The mothers group

My neighborhood has one of the more active new moms groups in the city. They meet weekly at a local library, organized into cohorts that re-form every four months. This seems like a nice thing, and I am planning on trying to attend these because it will give me a reason to get out of the house and go for a long walk. I think my cohort has already started to meet.


An offshoot of this group is a facebook discussion group for current and former members, which I am also a part of. Mostly for comedic effect. This is a pretty crunchy area, but the postings can be so over the top. Right now, there is a long discussion about a mother trying to wean her two year old. Is she ready? Over how many months should she gradually extend this process? Such a milestone, but so sad as well. There are many comments, sympathizing, they are going through weaning pre-schoolers as well, only you know what's best for you and your baby, it could take up to a year, which is totally normal, you are loved and supported.


This makes me chuckle but also makes my head spin! Is the two year old ready?! Who cares! If a woman decides she would like her life, and breasts, back after nearly three years of physically catering to a small tyrant (lets not forget the pregnancy!) she should worry about whether the kid is ready? I kind of want to troll them with responses like this (I think she was born ready!), but I would get kicked out of the group. Maybe I'll post my own query about how to wean four month old twins because I'm going back to work and who has time for pumping, plus nursing is kind of a drag? I can only imagine the gently worded horrified responses. "Only you know what's best, but I would urge you to consider blah blah blah..."


I suppose there is the small chance that I will fall in love with nursing and earth-mothering and become fully sympathetic to all of this hand-wringing, although I doubt it.  My basic attitude or personality is usually not very malleable to life events. For example, getting married did not make me gushy about weddings or love. I most emphatically do not feel that pregnancy is magical. But we shall see! I would be very interested in my transformation to a stay-at- home* earth mama who makes her own detergent to wash cloth diapers.


*I do not get the sense that most of the women in this group are stay-at-home moms at all- this is very predominantly a two-income area. Which makes it even nuttier to me that they devote all of this time and energy to knitting cloth diapers and nursing pre-schoolers.