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I bet she does not. But maybe she should. But would that be weird? Would it be weird to see a four-year-old hoist a Cabbage Patch kid to her unformed breastlets? Would it make you uncomfortable?
Boy oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy.
Wyliecat wrote recently about playing dolls with her daughter and realizing they were bottle-fed only.
I sat there, happily playing doll-babies with Rosebud, when I suddenly realized we were bottle-feeding these lumps of plastic.
I've never had this conversation with my own four-year-old daughter, perhaps because she fed all her dolls solids ever since they came out of the package. And because I breastfed my own daughter for exactly seven weeks, I probably wouldn't have given her a lecture on breastfeeding.
However.
Maybe I should.
Maybe, as her mother, it's my responsibility to start filling her in now that no matter what choices she makes if and when she becomes a mother, and if and when she has a biological child that she even could breastfeed, society will, you know, probably tell her she's wrong. Particularly the large part of society that could sell her an accessory to do it another way.
And if she has trouble with breastfeeding and chooses the bottle, there will be another large portion of society, particularly the society that hangs out on parenting message boards or whatever they use in the year 2030, that will tell her that she is poisoning her baby if she doesn't breastfeed.
But regardless of whether or not a woman chooses to breastfeed, shouldn't she learn the basics before she's, say, eight months pregnant? Couldn't we model breastfeeding with dolls the same way we do bottle feeding? Clearly, some people are. Check out Heather's adorable daughter, who has better technique than I ever did.
Perhaps if we taught our daughters about breastfeeding with their dolls, they would grow up with a different relationship with their breasts, maybe one that's stronger than what they see on a semi mudflap. I, for one, had a hard time with breastfeeding because of my strong mental connection between breasts and sex. Some women have no issues with that at all, but for some reason, I just never thought of my breasts as food deliverers, even when it came time to use them that way. Which is a damn shame.
It turns out, there is a doll for kids out there with a magnet in the mother's breast and a magnet in the baby's mouth that models breastfeeding. And apparently (bonus points -- Mattel, are you listening?) it comes in any hair or skin color. (Editor's note: I have never been contacted by this company - I just found the doll while researching this subject.)
There is another doll that is for mommies or soon-to-be-mommies who are trying to get the hang of breastfeeding. It apparently has an open mouth. And yes, what comes to mind IMMEDIATELY when we think of dolls with open mouths? According to Karma:
To clarify: yes, that is a big hole where her mouth is supposed to be, making her somewhat reminiscent of those "party" dolls you can buy at those "specialty" shops. Have to admit, even though I probably shouldn't, that that was the only thing I could think of when Nadine first pulled Sherry out. She sort of looks like a Cabbage.patch kid who's been around the block...a few times. But she does the trick, in terms of getting a sense of breastfeeding holds and positioning.
Sex and breasts and breastfeeding and maternal love and romantic love and sex. I think part of the problem for me is that I have trouble juxtaposing the Judeo-Christian culture in which I was raised with the XXX standards of today's society. You're not supposed to have breasts or show your breasts or let anyone touch your breasts, but then again, everyone else is running around selling cereal with theirs. This is confusing to an adult, let alone a child. Or maybe, in the case of Heather's daughter there in the photo, it's not confusing at all. She clearly knows what boobs are for.
And I'm a little jealous.
