Esther Grunis wrote,

>  The discussion
> was lively and I think the point got across.....how could we expect a
> tiny
> baby to wait 4 hours when we adults couldn't last even 2 without a cup of
> coffee or a drink of water.
>
> And of course the number of minutes on each side issue was also settled,
> when I started taking everyone's coffee cup out of their hands after 7
> minutes!!
>
What a brilliant idea, Esther! I can think of all kinds of other things
we could add to give adults a sense of what it is like to be a baby...
We could ask them to refrain from talking; all they can do is cry for
what they want. We can leave them by themselves in large dark rooms
while people talk in whispers in the next room. We can keep them from
getting up and walking around... I remember being really struck by the
idea that formula was developed to enable factory workers to have
something to feed the babies but also promoted as a way to turn babies
into little factory workers. (Maybe this explains why some of us do not
do so well in the "subordination" dept... there might be something in
formula to make people accept routine and repetitive tasks more easily.)

Of course, we will never be able to find anything quite as
age-appropriate and species-adapted as what the babies finally get for
their refreshment breaks. Today my five-year-old explained to her
step-grandmother (who did not breastfeed her children, unlike her two
biological grandmothers) that mother's milk was much yummier than any of
the things she was being offered to drink. (And of course it was the
nursling who asked for juice... why do things happen this way?)
Jo-Anne

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