Okay, let me first say that I am very well aware that there are circumstances in which you cannot raise a child naturally. I am in no way trying to degrade the women in these circumstances. Very often (if not always) they are loving, caring, wonderful parents; something is just preventing them from doing what they might otherwise want to do. I am responding to this particular woman's rather long-winded article against natural parenting.
This quote is more than a little irritating. This woman has just railed against everything I consider to be logical in being a good mother.
This quote is more than a little irritating. This woman has just railed against everything I consider to be logical in being a good mother.
Ever-present is not a good idea, but being with your child and actually taking a large part in his or her life is very important to raising him or her. In fact, I might say that part of being a mother is sacrificing your own life to raise the child (or children) you have brought into this world. That being said, I'm not really sure it seems like sacrifice for the woman who loves her child. If it does, it is a good kind of sacrifice.
Oh. Wait. Sacrifice is bad.
I forgot where I was living for a moment.
The remainder of this quote is plain ridiculous.
Formula feeding should be your absolute last result. Unless you like chemicals then, by all means, formula feed. We wonder where all this hyperactivity is coming from in our children. Would it not be logical to connect their diet to their behavior? No? Is it it too radical to think that processed foods (that are largely made of practically synthetic things) may actually be bad for you?
Early in the shift to hospital birth women were routinely X-rayed to make sure they had a big enough pelvis. Oops, the babies got cancer. Later, women were given a drug to help morning sickenss that caused severe (by my standards) birth defects. Who is to say that in another few years there won't be widely publicized information linking formula to colic and other digestive problems?
Oh, and forget microwaving your formula: it can cause the formula to become toxic. Not fatally so, I assume, but how many toxins are you okay with your baby ingesting? They do label formulas with a warning against nuking them these days, but it took a bit for anyone to admit something was wrong.
It should follow that I am pro breast-feeding. I am a formula baby myself and I'm just fine now, but it is something I would like to avoid if I can with my children. And my reasoning seems logical to me, the same way eating a healthy, natural diet is logical to me.
Disposable diapers is a choice. I'm going to try cloth, because I'd like to minimize my household's waste output.
As for the last bit:
I'm terribly sorry that having children also comes with responsibility. If you'd like to be a completely free person don't have a child. Children are not pets; they are a lifetime commitment. As with any lifetime commitment (such as marriage) there are things that need to be sacrificed, there are compromises to be made, there are responsibilities to adhere to.
This is the line of thinking that leads to the concept of painless child birth.
What is that doing to us and our babies?
~~~
I am a woman.
I was created to be nurturing, loving, and strong.
I'm not imprisoning myself when I choose to raise my child in a healthy way.
Women have been raising children this way for ages, what is wrong with it now?
I am a woman.
And I find it ridiculous that others would unabashedly decline the logic of natural parenting because it's difficult. Life is difficult.
Get over it.
you are invited to follow my new blog
ReplyDeleteThe article cited isn't about natural parenting, it's about attachment parenting. While perhaps slightly related, as the author did mention it, I think you've missed the point of the article.
ReplyDeleteI don't even agree with the writer's opinions, but you shouldn't just pluck the few sentences that offend you the most from the writing and then proceed to give an incorrect assertion of what the the entirety of the piece is about, just so you can then be so victorious and indignant in your response.
-Kathy
I do comprehend the things I read; I switched the words for a reason, not because I misunderstood.
DeleteI suppose I should have read about attachment parenting before substituting the word natural for attachment, but the idea I get from the article - and from people I talk to on a regular basis - is that the two are synonymous.
Do correct me if I'm wrong.
I thought attachment parenting was natural parenting. Are those two words used divergent?
ReplyDeleteHanna
I read the whole article. Did Erica Jong just call me a savage? Sheesh.
ReplyDeleteHanna
Being a housewife and savage living in a "prison" is clearly preferable to distintergrating into such a sad excuse for a mother. She is an empty shell of a woman. I can be proud of the fact my children know that no matter what the world thinks of them, I loved them and love them still and always will. Julie Neumar once was asked what it was like to give up A list actress status to care for her disabled child and if she thought it made her a hero. She responded that she would have less of a woman to do anything else. She said it made her a mother, no more and no less. Erica Jong is less of a mother and less of a woman. She admits far too readily.
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