Maybe all our discussion about scales comes down to a discussion of gadgets and tools.  To me, a gadget is one of those things lost in the back of my kitchen drawer that doesn't do what it purports to do - that actually makes the job messier or harder.  A tool... well, those migrate to the very front of the drawer, like the spatula that I use so much I bought an identical back-up.  When we use a good tool well, we have no sense that it's controlling us or dictating our next move.  A rubber spatula for cleaning out a bowl simply makes more efficient use of our time; in using it, not one of us would feel we were admitting some kind of culinary failure.  A butter curler *may* be an admission that we're trying to look like a fancier chef than we really are.  At least, that's what it would be in *my* hands.  In the hands of someone in a different job, it's just one more tool.

Our profession is young enough that we're still figuring out what's a gadget and what's a tool, and when something is a gadget for this baby or a tool for that one.  After reading the most recent round of posts, I wonder if the scale is just another victim of gadget/tool confusion.  In many of our settings, it's clearly a gadget, adding useless or even counterproductive information to an already-fairly-clear picture.  In other settings, it's a tool, putting into place one jigsaw puzzle piece in a scattered and confusing picture.  And in still other settings, it's almost an amusement - not scary enough to mothers to cause gadget-damage, and sometimes helpful enough to be counted as useful.  

The different categories into which a scale can fall may mean we'll *never* agree on its value.  What's appropriate in one setting may be grossly inappropriate in another.  Could it be that, at least for the moment, we need to agree to disagree?

Diane Wiessinger, MS, IBCLC  Ithaca, NY  USA
www.wiessinger.baka.com

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