Wednesday, February 27, 2008

A tiny dissenting voice in the parenting culture

In case I sounded cranky in my post on mainstream parents, I just want to defend myself here.

There's a lot of complaining among the formula-feeding set of breastfeeding nazis and self-righteous cloth-diaper users and so forth, but keep in mind we're the minority. if you're in the mainstream, you can choose whether or not to be offended, because you will be surrounded by people doing exactly the same thing as you and supporting all your choices. I very rarely meet parents like me in person.

It reminds me of this video clip going around about a pastor advocating that men pee standing up, because the Bible commands it (hint: it doesn't really, but he thinks it does). My response when I saw it is that the pastor in question is just mad because white men in America have to settle for only 90% of the power now instead of the 100% they used to enjoy.

I'm trying to brainstorm ways to meet other like-minded parents so we can feel less out of place in at least some situations:

1. Sam remembered that our midwives have a get-together every year. Maybe we could network with some other home-birthers.

2. I can always find people online who think like me, because apparently we're pretty loud-mouthed and like to shoot our opinions out on the web. There are places like Mothering.com that let you "find your tribe."

3. I'm trying this one already: Educate my so-far childless friends so that they'll join our movement once they procreate.

Any other ideas?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

La.Leche.League.

Lauren Wayne said...

Good one. I've yet to get out to any sort of meetings (LLL, NINO) -- I'll have to look into that.

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