My hats off to all the mom's today!

At airports across the country, mothers nursed their young in protest of a Delta airlines flight attendants decision to boot a woman off of a commuter flight in Vermont last month for refusing to cover her child's head with a blanket while nursing. The woman was seated in one of the last rows and her husband sat in the aisle seat next to her. She was nursing her child when the flight attendant handed her an airline blanket and requested that she cover her child's head. When the passenger declined she was asked to leave the plane.

This whole situation really angers me. As a nursing mother myself, I have been in situations where I needed to feed my child in public. It is reprehensible that with all the other smut that is blatantly thrown in our face through various media outlets, something as simple and natural and completely innocent as a mother feeding her child is deemed indecent by uneducated employees.

I too have had negative experiences while trying to do something as simple as feeding my child. When my first son was about two months old I was shopping at a local Wal-mart when he decided he was hungry. The only available places to sit were the dressing rooms and a bench located in front of the customer service desk. I asked the dressing room attendant if I could use one of the empty rooms to feed my baby and was told that I would need to go to the restroom in the back of the store to feed him. I refused pointing out that she most certainly did not eat her lunch in the restroom why should my son. She said that I would need to take it up with the manager. So of course I requested to see the store manager who was busy at the time. Instead an assistant manager met with me and told me that the restroom at the back of the store was a "family restroom" and that the dressing rooms were reserved for customers trying on clothing. I wanted to smack the uneducated little twit right across the face. I also asked her if she would be so gross as to eat her lunch in a public restroom only a few feet from where god knows who, carrying god knows what, had recently "relieved" themselves. At that point my son was screaming so I did the only thing I could. I parked my but on the bench right there in front of the customer service desk and proceeded with feeding my child. She was shocked. I realize that some people are not comfortable with the sight of a mother breast feeding her child in public which was why I requested the privacy of the fitting room. The assistant manager was shocked and before she could say a word I told her that I would need to see her boss. She started to say something, I don't know what, I cut her off telling her my conversation with her was over and repeated my request to see her boss. She got him on the phone and apparently he actually had some damn sense and said to let me into the fitting room.

I simply cannot comprehend what has happened to our culture that this is even an issue. We can have magazines with half naked women all over the newsstands. We can have ad campaigns on television and billboards showing women in too short skirts and little more than a bra on top all over the place. The minute a mother feeds her child the way we were designed to do, the way it has been done since the beginning of mankind, it becomes a problem. Again my hats off to all the women that turned out at BWI airport today, you made the evening news and while I may not have physically been there, I was most certainly there in spirit.

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Helping your young children transition to staying home

Becoming a full time mom is not only a big transition for you, but also your young children. They are used to getting up in the morning and going to spend the day at daycare. There they would have a schedule of activities, meal times, and nap times. It is important that you maintain a similar schedule at home although you don't necessarily need to be as rigid as a lot of daycare facilities are. It is mostly important to establish a regular pattern to your day. Continue to wake your children in the morning and do everything as you would normally do in preparing them for a day outside the home. Encourage your children to play as much as possible each day. Children learn through play and ultimately you are going to want them to be ready for school. Encourage age appropriate activities for each of your children. If you have a three year old you may want to consider dedicating a portion of each day for what is known in my house as "school time."

My three-year old son loves "school time" and he knows that when his baby sister takes her morning nap that it is time for mommy to be the "teacher" and we work together on different activities so that when he is bigger he can go to "regular school." You can find a lot of information on school readiness curriculum on the Internet. Also, there are some great resources out there for different craft projects that are fun and educational for children. Below is a list of some sites that will help you on your search for planning these activities each day.

Another consideration for young children transitioning out of daycare is that they likely had friends that they enjoyed playing with. It is important to let your little ones develop social skills prior to entering school. If you are like me, all your friends work during the day so a good place to start may be a local church. Often they have a preschool programs that are only for a couple hours a week and are fairly inexpensive and many times you don't necessarily need to be a member of the congregation. This would also give you some time to run errands and take care of things around the house while you don't have to worry about your little one. If that is not an option, scout your neighborhood, perhaps a couple blocks over you will see a young child out playing with their parent. Another place to try as long as weather permits is a local playground. While the weather is nice, your child may make a friend or two there and you could also make a new friend yourself.

Another thing that seems to be springing up here and there are child "gyms." These facilities are usually indoors and have a variety of equipment similar to a playground and they may offer tumbling classes or other fun activities for your young child. You probably will not be able to drop your child off but it sure beat the hell out of sitting on a freezing park bench in December. Also many times these places are tacked on to adult gyms...so while your toddler gets his or her workout you could grab one too.

Try to plan your days so that you are home in plenty of time for naps and meals. There is nothing worse than dragging your kids all over town only for them to fall asleep in the car and not want to continue the nap once arriving back home. This usually leads to irritable children right at dinner time which is no fun for anyone.

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