You’ve read all the parenting books, you’ve talked to every mother on your street, you’ve surfed mommyblogs until your eyes crossed..and you still don’t know what the heck you’re doing half the time. We talk about parenting by “instinct,” but it’s time we call it like it is: mostly we’re all just parenting by accident, some of them bad, some of them good.
Read the rest of this entry

Last week my better half sent me an email titled “Boycott Isotoner?” with a link to this article, about one company’s legal troubles following its firing of a female employee who was pumping breastmilk while on the clock. The case went all the way to Ohio’s Supreme Court, which ultimately ruled that the firing was legal because—woman or not, breastfeeding mother or not—this mother-employee had taken unauthorized breaks to pump during her shift and was therefore in violation of company policy. As a breastfeeding and working mother myself, my hackles were of course immediately raised, but then, when I read that the woman admitted to taking unapproved breaks to pump, I almost slapped my forehead and yelled “duh” at the computer screen, because this—this—is the sort of thing that gives working mothers a bad name and makes it hard for us to parent in the ways we want to, whether that involves breastfeeding while working or even going back to work after having children at all. No wonder we’re accused of seeking special treatment! But then I read on.
Read the rest of this entry