Friday, December 02, 2005

I truly live in an alternate universe

I just finished a yahoogroups posting where I'm trying to convince a mother of two that she is not a bad mom for encouraging her second child (15 months) to only nurse a few times a day, because she is pregnant and nursing makes her antsy. Her first child nursed to age 2.5, so she is feeling very guilty and upset.

Sometimes I completely forget that this is not normal behavior for an American mother. That if the age of my children at weaning were general knowledge, I would get some surprised looks (at the very least). Our American average age of weaning is 6 weeks or so (largely due to the unavailability of paid parental leave, I would assert), and most babies are recieving at least some formula by the time mom and baby leave the hospital.

The hospital. Yeah. Because that's where you go to have a baby, right? I mean, only a complete freak would do anything else, right?

Sometimes the real world is too much like a slap in the face. I like my alternate universe.

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