So breastfeeding made the cover of Time. Well, how lovely..wait a minute, why is everyone so riled up on Twitter? Why is my phone blowing up? Oh, because this is the picture…

 

So what side does a Sensible Mom take? Are we repulsed, gratified, offended, justified, enlightened or dismayed?

This calls for strong words to convey strong emotions and here is mine: DISGUSTED.

Disgusted that we, as women, as mothers, are being manipulated once again for the noble cause of saving a magazine from fading into extinction.

Disgusted that our anxieties about mothering are being twisted so that some of us have to be right and some of us have to be wrong, pitting Sister against Sister.

Disgusted that we are half the population, but we carry the lion share of judgment on our shoulders for earthshaking things like how we feed our children.

To be crystal clear, I am outraged by this blatant and careless toss of a match from the media onto the tinder of our insecurities to ignite a flame under the sales of their magazine.

I can just envision the meeting that took place to develop this cover…

“Hey, Ted, the Mommy Wars are on again. There has to be a way to spin this to increase our sales. Print media is dying, man.”

“I heard Kate is writing an article on attachment parenting. We should be able to get something stirring with that. You know there is no one a woman hates more, than another woman, who is not parenting the exact same way she is.”

“Oh, yeah. So attachment parenting is about breastfeeding, right? Should we champion the rights of women to breastfeed?”

“Dude, we’re trying to sell magazines, not improve the world. Get your head in the game.”

“Well, what about making bottle-feeding moms feel badly about themselves?”

“Why piss them off? They have money too. There has to be some angle where we can rile breast –feeders and bottle-feeders. Think.”

“I got it! Let’s find some hot chick to put on the cover nursing a three year old who looks like an 8 year old! Nursing an older kid should ignite the maximum number of mothering types!”

“We just need a title that implies that mothers are doing it wrong”

“I got it: ‘Are You Mom Enough?’”

“Well, it’s not exactly subtle, but we don’t want anybody to miss our point.”

Your point, Time Magazine, was to sell your sub par product.

Here is this Sensible Mom’s point–If your kids are safe, tended to, and raised with love, then you are indeed, Mom enough.

And Time, I am smart enough to see what you are doing, and I am banking that a majority of my Sisters are too. Don’t take the bait. Let’s cut bait and rebuke the manipulation.

—Just my two cents, Ellen

For another thoughtful take on this issue, read Ado at The Momalog.