Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Breast or Bottle...for the baby doll

So this is weird and may well end up being one of those things my daughter will want to kill me for one day but it's too interesting a topic to ignore. I breast fed my daughter as did most of the Mom friends I've made since having a baby. Now that my baby is quickly approaching 3, many of our Mom Group friends are having baby number two. And all of them are breastfeeding the new babies. My daughter is obsessed with these babies -- maybe she has the weird sixth sense that she's not getting a sibling -- and doesn't miss a beat when we spend time with the new babies and their mommies. So I guess it shouldn't be any surprise that after a recent playgroup when my daughter was playing with her dolls, I found her with a doll's face smashed into her flat little chest. She repeats much of what the mommies say including "My baby hungry, after I feed her you can hold her." Exactly what she hears at playgroup when she asks to hold one of the babies. She even plastered her Buzz Lightyear to her chest for a recent feeding. I haven't responded to this latest development except to say that it's best not to feed babies in the store but wait until we get home as the last thing I want to do is defend this behavior to some offended stranger. I'm just not sure how to feel about it. Should I be proud that she is so observant that she mimics the good mothering she sees all around her? Or should I be trying to steer her toward playing with her fake bottles for feedings instead? I'm leaning toward the former and not the latter but I'd be lying if I said the whole thing didn't make me uncomfortable. It's one thing to have the breast vs. bottle debate about real babies but baby dolls...now that's one I didn't expect.

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