You know the list as well as I do:
Breastfeeding vs. Formula
Pacifier vs. Self Soothing
Co-sleeping vs. Cribs
Stay-at-home vs. Working Moms
To name a few.
I’m a mom who breastfed for twenty two months, exclusively pumped for ten, and formula fed for three. I’ve used a pacifier and had one baby self-sooth. My son was in a crib almost immediately; my daughter wouldn’t sleep unless she was snuggled next to me.
And I’ve been both a stay-at-home and a working mom.
Which is why this “war” confuses me. It also makes me think it’s less a war and more of a gambit to increase reader traffic. Then again, I’ve always been somewhat socially oblivious as is evident by the fact that I never realized when kids were making fun of me, I thought they were just being weird.
I’m torn between wondering if we’re just eating popcorn on the sidelines of a media blitz or if there’s actually a mommy war going on. And if there is, I’m sitting here scratching my head and wondering why.
Maybe it’s because I’ve witnessed true neglect – children sleeping in cribs until they’re nine or ten, children acting as the caregiver to their parents as young as eight, parents pressuring their children to smoke pot or buy them drugs, parents marrying their 15-year-old daughter to a 30-year-old man, parents who are not parents at all.
Maybe seeing that sort of behavior makes me shake my head and lose patience with a false war between women who are truly trying to do the best they know how with nothing but love for their children in their hearts.
What do you think about this Mommy War we’re allegedly having?
