Opinion - Parents Precinct

The cover of the November issue of W magazine in the US features a picture of Angelina Jolie breastfeeding one of her twins.

The black white photo, which was taken by Brad Pitt, shows a happy smiling Angelina Jolie doing one of them most natural things in the world.

What is the problem with this image? Well some people feel that is sexualises the act of breastfeeding. According to critics, men will “see the breast as sexual” and find the image arousing, detracting from the importance of breast-feeding.

I think its comments like these that make me and many other women self conscious about breast-feeding in public.

Women should not be confined to the house, or have to schedule everything they need to do around breast-feeding. That fact that women even produce milk is a sign that we were biologically designed to feed our babies whenever we need to regardless of where we are.

Breast-feeding is one of the most important and selfless acts a mother performs, and friend’s families and spouses often don’t realise how draining it can be.

I say well-done Angelina Jolie for showing the world how important breastfeeding is, and inspiring new mums to be confident in their decision breastfeed in public.

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Posted By: Sara Dobson - Category: Opinion

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Benefits of having a baby

September 24th 2008 12:19

A while ago Amy Huang pondered the big question – Can I afford a baby?
Well that got me thinking, what are the benefits of having a baby?
Here are a few I thought of feel free to add your own

1. You never need to sit through anyone’s boring travel videos again. “Wow I would really love to watch more of you sitting in a McDonalds in Thailand, but the baby is getting cranky and it is past her bed time,” or, “ I promised the baby sitters mother I would get her home by 10pm because it’s a school night”

2. You have an excuse for being late. “Can you believe it, I was just on my way out the door when Samantha, (threw up on me, filled her pants...add in any bodily function you like no one will ever question you). Far better than saying, “I have been procastinating all day, and I am too disorganised to get myself ready on time’”

3. Go straight to the front of the queue. Yep there is nothing like a screaming baby, or in my case one trying to run all over the supermarket, and pull magazines out of the checkout displays to get staff to open another checkout. Actually, I have a confession to make; Samantha is at an age where she will still happily sit in the trolley and smile at people, I actually get her out to run around sometimes when I need attention. (works well in banks and post offices too)

4. You no longer need to pay to go out and be entertained. Last night I was in stiches as Samantha grabbed a sheet off the line and, walked around with it on her head cackling to herself.

5. You have someone whose face just lights up at the sight of you, and thinks you are the best thing since sliced bread.

6. You get on the airplane first, and can grab all the overhead luggage space. (I know used to annoy me once too. Time for revenge).

7. People stop their cars and let you across the road when you have a pram.

8. You can get her to answer the phone now, she loves picking it up and heavy breathing down it. No more talking to people you are not interested in.

9. I now make an effort to make the most of my life. Before having a baby, I thought I had endless amounts of time to sit around in the pub pondering the meaning of life until the wee small hours. I now get up early and get on with my work and my writing to fit in as much as I can while the baby sleeps.

10. Best off all; you now have someone you can blame for the after effects of last night’s curry!

So there, they may suck all your spare cash off you, but they earn their keep!

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Gender Differences - Nature or Nuture?

September 4th 2008 07:26

“I am never going to dress my girl in pink or buy her dolls.” I announced in my staunch feminist days, before I became a mother in the real world.

However, that has changed a bit since having a baby, mainly because most baby clothes come in either pink or blue, and even when I buy my daughter jeans and fleeces they seem to have glitter on them.

It has always been my belief, that gender differences are a result of nurture, rather than nature. However, a psychologist at CNN, Anita Sethi, believes gender differences are evident from birth.

She came to this conclusion based on a study, which was carried out among 18-month-old infants. According to the research, when girls and boys are shown pictures of dolls or trucks, most girls prefer to look at the dolls, while the boys prefer the pictures of trucks.
Other research suggests, that girls tend to talk earlier than boys, and boys tend to walk earlier than girls. Boys prefer to watch mechanical motion, while girls prefer to look at faces.

I am certainly not convinced; I think 18 months is plenty of time to stereotype a baby. When I was studying psychology, I remember watching an interesting video of an experiment where adults were asked to interact with a baby. The baby was dressed in either pink or blue regardless of their actual gender. If the adult thought they were interacting with a girl they, tended to cuddle and talk to them. However, when they thought they were interacting with a boy, they would pick up the toy trucks and make Brrm noises or bounce them up and down.

Interestingly, when interviewed later, all the adults thought they treated both the boys and girls the same.

If adults spend more time talking to baby girls, it is not surprising girls will pick up language quicker than boys. If boys are more likely to be bounced around, or shown trucks, it is no wonder that by 18 months that is what they prefer to look at.

I only have one child, a girl she is now 14 months old. I talk to her, and read to her; sometimes I bounce her up and down, and play with her trucks. So far, she is trying to talk and is quite social, but she also likes pushing her toys around. I don’t have a boy but if I did I would definitely read and talk to them. When my nephew was a toddler, he was just as social as my daughter.

What do you think? Are there natural differences between the genders or do we create these differences by the way we interact with them?

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Posted By: Sara Dobson - Category: Opinion, Baby

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Granny Net - A Union for Grandparents

September 2nd 2008 12:57

To all you working parents out there who are using grandparents as free childcare providers lookout, grandparents now have their own union and charter of rights.

Grannynet (grannynet.co.uk), is a website set up to advise grandparents how much childcare it is fair to ask them to do, whether parents should offer to pay grandparents, or who decides how the child should be disciplined when in the care of the grandparents

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NZ's Anti Smacking Laws - Child Protection or Waste of Police Resources

July 8th 2008 05:18

In June last year, New Zealand introduced a controversial anti smacking law. Twelve months on, we need to ask if this bill has been success or a waste of valuable police resources.

The law is designed to protect children from parents who use unreasonable force such as punching, kicking or using objects such as whips or cords to discipline their child. It means these parents can no longer use the defence of “reasonable force to correct a child’s behaviour,’ to avoid proscution

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