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Dear Subscriber,
I always laugh when I hear someone on television
claiming to be a "parenting expert." What, exactly,
does a person need to do to become an expert at
parenting, anyway? Do you know any real parents who
honestly would claim to be an expert at it? The fact
is, you can never master parenting any more than you
can master life itself.
Yet, there are always plenty of parents ready to
criticize others' methods of parenting, even in the
harshest of words. Alison and I have been fortunate
not to run into too many of those people in our
personal lives, but we receive more than enough
correspondence criticizing the baby products that we
sell because of the kinds of "bad parenting" they
supposedly encourage.
For a very mild example, I will quote an email we
received last week from a potential customer who was
distraught over our sales of the Podee Hands Free
Bottle.
"Hello, I was about to order some cloth diapers when i
noticed that you are selling the Podee!!! YUCK! Why do
you sell such a thing??? I really think that featuring
the Podee Never Touch Your Baby Again feeding system
is a bad idea, especially on a site frequented by
parents who lean toward natural baby care. You may be
losing more customers than me. This product is reviled
by the breastfeeding community."
The lady who wrote that email made several unfounded
assumptions, as well as a harsh judgement of us,
without knowing the facts or caring to learn them.
Heaven help you if you run into her next time you are
in the grocery store if your baby happens to be
drinking from a Podee while sitting in the shopping
cart.
Is breastfeeding better than bottle-feeding? Is
breastmilk better than formula? Science has proven
that children who drink their mother's breastmilk have
a better chance for healthy, full development than
children who drink formula. And some convincing
studies have also suggested psychological benefits can
be gained from the action of breastfeeding itself.
But the issue is not so black-and-white as that.
For one thing, there are a lot of great parents out
there who, for one reason or another, choose not to
breastfeed. Practically our parents' entire
generation was raised on formula, and they turned out
just fine. Nobody has the right to criticize a mother
for doing what she feels is best for her family.
There are also a lot of great parents out there who
want to breastfeed, but for one reason or another
cannot. Like so many twins and higher-order
multiples, our daughters had a low birth weight.
Because of this, they were not strong enough to learn
to breastfeed right away and received bottles in the
hospital. The thing is, once a child learns to drink
from a bottle, good luck teaching them to breastfeed.
It was still important to us for them to receive their
mother's breastmilk though, so Alison pumped for the
better part of a year, and they took their meals from
their Podee bottles so that mommy and daddy could easy
hold both of them at the same time.
If the lady who wrote that email to us had seen Alison
and our girls in the grocery store, she would have
seen two babies drinking from Podee Hands Free Bottles
and one mommy efficiently marking items off her
shopping list. She would have assumed the following
things from that:
1. the girls were drinking formula (not true)
2. the mommy was anti-breastfeeding (not true)
3. the girls are rarely held and loved by their
parents (entirely not true)
The good news is that the lady in question was able to
see her error after we passed a couple of emails back
and forth. And since she flung her criticism via
cyberspace rather than in person, she did not have to
make a fool of herself in front of the other grocery
shoppers.
The point of my story is that even if you think you
are an expert in parenting, be kind to other parents.
In a society where even having a family has begun to
lose its importance, those of us who are dedicated to
our children need to build each other up, not tear
each other down. Besides, situations are rarely as
simple as they first appear.
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Have a great weekend!
Sincerely,
Paul
Paul & Alison Martin
Noss Galen Baby LLC
www.NossGalenBaby.com
Copyright, Noss Galen Baby LLC 2004-2008
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