Wow... Time Magazine pulled a winner out of their hat with the latest magazine cover - "Are You Mom Enough"?
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Jamie Lynne Grumet and her son, 3 yo Aram, are bonding, in what's called Attachment Parenting. Jamie is standing in the cover photo, Aram standing also suckling from his mom's breast.
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The photo is purposely posed and focused to cause defiance, and challenge. That it has. While many support the cover-photo, many don't and some outraged.
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One Fox News editorialist, Dr. Keith Ablow, asks, "...forget the breast, what about the boy?" ...she thought nothing of becoming far more famous than she ever was or ever would have been by getting naked on the cover of Time using her son as a prop—letting him, in fact, look right into the camera and be completely recognizable while sucking her nipple. He may never be better-known for anything than for being a breastfeeding 3-year-old on the cover of a national magazine.
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What about the boy?
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Jamie Lynne Grumet and her son, 3 yo Aram, appeared on the Today Show, with Jamie defending her position. The cover photo may not have been the best choice, she admits... alternatives were taken, and of other moms. Perhaps if the alternate had been used the public reaction may have been different. The cover photo used shows a 3 year old boy standing up sucking on his mother's left breast looking into the camera. The alternate shows him sitting on her lap.
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He's just a child, still a baby in many ways. When I think of myself at 3 I have scant memory of it. I do remember my mom giving me back-scratches on the couch at a very early age. I was never breast-fed, the government and social/politico climate frowned on it. We still do...
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As seen in this Today Show photo, Aram is just a little boy, and the parenting is nurturing, not abusive, controlling, or abnormal as some suggest.
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Well, although Dr. Ablow suggests the kid will be tormented and bullied the rest of his life, I don't know how he can come to those conclusions. What is it about breasts, breast-feeding, and lactating in general that has us so uncomfortable?
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I'm not uncomfortable... except with the politics behind breast-feeding. And I see nothing wrong with "Attachment Parenting", as long as it takes place as a child, not when the child turns 18. There are parents that never let go, and when the child becomes an adult, or in some countries, only has to reach puberty, they are subjected to extraordinary manipulations to become an established personification of an ideal, at that age.
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In the United States of America I would hope for the best in parenting. I would hope we are provided with facts and not fiction. I would hope we have the right to chose, as long as the choice doesn't harm. And I would hope we understand what constitutes harm.
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I know if we were asked what constitutes acceptable breast-feeding imagery we'd prefer this photo:
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Source: "Milk's Favorite Cookie" - Huffington Post - Even this photo as part of a S. Korea advertisement for Kraft Foods caused controversy at the time.
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As would this one if Time Magazine had chosen it instead:
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Source: Time Magazine: Back-story
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The only thing Time Magazine did was shock America... a shock that hopefully will bring it to it's senses! They used the wrong photo perhaps. I personally would have chosen the one with Aram nestled on his mother's lap. But does it really matter? The point is, this is human nature, and I don't know where it's expressly stated, what laws protect the nurturing of children, or who encourages proper nurturing or what that is composed of, but I would hope a sane foundation of parenting alternatives exist for parents in America to chose from, use, and adopt.
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The time to raise and nurture children is most important in their early years, not when they become teenagers. By the time a child is in their teens, the best one can hope to be is a good role-model, and flexible.
