The Time magazine cover was a complete success! Women are now bashing one another over their parenting styles. Hooray! While Boing Boing has certain opinions regarding certain things certain parents do or don’t do with their newborns; my ultimate goal is to inform parents, and give them the tools to be the best mom they can be. If they choose to co sleep or not, breastfeed or not is up to them, and I do not judge. A happy, healthy mommy means a healthy baby, and that is ultimately what everyone’s goal should be. However, in a country that is intent on rolling back women’s rights and health care overall, we have absolutely no right to speak of “family values.” Our country is destroying families. What woman can be “mom enough” if she can’t take off time from work to breastfeed? . Who needs private rooms? These happy mothers in Manilla don’t have to ask for rooming in, and don’t worry about their babies getting formula. They will all be breastfeeding in one year.
WHO and UNICEF both recommend breastfeeding for a year. In the USA our success rate for reaching that goal is only 22%. This is the real issue. Women are not given the support or economic safety to breastfeed. In the USA, where we spend $70 billion dollars a year on prisons, we still refuse to give women the maternity leave they need. Most women give up trying. The debate isn’t are you mom enough to breastfeed, it’s are you rich enough to breastfeed? Because out of all the industrialized nations, we lag so far behind in indices of good maternal health, it’s shameful. And the woman-hating Republicans in Congress would rather shove a sonogram up your vagina then give you the care you need should you have a baby. The 430 abortion restrictions introduced in state legislatures this year, and “personhood” ammendments are really what we should be worried about. That cover might sell magazines, but the fight isn’t woman versus woman. There is a war on women. This is the fight all of us should be concerned about. ARE YOU MOM ENOUGH FOR THIS? Stats on paid maternity leave:
Canada: 55% up to $413/week for 50 weeks (15 weeks maternity + 35 weeks parental leave shared with father)
France: 16 weeks (100%) rising to 26 weeks (100%) for third child
Ireland & Italy: 22 weeks
Norway & Sweden: Over one year. Ready for this? The USA has less than Brazil, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, India, Chad, Afghanistan, Estonia, Ethiopia, Laos, Lebanon, Libya, VIetnam, Yemen, Kenya,etc…… USA: O WEEKS.
When a woman can’t even get good prenatal care, birth control, paid maternity leave, guaranteed health care, etc..we are truly showing what this country stands for. We are heading in the wrong direction, and without reversing this trend in elected politicians, family values will mean something very different here than it does in the rest of the world. Especially if you’re a mormon.
What is going on in the world? In the name of progress and modernization, parents have been eagerly buying “travel system” strollers. These strollers have a car seat in it, which detaches from the stroller. Many new parents are lugging these contraptions around instead of using a baby carrier. Sometimes the baby never even leaves the car seat till they’re back to bed.
How do you rationalize this?
This Orbit costs over $1,000.00
How sad that parents are out spending each other to have the latest gadget; one which does absolutely nothing for the baby. It’s harming you as well. You think your baby is heavy? Just add a 15 lb car seat and see how your back responds.
Does this look like good spinal alignment?
How about this? The mother is carrying her car seat, her diaper bag, and her cell phone. Quite the balancing act!
Meanwhile, people who carry their car seats are not only doing damage to their backs, they’re also depriving their infants of the one thing they need most. Touch. Touch.
That’s all a human infant needs, they will die without it. Yet modern parents are doing everything they can to avoid holding their baby; going as far as to rationalize carrying around an extra 5-30 lbs of car seat. This is the current trend, and as I’ve always stated, parenting is not a trend. It is a job. One that will be with you forever. One that changes so quickly, you will soon forget the scent of your newborn’s head, and more. This is a plea to all parents reading this. Please take back your role as the primary care giver and give care. This is an opportunity for mothers to take back the role of comfort in high-tech, cold, loud, overstimulating and invasive environment.
Or hire someone else to schlep your baby around like they’re baggage.
I wonder if he changes their diapers too….
I am tired of watching “progress” interfere with natural, safe, and loving parenting. I am shocked when I hear a parent of a 3 month old say they don’t own a baby carrier because they have “back problems.” Especially when they have schlepped their car seat into my shop. It saddens me. It kills me. It’s not helping your baby either.
Plagiocephaly,or flat head syndrome, occurs when a baby’s head develops a flat spot due to pressure on that area. Because their skull is soft and pliable when they’re born, if they are kept in one position for prolonged periods of time, their skull will flatten out. The incidence of this has skyrocketed in the USA. Extended periods of time spent in a car seat contributes to this condition, as can long periods in strollers, swings, and other gadgets that put babies in a back-lying position.
There is a simple cure. Carry your baby.
A newborn needs so little.
They need to be held by you.
They need to be touched by you.
They need to be loved by you.
And there is only one you, and only this short time in their life for you to offer your heart and mind completely to your newborn.
Be your child’s comfort.
Please.
That is all they are asking for.
(Your back will thank you too)
If you’ve visited BOING BOING lately, you might’ve noticed the beautiful baby hammock gently swinging in the window. This is the Kanoe baby hammock, an organic, motion sensitive baby hammock that is safely designed to rock your baby to sleep.
The Kanoe is perfect for apartments, as it hangs from the ceiling, saving valuable floor space. It’s also perfect because it’s simply beautiful.
Hammocks have been used in many cultures as an easy and baby calming way to sleep. I mean, does anything look as comfortable as this?!
WE WILL BE RAFFLING OFF ONE KANOE AT ONLY $5.00 A POP!
The Kanoe retails for $280.00, but can be yours for (what??) only $5.00!!
You can enter the raffle as many times as you like.
Feeling lucky?
Maybe you and your baby will be swinging by the end of the summer.
Raffle ends in August.
All proceeds will benefit GEMS, a non profit organization dedicated to ending sexual trafficking in New York City. They provide mentoring, education, and a safe space for girls to come out of the cold.
I am flattered when news groups come to me for information. This week it was Yahoo.com
Customers swear by my shop, and I am honored to have been given the trust of so many new parents. I work hard for this little neighborhood shop, and if and when I leave, my heart and mind will be full of the lovely people and deeply touching conversations we have had. My mission has always been to help new parents, and provide everything one needs to enjoy bonding with their baby. It would be a dream of mine to continue my work in politics one day, supporting healthy childhoods by promoting recess, changes in educational policies and curriculum, and introducing legislation to “Let Your Children Play.” No matter what, I remain committed to my mission, and am happy to share it with all of you.
Park Slope is a strange place. Parenting is where you can see the hypocrisies writ large. Because we live in a land without thousands of years of traditions; you can make up your own, be they sensible or not. You can choose to give birth naturally, and that night, make your baby sleep alone, on its back, in a cold, hard, bassinet. You can pretty much make up what you want to do; pick and choose from the global menu of parenting, religion, tradition, etc..And you know what’s on the menu? Placenta. Placenta!
Placenta-eating advocates say the afterbirth is highly nutritious and that eating it can help with breast-feeding and postpartum depression. They say that women need the iron and it’s natural. They say every mammal in the world does it. But since when do people follow what mammals do? Mammals also eat their own feces, kill other mammals for food, and have sex more frequently and with no foreplay! They also do this. All the other mammals are doing it!
In most parts of the world, meat is a rare treat. If it’s given with a meal, the father is served first, then the boys, and lastly, the mother. You know this already, but I want you to remember that meat is expensive in every way for those who don’t have supermarkets or organic grass fed butchers near them. Meat is rare in the rest of the world. While animal protein resources are rising in the developed countries, in the developing countries it has been on a steady decline (except India) Because food supplies are generally inadequate for nutrition; and economic and social impediments to distribution mean that women do not receive enough, it is only natural for them to eat their placenta.
When a rural woman in China, India, or Africa gave birth, her placenta was traditionally the only time she had access to the protein and blood and salt found in meat. Of course she would eat it! Just as warriors drink the blood of a fresh kill, these rituals make sense in context.
But here? In the land of “grass fed beef jerky??”
Park Slope women are well educated and know how to eat right, even before they were pregnant! Living in NYC means we can have food from Vietnam to Ethiopia delivered right to our door at any time. We know we’re not like the other women who must eat placenta, yet new mothers are once again being marketed to by “advocates” who declare they know what’s best for you even if it’s not proven. There is absolutely no proof in what your “professional placenta preparer” says. Not one study.
Anyway, if you want to eat your placenta, who needs a specialist?
I didn’t:)
Target knows when you’re pregnant before you do. There are trained statisticians who are compiling data on you right now, in order to sell you something down the line.
“Target’s “predictive analytics” department is devoted to understanding not just consumers’ shopping habits but also their personal habits, so as to more efficiently market to them. “Target has always been one of the smartest at this,”
As a new parent, you are the most valuable target. The question is, can you separate the bullshit that’s marketed towards you in order to sell you something; versus valuable and fact based information? New parents are overwhelmed with pseudo information, classes they must take, items they must have. I understand what it’s like, and how hard it is to know what’s what when there’s a new study released every week. Who can make sense of it all?
I can. And I do it for you every day.
Keeping useless crap out of my shop is why people trust me, and I take that very seriously. I will not stock something I don’t believe in, even if it could actually help me pay for a new shop sign:)
Look around BOING BOING. What do you see? More importantly, what don’t you see? Ridiculously expensive strollers Bottles that claim to cure colic! Bottle warmers. Completely useless, baseless, and 100% pure clutter.
And finally, the Bumbo Seat. Listen up America, your baby will sit when they sit. They will crawl when they crawl, and walk when they walk. Babies do not need special seats to sit, and even encouraging that thinking goes against everything I believe in. The Bumbo seat promised you a way to “help your baby,” and in doing so, caused actual and serious harm. This is labeled and marketed to help infants sit in an upright position as soon as they can support their head. Personally, I don’t think they need any “help.” And certainly not when it causes this:
“November, CPSC said it knew of at least 45 incidents since the recall involving babies who fell out of the seat while it was on a raised surface. Seventeen of those involved infants, ages 3 months to 10 months, who suffered skull fractures.”
In the rush to “improve” their child, people are trying to “improve” upon the natural design of a human being. Of course recognizing that parenting trend enables corporations to promote and promise things you want to hear. Doesn’t matter if it’s true. Want your baby to be smarter? Baby Einstein knew parents “want every advantage” and easily took advantage of that neuroses, racking up millions in the process.
Leapfrog took that idea and ran with it. Now your child can be hooked up to screen time from the time they can sit!
Finally, it enrages me that people are more willing to shell out more money for these useless gadgets than they are on the very basic, simple things.
A box. A ball. An afternoon without mommy’s Smartphone.
Give your children what they need.
YOU.
It’s the milk truck!
From her site:
The Milk Truck is a combination of guerilla theater, activism and a little slapstick humor. Yes, we have a truck with a giant boob on the roof. There’s a reason for making The Milk Truck – to create a mobile breastfeeding unit that allows mothers to feed their babies in places where they have been discouraged – restaurants, shopping malls, public spaces, etc. Babies should be able to eat anywhere. And everywhere.
The Milk Truck’s primary mission is to help hungry babies eat by providing a supportive environment for women to nurse their babies. However, the truck will also make regular rounds on its “Pump Route” to offer a private, clean space for women to pump breast milk at work. In addition, and due to popular demand, The Milk Truck will visit businesses and events that are breastfeeding-friendly, to celebrate their awesomeness. (We want to hang out with like-minded people!)
I like how this is bringin it to the streets! Even more importantly, we need the laws protecting our right to breast feed to be enforced. The Milk Truck can bring these conversations to your workplace! Employee training should include the rights of women to breast feed in the work place, especially if it’s a retail establishment. Unfortunately, from Detroit to North Carolina, women are still being kicked out of stores for feeding their babies.
This is a wonderful, innovative and fun way to get out a very serious message. You can nurse in her truck, and I’d love to see this pink truck motoring down any street. I would love to see them visit Bed Stuy and Brownsville, places where women really don’t have a breastfeeding community at all. I love that the Boob Truck gives women a safe place to nurse, and hope she visits the inner city neighborhoods where it’s most needed. Cause you know where women need to breastfeed? ANYTIME!
ANYWHERE!
Call me a feminist, I’ve been called worse! Unfortunately, too many policies that misguided “feminists” put forward; especially in education, are causing grevious problems for boys today. Like most, I am for equal opportunity for all, regardless of sex, color, etc..This does not mean, however, that we are equally the same.
Boys are different from girls.
There, I said it.
Removing recess and adding more test taking is killing a generation of our children. Especially our boys.
Our old arguments of gender equity are ruining children with adult problems. While the good intentions of my so-called feminist sisterhood have tried to eradicate all differences, biology trumps this politically correct bs. Equal opportunities does not mean we are the same, and it has caused a disaster years in the making in the raising or our boys. George Bush’s No Child Left Behind Policy, which my children have endured since elementary school, has had a direct effect on the success of boys in school. The “Race to Nowhere” has only exacerbated a gross misdirection in our country’s educational policy. My children have been guinea pigs of these disastrous “reforms” and I have been frustrated and furious watching the fallout. Not just with my son, but with kids in general. Kids who are not allowed to play. Parents who are too “afraid” to let them get dirty. Let our children play.
Currently, boys are being expelled from preschool four times more than girls. They are 60% more likely to be held back in kindergarten, and twice as likely to be diagnosed with learning disabilities. This is the gender gap we are facing today. As recess has been cut in order to prepare children to take more and more tests, our children are suffering. Schools policies are inhumane , they ignore the obvious, that children are different from adults. A child’s curiosity needs to be nurtured, and forcing them to stay in their seats all day, learning useless facts that are meaningless in today’s economy is a certain track downward for our nation, one child at a time. Children need to play.
Playing is an essential part of the learning experience.
It has been proven that physical activity reduces behavioral problems at school. Imagine how angry I was when my son told me about his experience at recess at our local elementary school. First, if anybody speaks, recess is delayed. Let me play already! The teacher keeps them waiting on the tarmac, waiting for them to quiet down. There is the playground! I can see my friends!!! Please let me play!! Then, god forbid, a child, always a boy, is just a tad too excited to run around the ONE chance a day he gets to be outside??
He is forced to sit “in the box” ( in the hot sun in summer) for punishment.
He’s been looking forward to recess all day, and in his natural excitement, he accidentally stepped out of line. Now he must be forced to sit still, some more, in order to learn a lesson? Or in order for the teacher to exert her power..
If I run for political office, my platform will be LET YOUR CHILDREN PLAY.
Please, as a parent, you can make up for these cold-hearted policies. Speak to your school about their recess policies. Demand changes in their playground rules. Volunteer on the playground, so it’s not only school aides decide what and whom to punish. Speak up! Bring your children outside no matter what the weather, and just let them play. Don’t have a plan, and don’t direct them. Just let them play. And let yourself experience some of that pure joy your child feels when they’re allowed to play.
For further reading: The Trouble with Boys by Peg Tyre Free Range Children by Lenore Skenazy (a personal hero of mine)
Welcome to all who have joined! There’s still room for those who haven’t!
We can look forward to 8 weeks of meetings, here at your community’s base of operations on Union St.
Above is a pic from the May 2010 Mom’s group. I happen to know that many of them are still meeting, some having their second children with a “built-in” mom’s group already established!
Each week different speakers from our neighborhood will present their expertise to our intimate group. This introduction to some of the wonderful services and people available in our community will come in useful should you choose to utilize them when you’re ready. You can even join a post-partum exercise class for your group alone.
I look forward to our first meeting, and getting to know you and your newborns.
Yours in Parenthood,
Karen Paperno Please visit our Mother’s Groups page to join today!
TARGET IS DISGUSTED BY BREASTFEEDING! ISN’T IT TIME YOU ARE DISGUSTED BY TARGET??
The bras are off! Angry moms stage national Nurse-In’s at Target after one mother was ‘harassed and humiliated’ by employees for breastfeeding
By BETH STEBNER
A Texas mother’s negative experience at her local Target last month led to a day of Nurse-In demonstrations today.
New mothers from at least 35 states showed up at branches of the shopping centre to show their support and assert the legality and normalcy of being able to nurse their children in public.
Michelle Hickman, a mother of four, said she was ‘harassed and humiliated’ by Target employees on November 29 after she tried to feed her little one in the Houston store.
Booby trap: Michelle Hickman’s bad breastfeeding experience at Target last month inspired Nurse-In’s across the country Wednesday
She said she was feeding her five-month-old son Noah when she was ‘harassed’ by Target employees
‘I never knew that sitting in a Target and doing what’s normal – which is feeding my baby – would result in all of this one day but I’m glad it did,’ Mrs Hickman told ABCNews.com.
More than 6,700 moms and breast-feeding supporters have joined the Target Nurse-In group.
A week ago, Mrs Hickman was rushing to complete her Christmas shopping in time when her five-month-old son Noah started crying.
The mother tried feeding him by the women’s jeans department after she covered up with a blanket, according to her Facebook recounting of the event.
Several employees asked her to relocate to a more private location, such as a family fitting room.
“Even after I informed the 2nd employee of my legal right to nurse in public she still suggested me moving closer to the jean display, turning to face another direction, and also turn my basket a certain way which would have put me practically underneath the jean display and totally barricaded me in.”
One employee even told her she could get a ticket for ‘indecent exposure,’ she wrote on the website Best for Babes.
Ahem. Let me get my soapbox.
I”m sure Target will issue the standard apology, maybe even get Al Sharpton in there to lend them some cred. However, this is the way BIg Box stores operate. Hire uneducated employees, and allow them to harass the customers by intimidating them. This isn’t the first time something like this happened. Last year the local Toys R Us tried to kick a woman out for nursing her child. And this is a child’s store? They obviously don’t care about their intended demographic-parents.
These shops are not baby friendly. They don’t have time to answer your questions or the knowledge to attempt one. Boing Boing is set up to make life easier for new parents. That means I walk around it every day to make sure it’s easy to navigate with a stroller. Other shops have buzzers to help you with your stroller. The Gate has a spacious beer garden for you to hang with your friends and your babies during the summer. This is what makes a community. People helping each other.
It’s up to you to make the world a better place for your children. Start by putting your money where your mouth is. If you like your neighborhood, spend your $5 here, and it goes much further. Don’t put your friend who works at a book store out of a job because you can save a few dollars at Amazon. Remember this story, and how this woman must’ve felt with not one-but three employees demanding she cover up. This is not the world I am trying to create with my shop. I hope you feel the same.
