why do I react this way?

[karunamayi]

i was waiting for kripa at the store and I was perusing through people mag at J lo and kidlets and read that she chose not to breastfeed bc her mom didn't.

I slammed the mag shut and felt so much sadness, anger, disdain, disappointment... Come on... I can understand somewhat my reaction to my sister's thing with my nephew but J lo illiciting a similar response?

I seriously need to get a life.

[Bickery]

I'm asking myself the same thing.

Well, not exactly, because I didn't have a reaction to J-Lo's comment.

I was thinking of the jury duty mom's comment from the other day. My response took me by surprise.

[Debra]

I'm kind of not surprised. My understanding is that the breastfeeding rate is lower among wealthy Latina women.

Sort of on that subject, I was recently very surprised to find out from my pregnant sister-in-law that none of her L.A./Hollywood friends breastfed at all and that they all had c-sections. I find this terribly discouraging. :(

[kokoro]

I used to feel a lot of strong feelings about this but the further away I am down the parenting road the less I react. I didn't feel anything about JLo's decision. I can think with my mind that it sounds like a poor reason not to breastfeed and I imagine she might have some hang ups about it that she might not have wanted to discuss in a national magazine. But I didn't *feel* anything and that surprised me. Glad I didn't because I didn't like feeling upset about stuff like this in the past when I couldn't really do anything about it. If I really wanted to *do* something I could write articles for magazines, be a LLL leader, etc. Getting upset does little to nothing, you know? But I used to feel the same so i totally get feeling that way.

[Kerry]

I used to feel a lot of strong feelings about this but the further away I am down the parenting road the less I react.

That's kind of how I am, too. I'm curious to see if, now that I've got a baby and am breastfeeding again, those stronger feelings about other people's choices will come back, but I sense that they won't. I've learned to disengage myself somewhat from other people's choices as a defense mechanism to prevent burnout in my job. If I got emotionally involved in other moms' choices that I don't agree with, I would become a wreck and would not be able to do my job effectively.

[indigo]

I used to feel a lot of strong feelings about this but the further away I am down the parenting road the less I react. I didn't feel anything about JLo's decision. I can think with my mind that it sounds like a poor reason not to breastfeed and I imagine she might have some hang ups about it that she might not have wanted to discuss in a national magazine. But I didn't *feel* anything and that surprised me. Glad I didn't because I didn't like feeling upset about stuff like this in the past when I couldn't really do anything about it. If I really wanted to *do* something I could write articles for magazines, be a LLL leader, etc. Getting upset does little to nothing, you know? But I used to feel the same so i totally get feeling that way.

Yeah, I don't really get emotionally invested in other people's decisions. It just seems like a note very peaceful way to be, just because there are SO many people in the world making decisions I don't agree with! I mean, it's a challenge to be peaceful about people very close to me making questionable decisions, but I can't say it's much of a challenge when it comes to complete strangers.

[karunamayi]

Well, I agree. I was surprised at my reaction, honestly. Only then could I really take stock of my beliefs and reactions.