Jon and Kate Plus Eight

Originally Posted by breathesgelatin

I've come to realize recently how insane the online stay-at-home mom community can be. And I'm talking about the "alternative" stay at home moms - the ones who are super into attached parenting and cosleeping and all that. Based on what KSUViolet posted, it seems like a lot of the criticisms are coming from people like that. Crazy crazy crazy people.

The women at theknot.com are just as bad. Although I really do think now that the SAHM online community's worse.

[ForeverRoses]

Originally Posted by OTW

The women at theknot.com are just as bad. Although I really do think now that the SAHM online community's worse.

it's not just SAHM online communities that are bad. Real life ones are pretty harsh as well. I thought adults had grown out of that judgemental/bitchy phase during high school. Then I had kids. Moms can be absolutely horrible to other Moms. I remember coming home from "playdates" and "Mom's Day Outs" in tears many times until I would stop going because of the judgementalness of some of the Mommy Cliques. It wasn't all Moms, but some see it as a new way to be popular (you weren't homecoming queen- well now you can be queen bee of the preschool set!). Off my soapbox.

[AGDee]

I'd rather call them helicopter moms than SAHMs because that's truly the problem.. not that they are SAHMs, but that they are overly controlling with their kids. I ran into one of the worst ones at the grocery store a couple weeks ago. She's freaking out about sending her 14 year old son to band camp (he's going into 9th grade!) because he's never been away from home before. I say "Oh, LilAgdee went last year and had a blast, he'll be fine" and she asks me "What's LilAgdee doing this summer?" <evil grin> "Well, she's in Austria today, she's on a 19 day trip to Europe.. France, Switzerland, Austria and Italy" . This woman's jaw dropped. I'm surprised she didn't call protective services on me for sending my kid away. LOL

[SWTXBelle]

I was amazed by the La Leche League leader who lived next door to me long ago - about 4 weeks before I had my second daughter I had a breast cancer scare. The oncologist and I agreed that after I gave birth I would nurse for six weeks, then wait six weeks so we could see if we had real cause to worry. (Everything worked out fine, thank God. I didn't have breast cancer, and the now-sixteen year old daughter is beautiful, brilliant and healthy). The La Leaky League leader was HORRIFIED -apparently, it would have been better for me to have continued to nurse her, even if it meant I had to suffer from breast cancer and possibly die. I really couldn't believe that it would be better for my daughter to lose her mother than have formula.

[KSUViolet06]

Originally Posted by SWTXBelle

La Leaky League leader was HORRIFIED -apparently, it would have been better for me to have continued to nurse her, even if it meant I had to suffer from breast cancer and possibly die. I really couldn't believe that it would be better for my daughter to lose her mother than have formula.

Wow yeah I can't believe how radical some of those LLL women's views are. I had a professor who was involved with them and everyday, we seriously had to sit through 20 minutes of her going on and on about the cons of formula and how it "increases infant death rates."

Mind you this was in a Business Writing class. How on earth are you talking about breastfeeding when we were supposed to be discussing the format of a memo?? We all defintely included that in our course evaluations at the end.

[breathesgelatin]

Originally Posted by SWTXBelle

I was amazed by the La Leche League leader who lived next door to me long ago - about 4 weeks before I had my second daughter I had a breast cancer scare. The oncologist and I agreed that after I gave birth I would nurse for six weeks, then wait six weeks so we could see if we had real cause to worry. (Everything worked out fine, thank God. I didn't have breast cancer, and the now-sixteen year old daughter is beautiful, brillant and healthy). The La Leaky League leader was HORRIFIED -apparently, it would have been better for me to have continued to nurse her, even if it meant I had to suffer from breast cancer and possibly die. I really couldn't believe that it would be better for my daughter to lose her mother than have formula.

Oh, goodness, how awful.

I've heard great things about LLL re: how they can help you if you're struggling with breastfeeding and they have so many resources to help, but I've also heard about judgmental stuff (though nothing quite as bad as your story. ). One of my favorite chapter sisters is involved in LLL...

The thing is that breastfeeding is not always a workable solutions for all babies in all cases. What would be better - to have starving babies or to use formula? augh.

On the other hand, I know some women who've been so offended by LLL-types who poke into their business that they're very skeptical of any public education about breastfeeding. Specifically this campaign:

http://www.womenshealth.gov/breastfe...page=adcouncil

They saw it as poor use of funds and government intrusion into private decision-making.

I think my stance is somewhere in the middle.

Ack, sorry for the hijack.

[DreamfulSpirit]

You should check out this article that someone wrote on the show...probably got some of facts from that forum you've all been mentioning:

http://www.parentdish.com/2008/07/25...arents-for-tv/

[epchick]

I hate the people who keep saying "how can she not let her kids do _____, just because she doesn't want them to get dirty." And then they go on to say how their kids do _____ and its no big deal.

Maybe its because Kate has 8 kids, and you don't! So if the kids get dirty that is 8 shirts, 8 shorts/pants, 8 underwear, 16 socks, and 8 kids that all have to get cleaned at one time. Multiply that by the number of clothes, sheets, etc that Kate has to clean on a daily basis, and then maybe it'll become clear why she gets upset if one little outing gets the kids dirty.

Ugh these people