I'm Mom. And that's enough.

PLUNK.  That's the sound of my hind end hitting the hardwood plank on dirt ground after choosing to get off of this internal seesaw ride I've been on with Time Magazine since their  recent May cover story.

I get it.  

I get the freedom of speech.

I get the shock factor value too.

Heads turn.  Google heats up.  And, voila. A hoopla is born.

But, there are some things I just don't get.  

I do not get the lack of respect for the role of motherhood.  I do not see where a headline and cover photo such as this gives honor to the journey of parenting.

All women are not the same.

Promoting Attachment Parenting is terrific.  Landing a center stage like Time Magazine with a sold-out audience is rock solid too.  But promote all of this in a way that shows respect and honors the role of motherhood.

Who me?

It must be that I formula fed my babies.  If not that, then clearly I am a woman insecure with my body and excessively private with my parts.

Nope.

My stat records with the title of mom include a first born who traded thrush with me back-n-forth, back-n-forth for almost 3 months straight.  More blood shed {by me} than I care to recount in areas most tender to a first time mama learning to breastfeed. An off-the-record documentation of my sister-in-law straight up lying to my on duty day witch nurse when asked if my son received his 6:00 feeding.  This falsification due to my lack of mastery in getting Eli to latch on. Countless nights awake and co-crying with an infant who needed more nourishment.  A husband waking every single feeding for the first 2 months to help me figure it out.  3 months of nursing.  6 months of just pumping.  By 10 months, my first born was drinking whole milk.

And furthermore, when my second son arrived, crazy enough, breastfeeding was a huge success. I nursed Casey for 20 months introducing him to whole milk in his eleventh month.

I have nursed in public with respect to my body and to my baby as well as to the others around me.

I have skinny dipped in the broad day light too. So there.

I am woman. We are women.  

And within each woman is a world of diversity. From the choice to conceive, to getting pregnant, to potentially dealing with and grieving miscarriage(s), to delivering the baby, to making the decision to breastfeed, to what their family's care and nurturing system will look like all reads completely different with any given woman's story.  And, that's just taking into consideration one process of one baby.   Our experiences with each birth can be so very different too.  Just take mine for example.

Whether you are an avid fan of the order and schedules that the popular book Baby Wise promotes or a strong supporter of theories like Attachment Parenting that leave rhythms and routines more loose and general, we all need to remind ourselves as mothers of our number one goal. This is to provide quality care to the best of our abilities in our environments.

My environment as mom has been one at home.  I cannot tell you the respect I have for working moms doing their very best to provide both financially and emotionally for their families.  The idea of of o'dark thirty, a breast pump, a brief case and a pair of heels sends chills up my spine.  Shoot, I work within the confines of my home and there are days when the last thing I want to do is prepare a meal for my family.  I can only imagine how a working mom might feel coming home only to replace a pencil skirt with an apron.

Moms have enough on their lists of to dos.  I don't think adding the unwarranted guilt and/or anger derived from a misrepresented theory of parenting showcased in a highly skewed smack-in-the face slanderous headline and image has a place anywhere in between "pick up milk", "clean out closets" and "6:00 ball practice".

I'm Mom.  And that's enough.  

The journey of parenting is one helluva ride.  It is all things good and hard work too.  It's not for the faint of heart.  It's for the ones ready to share a space in their hearts to lead and love on growing ones with hopes of training up men and women of good character and great abilities.  Our end goal as parents is to make this world a better place.

In your way.

In your time.

In your struggles and successes too.

All out of love.

I'm Mom. And that is enough.

No more edgy headlines to hustle up hate.  No more drama to deploy differences that breed doubt.

Find a way to sell your magazines.

Tell your story.

Report your reviews.

I am putting my foot down to your wickedly twisted ways of defiling the art of motherhood, Time Magazine.  

I'm Mom.  And that is enough.

.mac