Tearfree, did you breastfeed?
Yes – but not until age five.
In restaurants?
Yes but discretely, not sitting in a café with floor-to-ceiling windows at the corner of a busy intersection like some women I’ve seen. I find Girls Gone Wild style breastfeeding a little strange.
Interesting breastfeeding factoid: Tearfree herself was actually breastfed, which was unusual for her generation, but she comes from a long line of non-Koolaid drinking women.
Are you some hippy chick?
No.
Tearfree, where do you stand on the La Leche league?
They had a man for president in a town I used to visit on weekends. I’m not sure that was in their best interests.
Tearfree, did you Ferberize?
Yes at seven months although I had friends who didn’t sleep for 2-1/2 years and others whose babies slept through the night at six weeks. Tearfree believes parents can do what they want when it comes to sleep. She just wishes the non-Ferberizers would stop telling the Ferberizers how their kids will be traumatized for life. Really, how many of Tearfree’s readers remember what went on when they were seven months old?
Potty training?
Just before age two. No problems whatsoever. Tearfree is thankful as she’s seen toddlers with potty issues and it’s not a pretty sight.
Tearfree, What do you think of the diaper free movement?
I think some parenting magazine should send an investigative reporter to spend 24 hours with a supposedly diaper-free 8-month-old. Mattress inspection must be part of the assignment. I’m deeply skeptical, but you never know.
How do you feel about the small children in restaurants controversy?
Children in restaurants are fine as long as they’re behaving themselves. But I was out for brunch the other day and there was a screaming two year old there with Mummy, Daddy and Daddy’s buddy, all of whom did absolutely nothing. The mother kept saying, “He has to get it out of his system.” Well, maybe he did, but not in a crowded restaurant.
Bottom line is small kids don’t want to go out to brunch in trendy restos. It’s their parents that do. So none of this is about being “child unfriendly.” It’s about being unfriendly to selfish parents who want to make their kids everybody else’s problem. Shrieking kids would way rather be at home or at the playground. That’s why they’re shrieking.
What about changing your baby on a restaurant table?
Before Tearfree became a mother, she went out for lunch with a friend who did this. Tearfree was so shocked and horrified, she was completely silenced.
What about babies on airplanes?
Better than this.
And now for the biggest controversy of them all, Tearfree, have you ever spanked?
Yes on a few occasions. And whenever I admit it to other mothers, they’re shocked – not that I’ve done it, but that I’d admit it. Then they tell me, they’ve spanked too. And for the record, I’ve also thrown batteries in the garbage and expressed healthy skepticism about global warming.
REMEMBER: First ever Koolaid Mummy Blogger awards will be given out on Friday. Keep your nominations coming.
3 comments:
Okay, I have a three kids and a stepkid and I can't tell you how screaming kids in restaurants annoy me. I just didn't take my children to anything other than kiddie restaurants until they were old enough to behave -- around eight or nine or so. You are so right, Tearfree -- it is the selfish parents who want to go to the stylish restaurants, not the poor kid who would either like to be at home in his/her own space eating a meal cooked for him or her by a loving parent, or outside running around and playing. I believe they get so frustrated having to sit in a restaurant listening to boring adult talk that they deliberately act up.
I think this deserves a bigger rant ... selfish parents who thrust their children on the rest of the world. It's not the kids fault. It is the fault of the selfish, egocentric parent who does not want to give up their old lifestyles.
It's GIRLS GONE CHILD not GIRLS GONE WILD. Psh.
You're "Girl's Gone Child." The one doing the breastfeeding with her shirt up around her neck was "Girls's Gone Wild."
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