I make sacrifices for my children - most mother's do. We give up a lot of more mundane things, like time with our friends and husbands, or our bodies. We let our brains turn to mush because the only conversations we have all day long are about Dora, the color and shape of poop, and what flavor jelly to use.
Many of us also fight popular conventions. We refuse to turn our car seats around at 1 year, breastfeed, delay solids until past six months. Maybe we didn't circ, or had a natural birth. Awesome work! Keep it up! Buuut...
STFU.
Okay, so that's a bit of a stretch - no one actually says all that at once. But I have actually seen someone say "I read up on this topic while breast feeding my toddler. I find it really interesting."
.... Transparent much? Kudos to you for breast feeding your toddler. It's good for him, and it fights conventions (I'm generally ALL FOR fighting conventions). But asking for a pat on the back in random places is too self serving for my taste. That's not our job as mothers. We're supposed to do what's best for our kids, not to get attention, but because it's best for them.
Don't get me wrong. I love attention. And I love when someone notices that I'm still nursing, or that I have two rear facing car seats. Similarly, I would loathe it when someone comments negatively on these things (not that anyone ever has so far). But I see no reason to mention that I breast feed in a Facebook group about car seats, or mention that my kid is uncirc'd on a JustMommies board about breast feeding.
And (here it comes) I roll my eyes at people who do. Not all the people that do. Just that ones that seem to need validation for every choice they ever make regarding their children. Stand up for them, stand up for yourself, do your research, and make informed decisions. You don't need people to constantly notice and tell you "great job!" for doing something you should be doing anyways.
/end rant
