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Moms Talk: Time Magazine Cover Asks 'Are You Mom Enough?' I Am.

Patch parenting columnist Nia Stanley believes the magazine used the controversial image of a mom nursing her child to stir an 'attachment parenting' debate—and to attract attention.

 

No one bats an eye in the grocery store line when they see an attractive blonde woman on the cover of a magazine. But when she’s nursing her 3-year-old son, that’s going to spark some chatter.

Time magazine’s controversial cover features Jamie Lynne Grumet standing and her 3-year-old son perched on a chair, nursing from his mother. The image goes along with an article on attachment parenting, a parenting method which basically includes extended breast feeding, co-sleeping and baby wearing— meaning the baby is carried in a sling with a parent.

The idea of co-sleeping is not popular, due in part to the number of infants who have been smothered to death by a parent who rolls over on them.

"Baby wearing" isn’t for everyone. It’s something I as a mother have never done. I just never got the hang of the sling, and found that front-facing baby carriers and my own arms were just easier.

I have breast fed all of my children, but something about this cover bothers me.

First of all, I hate the title, "Are You Mom Enough?" What are you implying here, Time magazine? That I’m not "mom enough" if I don’t continue to nurse my child to age 3?

Secondly, you nurse your child for an extended period of time because you think it’s best for them. Is posing for such a controversial cover what is best for a child? I think there are other images that could have been used to accompany this article—even a picture of the same people seated because who nurses standing up?

Time magazine, you did this to sell, er, magazines. It doesn’t matter if Grumet is passionate about breastfeeding and has a personal parenting blog (IAmNotTheBabysitter.com) that discusses how much she’s down for the cause.

You, Time magazine, are not a parenting publication and I do not appreciate the use of this mom and child to attract some fleeting attention if you don’t have any long-term plans of making nursing in public or attachment parenting more acceptable.

And I’m mom enough to say that.

Related Topics: Are You Mom Enough?, Breast Feeding, Controversial Cover, Jamie Lynne Grumet, Parenting, Time magazine cover, attachment parenting, and time magazine
What do you think of the recent Time magazine cover? Shocking? No big deal? Tell us in the comments.

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