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Who are we to criticize another woman for doing what she feels is best for her family and children?

I am annoyed and offended by those who feel it’s their place to decide whether breastfeeding a child is appropriate or not … unless it’s their own child and their own breasts they are deciding for. What’s the difference between judging this woman for nursing her three-year-old and a male (or female, for that matter) government representative who would vote against female reproductive rights? Isn’t it all just another form of judgement?

This woman (and any other woman) has a right to breastfeed her child/children until she decides not to nurse him any longer. She also has a right to choose NOT to nurse her child. If it’s working for her then shame on those who are holier than thou and would decide what she’s doing is “gross” or “inappropriate” or “abusive” or whatever other comments have been made. This is HER child! Do you want someone telling you how or what to feed your child?

Time Magazine put a very sensational picture on their cover. That’s what media does. This article is divisive and disempowers women by bringing their child-rearing choices into the light and offering those choices up for criticism. Parents have nursed children well into childhood for decades (dare I say, centuries?) The “family bed” or “attachment parenting” or “Dr. Spock” or “tough love” or “wet nurses” (among others) are all different ideas that parents have a CHOICE to follow or not.

Mind your own business, ladies and gents. Be concerned about your very own (sometimes abominable) behavior. Stay involved in your own business and leave others alone. Worry about whether you’re texting while driving, if you are on Facebook at work, or whatever else you have control over in your own “house”.

We’d all be so much better off if we’d be supportive of our sisters’ rights to nurse their children and get off of our judgmental high horses.

OK. I’m done.

Gone knitting.