It’s likely that my opinion is very different from others who contribute to this blog because we are a diverse group, which is something I like and something I think is representative of mothers the world over. But, there’s a little uproar going on that I just have to add my two cents to - and maybe my fellow moms here will provide a counterpoint.
The who-ha was apparently created by this:
I watch the ad and see a tongue-in-cheek, sassy take on the truth that not only wearing your baby, but also all the other ways we wag out children around wreak havoc on our backs and bodies. You just have to admit that.
Others, however, see it as insulting, a personal attack on what they consider the only proper way to carry a baby and as an insult to motherhood in general. Some fear it will prevent other moms or moms-to-be from experiencing the joy of wearing their babies. You’ve got to read the comments on a post titled “Motrin: The Anti-Mom?” to really get a taste of it.
Oh please. Lighten up! Oh, yeah, you can’t because you’re carrying an extra 15 or so pounds of child with you everywhere. I should probably take that back. I mean, I’ve just been more offensive than that Motrin ad, right? Flame away folks. If a sling or whatever works for you, then fine, but don’t get all righteous about it. It’s that attitude that led total strangers in the check-out line at Target to feel they had the right to inquire whether I would breast feed when they saw I was pregnant.
Bloggers and Twitterers have yelled loud enough that Motrin is now pulling the ad and issuing apologies to those who complain. I suppose they have to - to try to take on an attack of mommy bloggers would be a public relations mess. But, I just had to go on the record as saying I think this is all an over-reaction. Probably due to the fact that my mother didn’t breast feed me or carry me in a sling as a child; and, I’ve doomed my own daughter to be the same maladjusted human because the only time I carried her on my body was in a backpack as I meshed with the masses at the Austin City Limits Festival.
And while I’m here admitting to being a terrible mother because I did not strap my child on me at all times possible, let me go ahead and lay out all my dirty mommy laundry — I work long hours outside of the house, put my girl in day care at two months old, and didn’t breast feed. Egads!
How long do I have before someone calls Child Protective Services on me?
Laura P. Thomas is the wife of a former rocker and mother of one 6-year-old girl that’s already waaay too interested in The Jonas Brothers. (the apple didn’t fall far) She works in the Global Online team at Dell, evangelizes virtual worlds, and twitters too much as LPT.
