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Mother Madness
wsj ^ | 6 Nov 2010 | Erica Jong

Posted on 11/07/2010 7:55:33 AM PST by smokingfrog

Unless you've been living on another planet, you know that we have endured an orgy of motherphilia for at least the last two decades. Movie stars proudly display their baby bumps, and the shiny magazines at the checkout counter never tire of describing the joys of celebrity parenthood. Bearing and rearing children has come to be seen as life's greatest good. Never mind that there are now enough abandoned children on the planet to make breeding unnecessary. Professional narcissists like Angelina Jolie and Madonna want their own little replicas in addition to the African and Asian children that they collect to advertise their open-mindedness. Nannies are seldom photographed in these carefully arranged family scenes. We are to assume that all this baby-minding is painless, easy and cheap.

Today's bible of child-rearing is "The Baby Book" by William and Martha Sears, which trumpets "attachment parenting." You wear your baby, sleep with her and attune yourself totally to her needs. How you do this and also earn the money to keep her is rarely discussed. You are just assumed to be rich enough. At one point, the Searses suggest that you borrow money so that you can bend your life to the baby's needs. If there are other caregivers, they are invisible. Mother and father are presumed to be able to do this alone—without the village it takes to raise any child.

(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Books/Literature; Chit/Chat; Society
KEYWORDS: ericajong; motherphilia; thebabybook
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I don't even know where to start with this dillusional rant...

I guess I'll let all of you enslaved moms out there handle the critique.

1 posted on 11/07/2010 7:55:36 AM PST by smokingfrog
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To: smokingfrog

Pile of dung. I read it to our children yesterday so they could practice their fallacy detecting.


2 posted on 11/07/2010 7:59:12 AM PST by greatvikingone
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To: smokingfrog

This is the “Fear of Flying” author, right? Enough said.


3 posted on 11/07/2010 8:03:57 AM PST by SES1066 (Thank you for your vote in November, now let us get to work!)
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To: greatvikingone
I'm sorry I read the whole demented diatribe. The wily old pinko left her money quote for late in her rant.

"But the entire planet is a child's home, and other adults are also mothers and fathers."

As you said -- a pile of dung.

4 posted on 11/07/2010 8:07:13 AM PST by BenLurkin (This post is not a statement of fact. It is merely a personal opinion -- or humor -- or both)
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To: smokingfrog

Really. First, I have to say that whoever came up with the term “baby bump” should be caned.
Second, mothers have bonded with their babies for eons because they weren’t raising them alone. They had this really ingenious invention called a husband/father and often an extended family. However Erica Jong is now and always has been an idiot. She is an adult bump.


5 posted on 11/07/2010 8:09:55 AM PST by brytlea (Jesus loves me, this I know.)
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To: smokingfrog

Young ladies, I offer this article as an example of how bitter life can be when one is old and alone. Marry young, stay faithful, have kids - and be happy. Don’t be a bitter old feminist. Actually, it’s good advice for guys, too.


6 posted on 11/07/2010 8:12:11 AM PST by mrreaganaut (Coolidge for President!)
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To: smokingfrog

Like a good liberal, her own advice didn’t stop her from having a child of her own by one of her four husbands.


7 posted on 11/07/2010 8:17:53 AM PST by HospiceNurse
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To: smokingfrog
There has been an assault on the family by the left since Marx.

Ninety years ago, the dominant theme in pop culture was the love between mothers and children. FDR, Churchill, MacArthur among others were shameless mama's boys. It was a point of honor. America prided itself as the first nation where mothers weren't expected to have a job.

Now, face it - the Erica Jongs have won. Even here on FR you'll see people glorifying mothers who leave their infants behind to go off to war!

My favorite thing about Sarah Palin is that she quit her “important” job to be with her family. That is incomprehensible to most Americans today.

There are hopeful signs, particularly the homeschoolers. But here in the 21st Century, we are children of the state.

8 posted on 11/07/2010 8:18:44 AM PST by Forgotten Amendments (I'd rather be Plaxico Burress than Sean Taylor)
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To: smokingfrog
motherphilia

Stunningly creepy made up word.

9 posted on 11/07/2010 8:19:33 AM PST by donna (The fruits of Feminism: Angry fathers, bitter mothers, fat kids and political correctness.)
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To: brytlea

Actually, I like baby bump. It’s much better than fetus fell. :)


10 posted on 11/07/2010 8:21:17 AM PST by huldah1776
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To: smokingfrog
Today's bible of child-rearing is "The Baby Book" by William and Martha Sears, which trumpets "attachment parenting." You wear your baby, sleep with her and attune yourself totally to her needs. How you do this and also earn the money to keep her is rarely discussed.

Live for your baby- not yourself... frickin libtard. Typical single city creature who is aging and finds no purpose in life because it refused to procreate and find meaning in love rather than the ideology of liberal possession of liberal goods and liberal hierarchical status. She is most likely upset because her uterus is a dried up old husk, barren of any support for life... we see this in so many liberal women... Dowd... Paglia... Hillary.... Barny Frank.

11 posted on 11/07/2010 8:24:55 AM PST by Porterville ( I have come here to chew bubble gum and kick ass, and I'm all out of bubble gum)
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To: smokingfrog

“Bearing and rearing children has come to be seen as life’s greatest good.”

Well I do believe this is right but for the rest of the rant she should be disposed of like the millions of babies her sort of thinking has murdered.


12 posted on 11/07/2010 8:25:10 AM PST by melsec
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To: smokingfrog

“We need to be released from guilt about our children, not further bound by it”

Liberals hate kids.


13 posted on 11/07/2010 8:25:45 AM PST by y6162
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To: smokingfrog

Poor thing. Looks like she does not know very much about mothering and marriage. She has been married 4 times. I must be blessed because I had never heard of her until this thread. Have I really missed anything?


14 posted on 11/07/2010 8:27:25 AM PST by MamaB
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To: huldah1776

I have never heard fetus fell. I stand by my opinion of baby bump. Sounds gross and demeaning.


15 posted on 11/07/2010 8:27:54 AM PST by brytlea (Jesus loves me, this I know.)
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To: mrreaganaut

Yup, and when your kids grow up and leave, enjoy your husband, because life is really pretty good.


16 posted on 11/07/2010 8:30:20 AM PST by brytlea (Jesus loves me, this I know.)
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To: MamaB

I thought she was never married and without children because her life was so void of the understanding of love... makes sense since she has trouble keeping men.


17 posted on 11/07/2010 8:30:49 AM PST by Porterville ( I have come here to chew bubble gum and kick ass, and I'm all out of bubble gum)
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To: smokingfrog

There’s simply no connection between the lives of baby-collecting celebrities and those of ordinary people bringing up their own children. And also, the writer is a moonbat.


18 posted on 11/07/2010 8:32:00 AM PST by Tax-chick (The alligator ate my friend. He will eat your friend, too.)
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To: brytlea
I have to say that whoever came up with the term “baby bump” should be caned.

Oh, I agree. I HATE THAT!

19 posted on 11/07/2010 8:33:18 AM PST by Tax-chick (The alligator ate my friend. He will eat your friend, too.)
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To: brytlea

I just made it up, fetus, latin for unborn child, and fell; noun Scotland and North England .
an upland pasture, moor, or thicket; a highland plateau.

:)


20 posted on 11/07/2010 8:36:07 AM PST by huldah1776
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