I had a neat experience the other day at a department store, where I met
a new grandmother who was asking me for my opinion on the best kinds of
clothes (the easiest for diaper changes, etc.) to buy for her new
granddaughter. I gave her my opinion, but then told her that I thought
if she wanted a good present for her daughter-in-law, it would be better
to prepare some meals that would be easy to re-heat on those days when
you don't feel like cooking. She said that she'd already done that a
lot, and was still helping out, since her DIL had had a hard labour and
hard recovery...baby is over 1 month now. However, I thought I'd ask
(nosey me) whether she was nursing baby (nursing one's baby around here
is hardly taken for granted...a lot of people still don't do it). Turns
out she is, and it's going *great* (glad to hear it!). I offhandedly
made the comment that I really enjoy nursing my daughter too (who I kept
having to chase after, as she ran off amongst the racks of clothes!).
This grandmother asked me if she could ask a question that I might find
a bit stupid (;-)). She asked if a child the age of my daughter ever
ate anything else given that I was still nursing her. This grandmother
didn't seem too shocked at all that I was "still nursing her" which was
nice to see. I explained that yes they do start solids all the same,
and that although I was in no hurry to push her to eat them before she
seemed ready, she now eats a largely varied diet (at 13 months), insists
on tasting EVERYTHING. I did point out that she feeds herself (always
has) and does not eat very LARGE amounts of solids per meal, compared
with what she might be used to seeing in bottle-fed babies (this
grandmother had 3 sons, all bottle fed way back when she was doing
that). She seemed very supportive of the bf her DIL was doing, which
was nice to see, and I could see she was relieved to hear that they do
eventually "get off the boob" a bit more. ;-) I gave her my phone
number for her DIL, told her if she (DIL) ever wanted to talk with
someone who'd been there, to give me a ring...and if she had any
SPECIFIC question that needed a "professional answer" I know some
professionals in the field I could refer her to. ;-)
Well, that was good story #1 for me the other day...but I shared it on
one of my discussion lists in french too, and another lady responded
this to me:
"The other day my cleaning lady saw me nursing my child, and she said
'BF is really good for the child.' I asked if she'd nursed her
children, and she said 'yes, but only 3 years'. I answered that 3 years
is quite a lot here, even quite rare here (she's algerian). She
answered back that it's nothing compared to her own mother, who nursed
her younger brother 13 years. She added that 'she had spoilt him a
bit.'." ;-)
I thought that was pretty neat too... :-)
Fio.
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