Sally Clarkson, Feminism, Breastfeed Etc

[debrand]

I found these excerpts on the Making Home Blogspot.

As I look to the needs of the children of today, I am convinced they need the same things from their mothers that I needed-- and received-- from mine. They need... the gentle touch of a mother's hands, her focus and attention on a daily basis, a champion & a cheerleader, someone who has the time and energy to give encouragement along life's way and comfort in dark times. They need a directive voice to show them how to live. ...Meeting these needs is not an option or a sideline for mothers, but part of [God's] design."

I would consider most of this to be important for parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles etc. and not just mothers. I don't know what she means by my focus and attention on a daily basis. I don't hover around my kids but I believe that I give them a normal amount of attention. I'm also not certain what she means by a 'directive voice'

Often, women feel confused and torn between the cultural messages they hear about what is important for them to do and the eternal message God has written on their hearts.

If they absorb the cultural message, they may avoid having children at all or radically limit the number of children in order to leave enough time and energy for their "real" work. They may consciously or unconsciously resent the children who keep them from being "productive." Or, more commonly, they will exhaust themselves trying to have it all-- a successful career and a vibrant home life. They try to fit too many activities into their days and end up feeling that they are not successful at anything they do.

A whole generation of children, as a result, ends up feeling rushed and pushed, with little or no sense of the comfort and stability of a satisfying home life. ... When the biblical mission of motherhood is devalued and disappears from culture, the whole next generation suffers morally, emotionally, and spiritually.

I only felt confused when I was a fundamentalist. As I grew away from religion, I realized that a woman can be a good mother and also work outside the home, pursue her own interests apart from her children and have an identity beyond that of wife and mother.

This next quote is from Jess the owner of the blog and not Sally Clarkson

In this day and age, it is seen as intolerant to present the view that there is a "best" way of doing anything. The modern values of tolerance and open-mindedness lead to absurdity when it becomes offensive to say, for example, that breastmilk is the best option.

Fundamentalists would like for all of life to be cut and dried, black and white decisions. That is not how life works. What is good for one family, might not be good for another. We aren't interchangeable cogs.

I think that breastfeeding should be encouraged without making mothers feel like failures for not breastfeeding. A woman who does not breastfeed is not a bad mother nor does she have to justify her decision to not breastfeed.

Again from Jess

The unquestioned, meteoric rise of feminism brought with it the view that career, money, personal acclaim and power are what give value to a woman.

This view existed for men before feminism came into being.

makinghome.blogspot.com/2013/01/motherhood-musings-from-sally-clarkson.html

[ILoveJellybeans]

Since when was it offensive to say that breastmilk is the best option??? I have never ever heard that, in fact, hospitals seem to be encouraging new mothers to breastfeed, and there seems to be a lot of judgement by other moms about moms who dont breastfeed.

The only problem I have ever seen people have with breastfeeding is people complaining when moms breastfeed in public (which is unfair because I am sure this sort of person would complain more about hungry screaming newborns in public, and most breastfeeding moms are descrete about it and arent showing off much boob), or the breastfeeding of older kids, like the magazine with the woman breastfeeding her 4 year old on the cover, or that documentary that showed someone who breastfed her kid til age 7.

[YPestis]

I'm not sure what fundies think mothers did before the rise of the career women: sip tea and attend Mommy and Me sessions? I'm sure most women were too busy to play with their kids, plan out play dates, or homeschool them. There were vegetables to plant, weed to hoe, clothes to mend, soap to make etc. The kids were lucky if *they* had time to themselves. I really, really hate this fundie fixation on this 1950's homemaker ideal which never existed for the "average" folks until the 20th century and still doesn't mean much to most women on this planet. To me, these fundie women might as well be explaining to me how do knit a dollie with all their talk of need to stay home.

[debrand]

Most of my ancestors worked outside the home. None of them were ideal fundie wives and mothers. However, they were all loved and respected by their kids. I'm sure that none of my aunts or uncles felt my grandmother neglected them

One thing that strikes me about fundies is how limited they expect a woman's role to be. She isn't supposed to have a life outside of being a wife and mother. Yet, Sally Clarkson apparently goes on speaking tours so she has a bigger role outside of the one that she assigns Christian women.