Saturday, January 28, 2012

A Hodge Podge of Sorts

Lately I haven't been posting as often as I should be simply because I have too much I would like to talk about and so I finally decided to just do a mixed up post about a few of the subjects on my mind.

Firstly I would like to talk about Gender.
I recently was watching Anderson Cooper and his show was on gender and the "Princessification" of today's young girls. The author of a new book "Cinderella Ate My Daughter." I am going to read this book before I promote it too much but from what I can already tell it looks awesome. Another topic was the "Toddlers and Tiaras" show. I am sorry but that show makes me sick. I can't get over the idea that these mothers think any good is going to come form this.. because at the best their daughters will have an overdeveloped sense of competition and what the world owes them simply because they are pretty... at worst it will teach them to sell their bodies for money.



My next topic is Bento Lunches. I am going to try to make February 'Bento Month'. I think these cute simple lunches that came from Japan are a cute and great way to teach portion control, and healthy eating. I am going to start taking pics of adventures in this and add posts on here.  Today we will try to copy this one.




My next topic is back to basics a bit but it is on Cloth Diapers. Cloth diapers are often trial and error and so if you have friends who have been using them for 2, 3, even 4 or more years... chances are they have a lot of ideas of what works, what doesn't because they have tried a lot of brands, they have tried a lot of different types too. Some people just will buy 20-30 Bumgenius and that is that but not many people I know operated that way. you try prefolds, pockets, all in ones, make some yourself, try ebay, try high end, try middle of the road... and in the end after at least 2 years you can look back and say "I recommend this diaper". Now every kid is different and no one brand works best for all but people who snub a certain brand because it is not "Name brand" is just silly. I just will say this, look to your friends who have more experience and save yourself some grief when someone says "Hey this brand is as good or better than the 20$ name brand diapers and it only costs 7$... listen to them. Now speaking as The Green Mommy and a 2+ yr cloth veteran.... save yourself some money and go with Alvababy. They are the cutest and most absorbent and best fitting diapers I have tried and I have tried a ton of brands... and yes they are better then the 20$ name brand diapers.

Lastly I will wrap up with a little unrelated side note. I decided the other day that I was going to be a bit wild (recapture lost youth lol) and so i put green streaks in my hair. So here you go.. The Green Mommy now is literally green.
So that is my little rant for the day... Be well and stay Green.

Sunday, January 22, 2012

On The Lighter Side: Latest Green Mommy Projects

So on a lighter note. I would like to share some of my latest projects. Some were orders for customers but most were just crafty fun. i will post individual posts on some of the more detailed projects but for now here is an overview.

  First off is I made essential lavender oil from olive oil and fresh lavender. This was of course from my organically homegrown lavender which the starter plant was purchased from the Farmer's Market this fall.

Next is baby ties. I have started making these to sell. This was the first order I did. The cloth was purchased locally from a small mom and pop store that I love. 

Next up is an Angry Birds hat I made for a customer. I think it turned out pretty cute.

Next is fun jumbo crayons that I made for Bug, out of recycled broken crayons.

Next is some indoor quick compost I made since right now my compost bin is frozen so I have to wait until spring to make use of the warm rich soil coming out of the bottom of the bin. This was coffee grounds and crushed up egg shells.

Next is a crocheted lightsaber I made for my Hubby for his birthday. As all my plush products are this is stuffed with recycled grocery bags.

And of course we recently made up a batch of organic squash muffins. :)

So there you have it... what is new in the Green Mommy House.

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Bullying and Homeschooling: A Mother's Fear

So a topic came up again last night that I hold close to my heart because it is the one thing my husband never has agreed with me on. Homeschooling. Now I, like a lot of mothers do not want to home school for religious reasons, or to teach creationism instead of evolution, or even so he/she will get a better education, though that does factor into it. It is for bullying.
The stories I am about to share with you are real. They happened to me. This is what the school systems we grew up in allowed to happen to children. They are not all high school either. Many are elementary school. Bullying is very real, and not a new thing. But in my school it wasn't just the students who bullied or damaged kids, it was teachers, principals, and bus drivers. Here is why I want to home school.
When I was in kindergarten the behaviorally challenged children had not yet been weeded out, nor had the MR children. Which seems fine because they should have the right to the same education we get and should not be excluded or sequestered. Until you factor in strength, size and behavior. Most of these children were not 5 or 6 (or 4 like I was in Kindergarten) they were 7, 8, 9 even 10 yrs old. I don't know if they are separated before kindergarten now but that is my hope. One day I mistakenly took a crayon another girl was using and she grabbed a sharpened pencil and stabbed me in the eye. It missed my eyeball but just slightly. If that wasn't bad enough I was beat up several times by a much older MR child who thought it was funny to make me cry. I hated school almost from day one. The worst thing I think though was the day the bus driver FORGOT TO TAKE ME HOME. He drove right past my house and finished his route and drove us back to the school. I was 4 so I was too scared to question an adult and finally just started crying. He seemed shocked to see a kid still on his bus. What kind of driver doesn't check before heading back to school? So my mom was pretty frantic by then and had already called the school. She was waiting for me when we got to the school. So that was kindergarten.
From 1st grade to about 4th I had a few horrible experiences. I was stalked for a year by a boy who wanted to "marry me". He followed me home, tried to touch me, would buy me gifts, flowers, chocolate. Now I know some of you are going awwwww. As an adult I would probably think the same thing. Except that I was 8 yrs old, had made it clear I wasn't interested and was terrified of this boy. This was not a few days or weeks. This went on from Oct of 3rd grade until the first day of 4th grade. He stalked me. I even had my best friend's big brother "talk to him" and that didn't even deter him. I would like you ladies now to imagine the most pushy guy you ever met at a bar. Now imagine that you see him everyday at work. That he fondles you everyday at work, that you get flowers, and candy. You step out of your house.. and guess who is there. Now imagine if the cops (for me it was teachers and my parents) thought he was just adorable and told you to be nice to the man. Now does it look a little less innocent? All through elementary school I had girls pulling my hair, stealing my shoes, pushing me down into rocks on the playground. I had boys looking up my skirts, telling me I was so pretty that I should let them kiss me, even in 4th grade I was asked by a boy to give him a "BJ". I didn't know what a BJ was so I went home and asked my mom and got a most awkward lesson on fellatio. I barely knew what sex was and now I knew about THAT.
From 5th grade to 8th grade.. my parents didn't help my awkward school life. They didn't believe in using toothpaste or deodorant. We used baking soda for both. I also was not allowed to start shaving my legs. So I was the hairy smelly brown toothed girl... mmmm that's an image huh? In middle school our teachers got crazier too. In 6th grade I had any creativity or spirit crushed out of me. My 6th grade science teacher used to flip out and throw chairs at kids. My 6th grade social studies teacher taught us nothing that was true. I have since learned that everything we learned in 6th grade history was lies. My 6th grade english teacher ripped me out of the accelerated science program for gifted students because she felt it was distracting me from her dumb class. (something I still want to yell at her for). My 6th grade reading teacher had pet mice with TUMOURS. So we watched them die slowly over the course of the year... pretty damaging. In 7th grade I finally had a few teachers who made me love school. I just loved their classes. I even by then had started buying my own bath products and hiding them.. so things started to get better for me in school. By 8th grade I had friends, I wasn't smelly, I was doing a lot better. But the 8th grade teachers were as soul crushing as the 6th grade ones. My English teacher was a drunk. She would literally stand on chairs screaming crazy things like "girls if a boy says saran wrap works let me tell you IT DOESN'T" (yeah I had NO CLUE what that meant then) she always had a bottle of booze on her desk and she talked to a ghost in her classroom named Bridget.
Then came high school. The worst thing I think that happened while I was still at my hometown school was our 9th grade grade social teacher was a perve. He would look under girls skirts and down their blouses. It made us all very uncomfortable. However when I moved to the next distract over I had some serious stuff happen to me. There was a rumor at that school that any girls from my old school were lesbians. So I was immediately labeled as such and so if I was a lesbian then it was ok to try to touch me, fondle me, try to force me to kiss my best friend after school. It was ok to throw things down my shirt, it was ok to stroke my hair, and it was ok to dry hump me in the art room. I started fighting back. I mean literally beating the crud out of these guys. I was a big girl by then 5'7" and about 140 lbs I left them laying on the ground crying. But then a guy came around I couldn't fight he was easily 6 ft or taller and weighed probably 200-250 then. He was popular, on the hockey team and he wanted me to date him. I said no. I don't think anyone had ever done that before. He hated me from then on. He started dating a friend of mine and I didn't like the way he treated her, very controlling and abusive. So I tried to get her to dump him. So he started threatening my life, telling me he was going to snap my neck, telling me he would rape me, scratching curse words into my locker, rubbing dog poo on my locker. I changed lockers 3 times. I told teachers.. no one would do anything. I talked to the principle, she wouldn't do anything. Finally the last straw was on the bus he came up sat next to me put his hands around my throat and said "this quick.. I could kill you this quick and no one would ever know". I told my father who called the school and told the principal that if something wasn't done he would have her fired. The next day we both were pulled into her office. She sat us down and asked him how the hockey team was going and told him he needed to stop because she didn't want a fine boy like him getting into trouble. Then she sent him to his next class. She then turned to me and told me that if she ever received another phone call from my father I would be expelled because I was a troublemaker.
Education wise high school was horrible too because the school moved at the speed of "no child left behind", which ended up resulting in my Junior and Senior years, I basically made up my own curriculum and would check in with the teachers and we would sit and talk about what I was working on. It took my senior english class almost a whole semester to read Animal Farm, a book I read on my own at 12, and happily reread the first night it was assigned. When I told my teacher that I read the book the night we got it he told me to tell him what I thought of it. After a lengthy discussion about the cold war, the Russian revolution and communism, he told me.. well that was all they will be doing the rest of the year and you did it in one night. Write a 5 page paper on the book and turn it in. I turned in a 24 page paper and spent the rest of the year doing creative writing on my own. The rest of my teachers basically treated me the same way. At least I can say in defense of that school, the teachers were great, it was the curriculum that was horrible. The day I finally graduated school I breathed a sigh of relief because the horrible pain I had endured for 13 years was over.
Now this is far from all my tales of school woe. This was just most of the worst ones. So what does this have to do with homeschooling? Well I grew up around home schooled kids and they were the smartest most well adjusted kids I knew. They always were way ahead in education and they were the kids who had no trouble making friends, who always were polite and sweet. Homeschooling has really only one drawback which is no socialization.. which can be easily remedied by sports, clubs, play groups, or co -op schools. I still have hope that we either have moved away by the time our son goes to school or that I can convince my husband homeschooling is good.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

A Breastfeeding Picture Worth 1000 Words

A while ago a fellow BFing Mom posted a picture that I found so inspiring that I told her I would like to post that in my blog. However I never did... I got distracted with posts about jam making and farmer's markets. Yet here I am back at January and again BFing is under attack from everywhere and from all angles. So I would like to just let you all see this picture because to me it speaks for itself. I really could gush for hours about everything I find wonderful and beautiful about this picture but like the title this is worth a thousand words. Enjoy.


Monday, January 16, 2012

Top 10 Kids Movies With a Green Theme

So a few days ago my husband and I were discussing movies made for kids but with a green theme or a peace theme, and it made me realize that I so often write about what we as parents can do but not what we can let our kids do. There are many kids movies out there with really deep great themes and adding them to your households movie collection is a great thing you can do with our kids. So i decided to make a list of the top 10 movies I feel are just wonderful. They are not in any order of importance though.. all ten are great in their own way.

10. Happy Feet
This movie came out in 2006 and was a Warner Bros. production. The main story is about a little penguin who feels out of place since everyone has a song but he has a dance. So right there you already have themes about acceptance, and being different. However the green bit comes in later. Humans are over fishing where the penguins live and the famine is blamed on the main character Mumble because he is different. He sets off to find the real cause of the famine. He ends up being brought to a zoo where he dances and dances frantically to get the attention of his human captors. He is released into the wild with a tracking device on him. The humans are lead back to the penguins home and when they get there the whole flock of penguins is dancing. The humans film it and broadcast the footage worldwide. The government bans fishing in Antarctica. I loved this movie when I saw it the first time. I cried tears of joy at the ending.

9. The Iron Giant
This is a film that came out in 1999 and was also a Warner Bros. production.  While the story is not directly about being Green, it is about peace and stopping war which is a really important theme to teach children. The Iron Giant is a war machine. Where he came form is not known.. but I always believed he was from outer space. However his builders built him too well and instead gave him a soul. He befriends a small boy who teaches him that "No good soul dies", that "he is not a gun", and that he can be a hero "like Superman". It is set in the middle of the cold war when everyone in America had itchy trigger fingers. The villain of the piece is a corrupt FBI agent who talks the army into invading a small town in Maine and hunting down the robot. The robot thinks the army men kill the young boy so he goes a bit parental and tries to blow them up. The boy recovers in time to stop him but not before the corrupt agent tells  the missile commanders to fire on the robot who is standing in the center of town. The army men and the townspeople all realize they have mere minutes to live. The agent tries to escape but the army general stops him and tells him he can die like a good soldier. The Iron Giant quickly realizes what is happening, tells the boy to stay and not follow him and then flies up into space to stop the missile. The last thing he says before the bomb explodes is "Superman". I am tearing up just typing it, because I defy anyone to not cry during that movie. It is so richly written and has such a deep message that no matter how many times I see it I still cry.

8. Fern Gully
Fern Gully came out in 1992. I am not sure who produced it. This was a movie with strong environmental themes. A young man working for a demolition crew cutting down the rain-forest  gets shrunk to the size of tiny fairies who live in the rain-forest. He has to help them fight off a dark spirit that is helping the deforestation and destruction of the once great rain forest. He learns about their way of life and about the ecosystems within the canopy. One of the main characters is a bat who has been experimented on by humans in a lab and is a bit messed up because of it. So that clearly is teaching children about the dangers of lab testing on animals. The young man, Zak, helps to stop the evil spirit and the deforestation and the fairies can live in peace again. As a child I loved this movie. It isn't the best movie ever written but it has a strong core message.

7. Wall-E
Wall-E came out in 2008. It was produced by Disney Pixar. This movie is set in the future after a time when humans polluted the planet  so badly that the survivors had to move out into space. They are told that they can return when scouter droids find any signs of life on Earth again. However the ship they have lived on for generations has been keeping them passive and dumb. They have reverted to large baby like blobs. In just a few generations the humans left float around on computerized hover chairs, they never walk or move their bodies, and they are cared for completely by robots. This was set up by the president when the left because he was convinced lie would never return to the planet. However life is found by a small robot named Wall E and through a romance with a scouter droid and a weird sort of battle for the future of humanity the humans return to the planet. They start to work again, walk again, and plant the little green plant in the ground. In the end you are shown that a rebirth comes to the earth as humans now more self aware return to the planet. Not only is this movie heart warming but it is a scary look at our near future.

6. Over the Hedge
This movie came out in 2006 and was produced by Dreamworks. It is a movie about how the encroaching human populations are driving away or killing off the wildlife that once lived there. A group of hibernating animals awake in the spring to find that their home is not just "Over The Hedge" from a booming suburb. So since they have no food they have to try and steal human food from the houses. This is a very real story told in a cleaver way. Many people find that wildlife have tried to return to the homes they once knew and a very real war has been taking place. I liked this movie a lot when it came out. It showed this war from the perspective of the animals. Just last night my husband and I were watching a show "Infested" which talks about the tragedy of living in a house invaded by wildlife, yet if we really think about we are the invaders... they are just fighting back.

5. The Rescuers Down Under
This movie came out in 1990. It was a Walt Disney Production. It is about poaching. The villain is a poacher who is after a large beautiful and endagered eagle. So when a young boy tries to save the bird the poacher fakes the boys death and kidnaps him. Two little mice (The Rescuers, first introduced in a previous Disney movie in 1977) set off to rescue the Eagle, the boy and take down the evil poacher. This movie is great and teaches kids so much about not poaching, and about protecting endangered species.




4. The Lorax
This movie technically has not come out yet (due for release in March of this year) but there was a classic version that came out when I was a kid, and of course there is the book so I feel I can speak to the content even not having seen this version of the movie. The Lorax is Dr. Suess' tale about a creature named the Lorax who speaks for the trees and tries to protect them from the greedy Onceler. The story is told from the perspective of the Onceler who tells the tale of how there used to be beautiful trees there when now it is only a desolate empty lot. The onceler cuts down all the trees to make his product which is something no one really needs and he grows his small shop to a factory and the Lorax asks him to stop. He also pleads to stop because the onceler is producing toxic goo from his factories which is further damaging the environment. Dr. Suess always has a great message but his one was always one of the best.

3. Free Willy
This movie came out in 1993 and was a Warner Bros. Production. While I personally find this movie nauseating.. that may have had more to do with the sappy 90's ness of it, the bad acting of the main kid and the annoying Micheal Jackson music. The underlying theme about freeing an Orca and saving the whales from whaling vessels is one that we can all like. This movie will be one that when my son is a bit older I will be happy to sit down and watch again so that i can explain to him about whaling and how detrimental and horrible and wrong it it.




2. Bambi
Bambi came out in 1942 and was produced by Walt Disney. This one is an oldy but a goody. The theme is about the ecosystem within the forest and the unity of all the animals who live there. There are strong anti hunting themes when Bambi's mother is shot and killed by a hunter. Later a forest fire is started by the humans and the animals must escape that. The theme is clear, even back in the 40's we were beginning to see the error of our ways.





1. Captain Planet

This was not a movie but instead was a show, but was so great I felt I had to include it. Captain planet came out in 1990-96. This show followed  group of teens who each had a power ring that when they combined would bring about a superhero called Captain Planet who who help them protect the planet from pollution, litter, deforestation, and toxic waste. This cartoon had a lot to do with my childhood. I greatly recommend letting your little Greenie watch old reruns of it if you can find them.

So there you have it. My list of the top ten eco friendly or anti war themed movies/shows for kids.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

More on Breastfeeding Prejudice Awareness

So I recently heard about another breastfeeding mother being attacked on FB. Emma Kwasnica has had her FB account shut down a few times over some innocent pics of her breastfeeding her daughter. Emma is a 30 yr old tandem nursing mother who has been the subject of a vicious attack by FB.  This was taken from her own blog, " I am reaching out because I think you might be interested in the Facebook fiasco over breastfeeding images, and them being classed as "obscene, sexually explicit and pornographic". Yes, I said breastfeeding. The most loving, selfless act on Earth.For the record, my entire Facebook account has now been deleted, with no explanation from the administrators of Facebook. While they have not confirmed the reason for disabling my account, I can only suspect it stems from the fact that, in the days leading up to the disabling of my account, I had photos of me breastfeeding my daughters deleted, and was given a "warning" for having had uploaded "obscene" content that renders Facebook "unsafe for children" (please see attached screen shots)."
Now thinking back I wonder if the reason why I had to start a new FB account last winter was for the same reason, since the reason I was given was that I had been posting obscene material. I had not put two and two together but instead just started a new account. To be honest I am tired of writing these types of articles because in the 3 years I have had my blog up FB has not gotten the hint. The Leaky Boob was on television publicly denouncing their policies, and now Emma K. has been on the radio telling her story. Countless bloggers are fighting the good fight... but nothing seems to be getting through. So I am thinking since they say that a picture is worth a 1000 words.. let's flood FB with thousands and millions of BFing pics. If they want a fight.. they got it.
So here are some of my bfing pics from when my son was nursing.





Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Breastfeeding Prejudice Awareness Month

I have decided that in this blog (and hopefully other people pick up the tradition) every January will be Breastfeeding Prejudice Awareness Month. Why? Exactly for the reasons I wrote about in my last blog post. It seems that every January and February you see story after story of breastfeeding being bashed, by celebs, bloggers, talk show hosts, race car drivers, writers, and even pediatricians. All of this can be boiled down to prejudice. The word prejudice means to prejudge something without understanding it. So I am going to talk today about some bfing myths or prejudices and explain them away. Then I would like to include some stories with you of real mothers who felt harassed or ill treated when bfing in public.
1. Women should not bf in public.
Actually  the laws in this country and especially in NYS (where I live anyway) state that a bfing woman has the right to bf her child wherever and whenever it is needed. A place of business does not have the right to ask her to leave.
2. Women should always wear a cover.
Would you like to eat your dinner with a blanket smothering you while you eat? No? Well why would a baby like that? It is hot in there, and the air gets stuffy quickly. That makes for an uncomfortable bfing session for both child and mommy. There are many ways to discreetly bf without a cover.
3. Women should bf in the bathroom.
Are you kidding me? I know many women who won't even actually sit down on the toilet in a public bathroom, they hover above it while they pee. So a bfing mother is supposed to bring their nb baby into a place so dirty that you won't even sit directly on the seat and let her eat her dinner in there. hmmmmm? That sounds pretty hypocritical. Would you eat in a public restroom? I bet the thought is making you sick right now.
4. Women can just pump before leaving the house and then feed with a bottle.
I always love this argument. As I said in my last post.. this leads to several new complications. Now said mother needs to refrigerate said pumped milk, reheat it when it is needed which means she needs to find a microwave somewhere while out shopping. This also can lead to bottle refusal at a time when you do not need a hungry screaming baby, leaking breasts full and engorged, and of course in addition to all of this... the mother now has to deal with possibly pumping while out.. which is far less appetizing to watch then bfing.
5. Feeding in a carrier is just a gross.. you can still see everything.
Really? Really you can see everything? Where? I got this pic from google images because I couldn't find one of my own (though I often did bf in my ring sling.) Where is this everything that is exposed?








6. Breastfeeding is sexual and indecent and shouldn't be done in public. 
Really? So when you walk by an ad like this








or this

that you have no problems with them.... because ads like this are everywhere. yet somehow this 
is far more indecent and sexual even though it is no different then this.

So I will end this will a few quotes from bfing mothers who have dealt with all sorts of prejudices while bfing.

"I always struggled with BFing in public because of the whispers, rolling eyes, and shaking of heads even from women wearing clothes showing much more than I was. I always covered with a wrap. It always made me feel I was doing something wrong and there were times I wanted to stop but my son comes first."

"Just recently a woman compared my BFing completely covered in public to the equivalent to a man masturbating in public covered. Or defecating in public covered.. I was so shocked/humiliated/and offended."

"I was told that I was crazy and wouldn't make it to a year....I weaned my daughter at 11 months....her Dr. also kept trying to get me to supplement because she "wasn't gaining"....she's a lean child."

"I was sitting at TGIFridays when my daughter was just 2 months old with a friend who also had a 2 month old. I put my cover on and started breastfeeding while I decided what I wanted to eat. Our waiter said "this is a family restaurant so can you not do that here." Before I had a chance to say anything my friend went and grabbed the manager and lets just say that waiter no longer works for TGIFridays."

"One day me and my MIL were out to lunch and we had a corner booth in the back. Well I start bfing discreatly but not covered. I never used covers really just went from the top with low cut shirts and nursing bras. Well our waitress was about 17 at the most. She comes to see if we need anything else sees me, drops the pad she had in her hands blushes whips around and disappeared. She came back later and apologized. i said.. it's ok, I was not mad but her shock at an eveen descreetly breastfeeding mother speaks volumes about our society."

"My MIL made comments frequently. All through my pregnancy she tried to convince me it was "okay not to breastfeed. I didn't do it"..Once I dried up, she was more than happy to continue the party with trying to convince me it was for the better."

"I had a lot of bad expiriences with people while bfing in public.. but this was the worst I call it the day of hell. I took my son then 7 weeks old to a craft fair. I had him in the mei tai carrier which is super comfy and awesome but unlike a ring sling is not easy to get a kid in and out of. So I sit down in a isolated corner to bf way up in the bleachers and away from prying eyes. (it was in an arena). Well after three or four people gave me the stinkeye and 2 people made "gah" comments or "look at that.eww" comments I (then being new to bfing in public and not the lactivist I am now) went to the nearest restroom, sat down on the sink and continued bfing. Well in come these suit wearing heel wearing ladies who all gave me a look that plainly said.. "that is disgusting... stupid hippy girl" or at least thats what I got from it. So I started crying. I finished feeding, left the bathroom and went back out to join my friends. I had finally gotten Bug all put back in his carrier when I realized he needed a change. So I went back to the restroom, changed him and then got him back into the carrier and got back to my friends. my then bestfriend (now not my best friend because of comments like these) goes "what took you so long" so I tell her and she says, "eww why were you bfing out in the open anyway that is gross.. I would have laughed at you too." So awful. "

"My SIL and I were getting ready to go out for the night and I said I want to feed my daughter before we leave. As I was feeding her SIL goes I'm glad your not one of those who feeds in public. I told her I had no problem feeding her in public, but since it was a 30 minute drive to where we were going I didn't want her to get hungry and start crying on the way there."

"We were at downtown disney and I was feeding my daughter (she was completely covered but her feet) I had peaked in and asked how she was doing and some guy walked by and goes "that's disgusting! get a room.""

"I haven't had too many issues so far but I don't feed in public a lot. But I do at others houses and at a New Years party I had a guy ask if the baby was going to eat all of that...ugh. I was like really?! So annoying! I really don't see why people make comments about it. It's a wonderful thing and it's none of their business."

So next time you are faced with someone being rude or needing to put their bfing predjudices on you, your body and your child.. stand strong and remeber that for every jerk like this their are 10 other moms who have been through it and who would support you. Happy Breastfeeding Prejudice Awareness Month.

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Another Year Another War On Breastfeeding

So why is it that it is almost exclusively between the months of January and March that the world seems to converge to all hate breastfeeding all at once. Last January and February I wrote a few posts on then current breastfeeding bashers. Here, here, here, and here. This year again it has already begun. A new year approaches and the bfing war begins a new. The three main offenders this time are Target, NASCAR Racecar Driver Kasey Kahne, and commenters on the website Chow.com. Let's begin with the least offensive.
Recently on Chow.com a question was asked what the table manners precedents for bfing were. The Author of the blog answered honestly in that she felt it was completely ok to even uncovered bf in a restaurant. Commenters disagreed! I think honestly though I could not write as wonderful a response to this as one blogger already did. So here is her post on this topic.
Next is the next least offensive, Target. Recently a Target store harassed and humiliated a young breastfeeding mother for bfing in their store and told her she needed to do it in a dressing room. She was so upset that she posted about it on her FB wall and decided to start a nurse in at Target Stores nationwide. The events page got thousands of bfing mothers who were willing to attend the nurse in. I honestly wish I was still nursing so i could join them. Our nearest Target is 1.5 hrs away but I would still go there if I was bfing just to participate and show my support.
The last and most offensive was NASCAR driver Kasey Kahne tweeting about how disgusting he thinks bfing in public is. When a person disagreed with him he called her "a dumb bitch".  He has since appologized but not before outraging bfing mothers everywhere.
So I have said it before.. I will say it again. Anyone who thinks breastfeeding in public is wrong is a hypocrite. We are surrounded by breasts as sexualized images everyday. How are those right but using your breasts for their biological purpose is wrong. We are mammals. Mammals are called mammals because they feed their young with their mammary glands. Breastfeeding a human baby is no different then a pup drinking from a mother dog, a calf drinking from a mother cow, or any other mammal drinking from it's mother. Breastfeeding is so delicate a process too, one of the arguments against bfing in public is that the only reason why you can't feed from a bottle while out is choice. That is bull. 1. pumps suck.. they never work right and they can slow your supply. 2. your breasts hurt bad if engorged and either eating or pumping is the only way to stop that.. so which of the following scenarios would you like to see while eating: my child discreetly feeding, a machine pulling and elongating my nipples through clear plastic suction cups while making a gross sucking noise, or my breast just finally exploding and milk pouring through my shirt and down on the table (and yes that happens). I think the first choice is the best one.. don't you? Why should a mother have to refrigerate and then heat up cold pumped breast milk when her supply is always body temperature and always fresh? It saddens me to no end that people are still so sickened by one of the most natural things in the world. So I leave you today with a clip from a 1977 episode of Sesame Street. Enjoy.

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