Hi everyone,

I'm just catching up on this week's posts but wanted to comment on Nikki's
post of a few days ago:

<<She isn't depressed. She is sad. Mothers should be able to stay home
with their little babies, and not suffer this separation. Mothers have
always worked; it is only in the past 100 years that they have had to
separate from them. This is another side effect of toxic capitalism, where
the health of the future is not as important as earning money.>>

I agree, Nikki. But whether capitalism is good or bad, the society we live
in now is the society we live in now, and I believe that while we work to
change the toxic aspects of it, we at the same time have to figure out the
best way to avoid the toxins we haven't yet been able to change. In other
words, girls need to be taught that when they're thinking about what they
want to be when they grow up, they need to consider how the jobs they hold
will fit with being a mother of a baby. That's not an antifeminist or
limiting view; it's a reality concerning the importance of breastfeeding
and parenting.

Much of the work in the world isn't conducted in a 9-to-5 office setting.
In the United States, we're unfortunately not going to suddenly transform
into a society that grants new mothers two or three years of paid job
leave or "Kindergelt." Therefore, mothers need to accept some of the
responsibility for choosing careers that can be done at home or that allow
flexible schedules, telecommuting, or shift work so at least the baby
could be home with the other parent rather than in daycare. (That's what I
did -- when we had our first baby, we were so broke that I had to go back
to work just 4 weeks postpartum. But I worked weekend night shifts and
pumped; my daughter nursed for 2 years, with not one drop of formula; and
although I would have liked to have been home with my baby myself, I was
glad my husband was building his own relationship with her.)

We all know that life isn't black or white, work or don't work, stay home
or don't stay home. I think our challenge is to get the next generation of
mothers to look further down the road at how their education and career
choices will affect their future children.

No flames, please. I'm actually a liberal Democrat. :)

Jennifer Herrin, RN
Heidelberg, Germany

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