I am tired of the media picking on moms and then turning around and sensationalizing it. Ooooooooooh “mommy wars.”
Momhood is serious shit. It’s hard. I don’t care if you work or stay home, breastfeed or don’t breastfeed. Unless you are harming your child emotionally or physically you are mom enough.
When I saw the cover of Time Magazine this morning yeah, my jaw dropped, but whatever.
What I have an issue with is the headline “Are You Mom Enough?” I can’t even get past the headline to read the article, but from what I understand it’s about attachment parenting. So why the shitty headline?
And why judge moms? We already have a really tough enough world to face so just LET US BE. To be honest, I’m not even sure it’s the mom in me that’s angry. It’s the woman. People just need to stop judging women.
As far as the cover shot….. frankly, I don’t care if the woman breastfeeds her kids until they’re 22, it’s not my life. But, I’d really like to know what goes on in the brain of someone that would pose for a cover under that headline. I don’t know her, but I read an article that she wrote that actually stuck up for moms that don’t breastfeed, so where did this whole thing go awry?
My body physically could not produce enough to feed any of my boys longer than a few weeks. I have a full-time job outside the home. My kids have all slept in their own beds. Those sling things didn’t even really exist in the US yet, they were only used in third world countries. And even if they were I probably wouldn’t have worn one.
But none of *that* defines me as a mom anyway.
I am mom enough to say that I’ll never read another issue of Time Magazine though. Not even if it’s the only magazine in the dentist’s office aside from Golf Magazine.
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
Sadly, Time probably chose the headline because they knew it would get everyone in a tissy (it worked). The model/author (?) posed because it was a paycheck and helped promote her work. Once again, we as women, are being exploited – just in the 21st century version. I’m with you – I’m so sick and tired of women pitting themselves against each other. We’re always being lauded as the sex that is the one that bonds and thrives on relationships. Really? Because the way the sisterhood is acting right now is certainly not a sisterhood that I want to be part of.
Love your response!
This headline and article are ridiculous in my opinion.
We all need to do our own thing. Our OWN THING. And just because I only breastfed my boys (by pumping/bottle) for less than 4 weeks doesn’t make me less of a mom than anyone who breastfeeds until their kid goes to kindergarten.
PISSES ME OFF.
Am I Mom Enough?!
Well, I carried my boys for 9 months, and gave birth to them, and have taken care of their every single need since birth so YEAH. I’m Mom enough.
Hells bells! What were they thinking? Obviously they weren’t. Loved Andrea’s response. I’m mom enough because I feed, clothe, teach, reprimand, carpool, support, hug, adore, embarrass and love my kids. The end.
I agree with you on the headline. I don’t believe in the concept of a big mom scorecard that we all have to measure up to.
I’m betting she didn’t know what the headline was going to be.
THANK YOU! If I choose not to or physically cannot breastfeed does Time believe I’m less of a mother? Ridiculous!
Good for you! That headline was designed specifically to catch the attention of busy moms at the checkout counter, who would then say “What do you mean, am I MOM ENOUGH??!!” and buy the magazine.
I personally felt that I was judged to be less of a mom because I chose to only have one child.
She was premature and I wasn’t allowed to breastfeed her in the hospital nursery. No one suggested pumping, but that was the 60′s and times have changed.
I never even held her till I took her home at 3 weeks old.
Having to go to work and put her in daycare at 3 was not a choice, but a necessity, but other moms treated me as if I wasn’t a “real” mother.
Many of us don’t have the luxury of being able to carry our baby around 24-7 even if we wanted to, but I don’t feel guilty about it. Each mom to her own.
Hell yeah, I’m mom enough!
Love it!!! No two lives are the same and we cannot continue to put women/mom’s into to a mold and expect them to work themselves in til they fit.
Well put! Well said! You go girly!
Tell us how you really feel. LOL. Very well said. Happy Mother’s Day….
Well said!
Love this part “I am mom enough to say that I’ll never read another issue of Time Magazine though.”
Good response and let me just tell you that no matter what you do, good or bad, your children will either grow up to appreciate you as their Mom, no matter what you do, or they won’t. It’s really as simple as that.
I raised two sons on my own, after divorcing their father, moving half-way across the country, back to my home and then their father passed away two years after that. Talk about having an excuse for my sons to have been screw ups. But, I took a firm hand with them and made sure they stayed out of trouble. The most important thing was that I was there with them every night and cooked real food every night for them.
My sons, now 33 and 34 have turned out terrific as far as accomplishing great things in their careers. My oldest son is moving up within a good company and has a great job and my younger one just became a state trooper.
That would seem I did a good job, right? Well, not according to my younger, totally ungrateful son. He and his girlfriend’s constant drama has left me not talking to them now. It’s too much drama to even put down here.
So, my advice to all you young mothers out there is to do the best you can, whatever you are doing, and don’t let anyone criticize you. NO ONE! And especially not the mass, corporate media, who loves to pit one against the other, so that we don’t notice what’s really going on in this country.
Hopefully, like me, you will have at least one child who is grateful and thankful for what you did. I can’t guarantee that all will–so do exactly what YOU want.
Good luck to all of you and thanks for this site. I am lovin’ reading your stuff.