Feet did a blog entry about it, and I contributed to her listing of “Boobs around the ‘net” - a bunch of moms who ALSO did breastfeeding-positive blog entries in one handy-dandy list. My own contribution is one of the shortest posts I’ve ever done: a photo of my boy milk-drunk and fast asleep, and a link to the brouhaha.
Although I don’t keep an aggregate total of my blogstats, I can say without a doubt that 90% of my non-search engine readers come from that link on Wet Feet. While I’m quite sure that by now the people clicking on that link aren’t interested in The Breastfeeding Boob issue, I’m going to talk about it anyway.
The whole thing highlights one of the more schizophrenic things in American culture. Letters were written to BabyTalk complaining about their children teen boys youth being inappropriately exposed to nudity. Yet these same complaining parents have absolutely no problem with exposure to the soft-core porn that is advertising (and truthfully, the media in general).
Most breastfeeding mothers are EXTREMELY conscious of the amount of skin they’re showing, and make every effort they can to cover up. BUT a trip down the well-trod paths of any shopping mall will reveal larger-than-life posters of photoshopped perfection clad in little more than a string bikini. Why aren’t the anti-nudity police harassing THEM?
I also don’t understand the whole “breastfeeding disgusts me” attitude. Breastmilk tastes a LOT better than formula. Although I haven’t taken a poll of any sort, I’d be more than willing to bet that these same disgusted folks will comment on their filthy (unsanitary) house, their heirloom family recipe that always makes *someone* sick, or how proud they are of their ability to perform … certain sexual acts (and swallow).
To them, I say: You REALLY need to STFU until you know what you’re talking about.
