‘Dad Enough:’ A Response to Times Cover Story

Dad Enough:' A Response to Times Cover Story

My late father, a standup comic, had a line about breast feeding. “Studies show breast fed babies grow up to be more normal than bottle babies. I was a bottle baby. Now, I’m looking for a chance to become normal.”

My father could get away with that joke. He was a cute man. “5 foot 5,” he’d say. “That’s after teasing my hair.” 5 foot 5 is about how tall that 3 year old breast-feeding boy on the cover of TIME Magazine looked to me until I realized he was standing on a little chair.

Personally, I think my wife made the right choice to end the breastfeeding at roughly 12 months for our three children. I think another two years would have been way too exhausting—although, I must say, the woman on the TIME cover seems unusually rested.

In any event, I think the outrage directed at this cover image may need to be redirected a bit.

 

Michael Schulder: From a Researcher at ABC News; To a Writer at The MacNeil-Lehrer Newshour on PBS; To my five years as a Writer for Peter Jennings at ABC World News Tonight; And 17 years as a Senior Executive Producer at CNN.

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