Did Time Magazine's Breastfeeding Cover Cross The Line?

Blondie in Spokane

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Time magazine made a bold move with its cover story this week that has industry experts calling it everything from a cheap shot to desperate.
This week’s cover features an attractive 26-year-old mother, clad in trendy skinny jeans with sleekly muscled bare arms, breast-feeding her toddler son under the headline, “Are You Mom Enough?”



Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/entertainmen...ith-breast-feeding-cover-image/#ixzz1uWYjADTk
 
That kid is a "toddler"? He looks five or six to me.

Not that I care if TIME puts a nursing mother on the cover. What's the big deal?
 
LOL I agree that looks like a kindergartner haha. I'm actually laughing hard. :D

I don't care if they put breastfeeding moms on a cover. I don't care if women breast feed in public, makes no difference to me.
 
Meh, it reminds me of myself and my son. He is four years old and just stopped breastfeeding. To all of those people I say don't look if you don't like it but don't be ignorant, there is no harm to nurse a child until they are ready to wean. In this day and age of instant powder milk, cribs and everything disposable I say people don't know what's normal and natural anymore. I applaud this beautiful picture, I'm sure her and her son will have a very close relationship due to her choosing to let him breastfeed. :)
 
Putting aside the extended bf'ing issue, what I really don't get is that mother's decision to put her child out there like that. He's not a baby and he may be okay with it when he's older. But what if he isn't? I can't imagine putting a picture of my son on the cover of a magazine and all over the internet bf'ing at that age, regardless of how fine *I* am with my decisions. jmo
 
The article is about attachment parenting, or extreme parenting and some Dr. being the guru of it all. Maybe it's a new Hollywood craze. I wouldn't want to have to stop and breast feed a toddler, but whatever others do is fine. I also thought that people who breast feed had larger breasts than this woman. She didn't look very full. This will give talk shows something to talk about, like the article says.
 
when i glanced at the cover i thought the kid was in elementary school! LOL!

as for putting a breastfeeding mother on the cover of a magazine, no big deal, imo.
 
The article is about attachment parenting, or extreme parenting and some Dr. being the guru of it all. Maybe it's a new Hollywood craze. I wouldn't want to have to stop and breast feed a toddler, but whatever others do is fine. I also thought that people who breast feed had larger breasts than this woman. She didn't look very full. This will give talk shows something to talk about, like the article says.

Dr. Sears has been around awhile. He is 70+ years old with 8 kids and is a pediatrician. My mom had one of his first books.
 
In my opinion (only!!), this "attachment parenting" is a load of BS. I feel so badly for this kid in years to come; this photo op was a TOTAL invasion of his privacy. I breast-fed my son for less than a year, and that was enough for both of us! Seeing a child who has a full set of teeth- a child who can run and talk and use the potty- breastfeeding beyond the age of two just grosses me out. MOO, IMO, etc....
 
Yes, IMO the cover did cross the line. Yes, again, the child appears much older than he really is.

Live and let live.

But to put it out on every newstand in America and on the net - well. I do feel sorry for this child. While it might be OK now - believe me - when he's in 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th grade - well it will still be there and it will be brutal!!!!! Count on that. What was this woman thinking? IMO she certainly wasn't thinking of this child's self-esteem down the road. Shame.

But again, JMHO and all that.
 
Did it cross the line? Well, I guess that depends on what their end result was supposed to be.

Was it:
A) To increase awareness of breastfeeding?
B) To promote attachment parenting?
C) To sell more magazines?
D) To keep the best interests of the child in mind?

I'd say they succeeded in all but one; and in that respect, crossed the line. How will that child feel in 1, 5, 10 or 20 years, when that magazine cover is brought out and dusted off? Will he be proud, embarrassed or ashamed? His mom may even have asked him if he wanted to do it...but does a 3 year old have the cognitive ability to understand a question like that, and any ramifications that might present themselves at a later date? Perhaps the bigger question is: Did Mom?
 
Dr. Sears has been around awhile. He is 70+ years old with 8 kids and is a pediatrician. My mom had one of his first books.

He practices in my area. When I was a young mother he was THE go -to pediatrician and popular. Very nice man, well respected in the community as are his physician children. He has been around forever it seems like. With that said I don't know anything about this theory or book.
 
I breastfed my daughter till she was 3! Unfortunately I can say there was a delayed attachment. To my dismay, she did not want to be cuddled or comforted..Only wanted to be fed. Now, at 34 she is the most dependant, confused, childlike woman who can't make a decision if her life depended on it. So, nursing her till 3 did not produce an independant woman!
 
I agree, I think this was an invasion of the child's privacy.

But to clear up common misconceptions, just because a child has teeth does not mean they use them when nursing. They don't, it's natural for a child to know how to nurse and not hurt their mother.

I would prefer my child to have mother's milk instead of cow's milk. To see a child on formula makes me feel badly for the mother and child but I would never say it "grosses me out". That is just disrespectful to mothers who choose to formula feed. MOO" as they would say. There is nothing like the bonding of nursing and holding a baby bottle just doesn't come close.

But anyway. Nursing your child has nothing to do with what sort of mental or emotional problems they will have later in life. There is so much more to parenting then just nursing past infancy. If you nurse your child but they have a mental health problem, chemical dependancy problem or other genetic problem then it won't make them any more independant in adulthood, obviously.

But my point is, it's beautiful to nurse your child into toddlerhood and beyond and I feel sorry for anyone who feels uncomfortable. They have just never experienced that beautiful bond, I guess.
 
It's a matter, I guess, between mother and child but I think what upset me about the photo was that they had him, a great big child, standing on a chair, sucking away. It did give me a totally different feeling than if they had photographed the mom, lovingly holding him in her arms, feeding him breast milk.

I did breastfeed all three of my children but would not have done so after they were a year old. They have all grown up to be responsible adults so I hope I didn't do anything to them that would cause them to resent me because I didn't bf them, standing on a chair.
 
I agree, I think this was an invasion of the child's privacy.

But to clear up common misconceptions, just because a child has teeth does not mean they use them when nursing. They don't, it's natural for a child to know how to nurse and not hurt their mother.

I would prefer my child to have mother's milk instead of cow's milk. To see a child on formula makes me feel badly for the mother and child but I would never say it "grosses me out". That is just disrespectful to mothers who choose to formula feed. MOO" as they would say. There is nothing like the bonding of nursing and holding a baby bottle just doesn't come close.

But anyway. Nursing your child has nothing to do with what sort of mental or emotional problems they will have later in life. There is so much more to parenting then just nursing past infancy. If you nurse your child but they have a mental health problem, chemical dependancy problem or other genetic problem then it won't make them any more independant in adulthood, obviously.

But my point is, it's beautiful to nurse your child into toddlerhood and beyond and I feel sorry for anyone who feels uncomfortable. They have just never experienced that beautiful bond, I guess.

BBM This assertion has always mystified me. I both breast and bottle fed breast milk to my son. I think one would be hard pressed to prove there is any difference in "the bonding experience" between bottle versus breast feeding. A preference on the part of the nursing mother, sure. Fulfilling some biological/emotional need on the part of the mother, no doubt. But a closer, somehow more meaningful, deeper bond than if a mother bottle feeds her child breast milk or formula? Wishful thinking. I think it was selfish of this woman to allow her son's picture nursing at that age to be displayed universally. This clearly has much more to do with her needs (and I would argue, attachment parenting in general is more about the needs of the parent than what is truly in the best interests of the child) than the true needs of the child at this stage.
 
Putting aside the extended bf'ing issue, what I really don't get is that mother's decision to put her child out there like that. He's not a baby and he may be okay with it when he's older. But what if he isn't? I can't imagine putting a picture of my son on the cover of a magazine and all over the internet bf'ing at that age, regardless of how fine *I* am with my decisions. jmo

That is exactly how I reacted to the picture and I imagine relentless teasing from his peers in the years to come.
 
The article is about attachment parenting, or extreme parenting and some Dr. being the guru of it all. Maybe it's a new Hollywood craze. I wouldn't want to have to stop and breast feed a toddler, but whatever others do is fine. I also thought that people who breast feed had larger breasts than this woman. She didn't look very full. This will give talk shows something to talk about, like the article says.

BBM: It crossed my mind, when I saw that picture, that she wasn't even this child's mother. If that's the case, and they just stuck a kid on some woman's breast, well then, that puts things in an entirely different light, for me.
 
BBM: It crossed my mind, when I saw that picture, that she wasn't even this child's mother. If that's the case, and they just stuck a kid on some woman's breast, well then, that puts things in an entirely different light, for me.

Yes, her beasts do not "appear" to be full of milk, not in the least.

Breast feeding is about colostrum and nutrition for the infant. I have never witnessed any public breast feeding but if the kid is 1 years plus, or making loud smacking/sucking sounds in a public place, expect to see some unfriendly glares.

If this goes on in private, well...keep it private.
 
As long as Mom's okay with what happens when she leaves the room. :lol:
 

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