Time magazine is really trying to boost sales

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The cover

Is this going over the line?

Extended Breast-Feeding: Is It More Common than We Think?

OK-- I *heart* breast feeding. No running to the store for formula, no worries about what's in that crap or how we're going to work it into the budget, no measuring and mixing and fidgeting with the temperature, nothing to lug, nothing to wash or boil (other than scrubbing off my boob in the shower, which, ummm, I do anyway).

It's SOOO easy. If I have to pick between nursing and Prozac, I'll take nursing. I'll go back to fighting with the panic attacks, just so I don't have to spend eight to twelve months dealing with the bottles.

I'm honestly a somewhat dubious fan of attachment parenting. I like baby-wearing, and co-sleeping, and letting life factors and the kid and personal preference determine when to stop nursing (as opposed to, "OK, you're X weeks old, it's weaning time!").

I nursed my younger two up to about eighteen months. I carted all three of them around in slings and carriers. It made it easier to get things done. All three of them (10, 4, and 2) still sleep in my bed-- although they all have the option of their own beds to go to, and I confess that lately I'm A) considering kicking them all out rather than sharing a queen-size bed with my spouse and now-about-to-be FOUR kids or buying another bedframe, mattress, and box-spring and having my bedroom be totally dominated by the bed, and B) so tired of being crowded, kicked, and robbed of covers that I spend about 60% of my nights on the couch!

I LIKE doing things this way.

I have no idea of what percentage of parents do or do not do things this way.

I really don't care.

What bothers me is that anyone would think this is worthy of being in a news magazine, let alone on the cover. That, when people choose to go about things in different ways, we all seem to feel the need to argue, criticize, and judge. That anyone would find this material controversial or titillating (which TIME is obviously betting they will, or they wouldn't be milking it to sell their magazine).*

The whole thing should be filed under "Social and Cognitive Deficiencies of Neurotypicals."

*puns are not original material.

There's probably a reason why mothers stop breastfeeding when the baby gets older. THEY GET TEETH! *chomp* ARRRGH!! !
Seriously though, I HATE Time Magazine. Politics and war, such fun things to read about when you're already depressed and anxious and sitting in the outpatient mental health waiting room where there is nothing else to read. They actually used to have a bookcase filled with Time And MacClane's Magazines with titles about SARS and terrorists hurricains and flu pandemics and I would suffer a terror-induced meltdown just by the sight of them. They eventually took the magazines out. Probably because of me, because no one else freaks out like I do.

The kid in the picture is way too old for breast feeding.
There is no reason for that picture, period.
Time has put itself on the level of The Enquirer.
Breast feeding CAN be done discreetly.
There is NOT a debate on breast feeding, but rather, common courtesy.
No one HAS to breastfeed in a crowd, at a restaurant table, or in a store aisle.
Breast feeding exclusively prevents women from returning to the workforce, and that is necessary for most women. Breast pumps enable women to work and supply their babies with their own milk, and offers freedom to women who cannot take them everywhere with them, or who simply need a break.
Mothers who need to work or who are individuals who need more personal freedom than going out and about carrying and tending to a baby all day have every right to their choices and their parenting style; they are good parents, too, and love their children just as much. They make life easier for others on the buses, in the stores, in the planes, in restaurants.
One last comment;
PLEASE READ!

PLEASE stop bringing young children, especially babies, into hospitals, when you are visiting!
Many patients have not gotten all of their test results, you don't know what you are exposing your kids to, especially airborne!
Every surface in a hospital has been touched by hundreds of people; every door, every handrail, every elevator button....please leave your little ones at home!

Sylkat

The late, infamous H.L. Hunt had been a late breast feeder. In fact, his mother had provided a stool for him to stand on while he suckled her as she washed dishes. By age five, his father thought it had become too unnatural, and forbade mother and child to do it anymore.

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer