I hadn't seen the news coverage when I pulled my Time magazine out of my mailbox this morning. I was thus unprepared for the cover picture of a young woman with her breast in her three-year-old's mouth.
The women in my family--my mother, my sister, my daughters and I--all breastfed, usually until our kids were well past babyhood. Some of us had no qualms about discreet breastfeeding in public places. But even for mothers like us, the cover is a a shocker. It's partly the pose. The mother, in skin-tight black, stands with one arm akimbo and the other casually around her son's shoulder. The son stands on a baby chair to reach breast height. Both mother and son stare at the camera. It's hardly a pose to give you a warm fuzzy, which is interesting since the cover story is about attachment parenting.
This isn't the first time that I've been ticked at Time for a misleading, sensationalistic cover. This time the cover image is paired with a question, "Are You Mom Enough?" It sounds like an attempt to start another mommy war, which is the last thing that we need. We need to trust our well-informed, conscientious parents to bring up their children as they see best.
If you're uninformed about attachment parenting, I recommend this overview of AP philosophy and practice. And, yes, there is such a thing as attachment grandparenting.
Do you have an opinion about the cover image, mommy wars or attachment parenting? Leave a comment below.
I agree. The pose is so defiant. The message of loving bond between mother & child is lost.
Anything to sell magazines, I guess. What a shame!
It happened in July, 2006 in a lesser known magazine. Still controversy reigned.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14065706/
Thanks for the reminder, Granny Annie! I had forgotten about this one. It is positively sweet as compared to the Time cover, but people still got terribly upset about it.
Who you love is not my business. How you feed and love your baby is not my business- just feed and love them. Who you vote for president is not my business. So, sorry Time, what that little waif of a mama does with her toddler is not my business either. Nice bait, I’m not biting.
It is a defiant and confrontational pose and certainly does seem to have been done to do nothing but stir things up. I think breast feeding is wonderful but regardless of the age of the child being fed — you don’t need to decide I want to watch. Just be a little discreet.