Britney and I Should Schedule Some Playdates Together...
After all, it turns out our mothering techniques are strikingly similar. I was at the gym the other night (yes! really!), trying to divert my attention from my burning loins to Entertainment Tonight. During the intro, Britney Spears was seen in her car with lil' Sean Preston in the back seat. As the car pulled away in slow motion, the announcer piped in with how Brit partied until the wee hours, how she's been drinking out of control, blah blah blah. Then he added, "...with baby Sean in the backseat, bottle feeding."
WOAH!!!!! Not bottle feeding!!!! Never mind that the girl allegedly leaves her kids all day and all night with hired help. No problem with the fact that she has her bare crotch plastered all over the internet, and that sources claim she's a meth whore, but BOTTLE FEEDING?!?!?! Geez, that makes her an awful mother. Where's Social Services when you need them?
Now, granted, I'm way past the breast vs. bottle stage, and I would have nursed my twins for longer than two weeks if I could have done it:
1) Without neglecting my then 2 year old and
(strum up "Dueling Banjos")
2) Without having to continually ask my dad (while Hubs was at work) "Can you lift up my shirt for me?"
But alas, would anyone stop to consider for a minute that if the rumors about Darling Britney are even slightly true, perhaps bottle feeding is the most loving thing she could do for her kid right now? Isn't the bottle better than serving the poor child whatever chemical cocktail would come out of her breasts?
Color me sensitive, but I'm so tired of the media putting bottle feeding at the top of the List of Things You Can Do to Ruin Your Child. Sure, breast is best, yadda yadda...
... but really, sometimes the bottle is okay, too.
After all, it turns out our mothering techniques are strikingly similar. I was at the gym the other night (yes! really!), trying to divert my attention from my burning loins to Entertainment Tonight. During the intro, Britney Spears was seen in her car with lil' Sean Preston in the back seat. As the car pulled away in slow motion, the announcer piped in with how Brit partied until the wee hours, how she's been drinking out of control, blah blah blah. Then he added, "...with baby Sean in the backseat, bottle feeding."
WOAH!!!!! Not bottle feeding!!!! Never mind that the girl allegedly leaves her kids all day and all night with hired help. No problem with the fact that she has her bare crotch plastered all over the internet, and that sources claim she's a meth whore, but BOTTLE FEEDING?!?!?! Geez, that makes her an awful mother. Where's Social Services when you need them?
Now, granted, I'm way past the breast vs. bottle stage, and I would have nursed my twins for longer than two weeks if I could have done it:
1) Without neglecting my then 2 year old and
(strum up "Dueling Banjos")
2) Without having to continually ask my dad (while Hubs was at work) "Can you lift up my shirt for me?"
But alas, would anyone stop to consider for a minute that if the rumors about Darling Britney are even slightly true, perhaps bottle feeding is the most loving thing she could do for her kid right now? Isn't the bottle better than serving the poor child whatever chemical cocktail would come out of her breasts?
Color me sensitive, but I'm so tired of the media putting bottle feeding at the top of the List of Things You Can Do to Ruin Your Child. Sure, breast is best, yadda yadda...
... but really, sometimes the bottle is okay, too.
posted by The June Cleaver Diaries at 10:13 AM
9 Comments:
Amen! I didn't breastfeed (our anatomy just didn't work together) and you'd think I was giving the kid crack, not formula.
Oh, Amen again. I got so much flak when my milk dried up when D was 8 mos, but then I thought, you know? People's problems with my not BFing my son are SOOOO much more about them than me. I mean, shit, if you want to judge me, judge me for something that we know is truly damaging. Like the crack smoking.
Amen sister June! I am so over poeple judging mothers who choose to bottle feed. Remember when I was starving Ella be cause my milk never came in and I didn't know it (I didn't get engorged) Remember how the La Leche nazis told me I was doing it wrong? At least Britney was feeding her kid. Apparently I wasn't.
When you consider that the overwhelming majority of Americans were/are bottle fed, the negative reaction to women who can't or don't want to breast feed is surprising. I BF my two, one for 12 months but the second one for only 6 (it became a battle of wills), but that was cause I wanted to. Course then (over 25 yrs ago) I was the odd one out. The current BF mafia turns me off. Free choice, people, free choice.
They didn't say if the bottle Sean was drinking was formula or Jack Daniels.
Yes, yes, yes. I bottled fed my baby too because I take Imuran, a fairly toxic drug, for a chronic condition. But that did not stop the the contemptible and distainful looks from complete strangers. Of course I would have breast fed if I could have, but I really didn't need the judgement. And guess what, he's 3 now and just fine.
Britney is a sad sad case, yet I do not understand why the fact that she has shaved her head requires 24-7 news coverage. It's hair people, it will grow back.
I was recently at a baby shower where one of the pregnant women was talking to the mom-to-be-of=honor in a Very Loud Voice about how AWFUL formula is and blah blah blah judgement judgy judge... all within earshot of my friend who lost her uterus to cancer when she was 17 and her newly adopted baby (who heard the entire exchange but couldn't move away because SHE WAS BOTTLE FEEDING HER BABY).
People just need to shut. up.
No personal experience with feeding kidlets, but being adopted I was bottlefed and turned out OK. Right? Right??
I love how you used Britney Spears mama drama to spark a discussion on breast feeding. No, really - I'm not being sarcastic. I think you are funny again. Congrats. And I am a fairly recent lurker who was happy to see you've returned to your blog. GUILT over how to feed your baby pisses me off. If women would just do what works for themselves and their kids the world would be a much happier place...not one where a young mom would resort to becoming a meth whore for the stress!
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