It is a ploy. A trick.
To divide us.
To get us fighting and picking each other apart.
And unfortunately, it seems to be working.
Time Magazine released its latest cover and the Internet exploded with opinions. With attacks. With applause.
It seems to me that the point of this cover was purely to divide….as the title doesn’t appear to have anything to do with the image. It hits at the heart of guilt: “Are You Mom Enough?” and provides a provocative image: a mom (a blogger like so many of us) breastfeeding her child…. but not in a shared, private moment between the two of them, one on display – taking a ‘stand’ about a particular style, if you will, of parenting.
It strikes me as a blatant attempt to troll for controversy…
I’m tired of it. Aren’t you tired of it? All this guilt and comparison and ‘who’s-style-of-parenting-is-the-best’?
Edited to add 5/11 Since I have been asked, “did I read the article?” I will confirm, in fact, I did. And it is in large part BECAUSE I read the article that my opinion on this is such. The piece itself, I feel, is fairly benign. It focuses almost entirely on Dr. Sears, his history and the evolution of ‘attachment parenting’. I didn’t feel it was saying one style of parenting was any better than the next. In fact, the mom, Jamie Lynn, on the cover? She is mentioned in a whopping ONE SENTENCE in the entire piece. And yet – there she is on display with that title, “Are You Mom Enough?”. This is Time Magazine spinning this piece to be provocative.
I would venture to say there are plenty of things I do wrong as a mom. And also – plenty of things I do right.
One of them is giving other moms the benefit of the doubt and respecting their right to parent as they choose.
What do you think? Was Time’s intention to start a thoughtful conversation about attachment parenting? Or set the stage for Moms to once again take sides on parenting styles?
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