All I want for Christmas is.... some breastfeeding acceptance. That might have been the caption of an Ontario mom who nursed her baby on Santa's lap and posted the photo to Facebook.
Not surprisingly, Rebecca Dunbar's image went viral, but not everyone was supportive. In fact, Dunbar estimates that 75 per cent of the feedback she received over the photo was negative, with some describing it as "trashy."
This Dunbar takes as proof that as a society we have a long way to go in accepting public breastfeeding. These days, many people take issue not so much with the act of breastfeeding itself, but the context in which it is done.
Maybe the best way to normalize breastfeeding is to - pardon the Nike slogan - just do it... without the cameras and the 'look at me' postings on social media.
"I just want [breastfeeding] to be so normal that it doesn't even need a discussion," said the 40-year-old mother of three.
If it doesn't need discussion and commentary, then it also probably doesn't need to constantly be photographed and posted on public spaces.
After I gave birth in the UK, it wasn't uncommon for a group of moms to be out at a cafe with our boobs out. No cover-ups. No one batted an eyelid.
But no one was capturing selfies or talking about it. No one was posting or posing, even.
And maybe that's what needs to happen here, too. If we want to normalize breastfeeding, then we should probably start treating breastfeeding like the supposedly normal, natural thing it is.
Is it really possible that spanking children is still legal in Canada? Yes. As recently as 2004, the Supreme Court of Canada permitted the use of "reasonable" physical force on children over the age of two, provided said force did not involve any implements or blows to the child's head.
Anything else goes, both for educators and for parents. Yikes.
Section 43 of the Criminal Code is a law Trudeau's Liberals hope to repeal as part of their pledge to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which documented the history of physical abuse inside Indian residential schools.
While it's unlikely that parents would actually be prosecuted for spanking their kids, isn't it high time we ditched a law condoning physical abuse of children? After all, gauging what is and isn't "reasonable" force is pretty arbitrary.
When a child is spanked, the parent is usually angry and often more force is used than the parent would otherwise intend.
It happened to me and it probably happened to you, too. Just because many of us were physically disciplined as children is not a sufficient justification for us to perpetuate this behaviour with our own kids.
We may have survived it, yes, but hopefully along the way we learned as parents in our own right that there are better ways to teach our children discipline without instilling fear through violence.
The main argument, though, is not about spanking itself; it's whether the government has the right to tell us how to parent. Maybe not, but the government does have a right - even a duty - to protect its youngest, most vulnerable citizens.
“Do we want to live in a country that, in fact, defines when and how to hit children?" asks Kathy Lynn, chair of a BC-based organization called Corinne’s Quest that opposes spanking. "That is just appalling.”
As parents, it's not our right to hit our kids. It is our kids' right not to be hit by anyone, especially not by the most trusted adults in their lives.
The world is in love with Adele, or at least Canada is, judging by how fast tickets to her upcoming shows were gobbled up.
If the biggest form of flattery is imitation, then the British singer has plenty of copycats. And what better way to pay homage to the woman with the awesome cat eyeliner than to write and perform your own parody?
"Hello from the Mother Side" by Texan singer-songwriter Emily Mills is fan girling at its best.
Mills has some decent pipes on her, and what mother among us can't relate to homework woes, stress eating, and shared love of vino?
"Hello, mama, how've you been?" sings Mills in the video shot in Adele's trademark sepia. "I can tell you've been stress eating from the Cheetos on your hand. It's OK. You need a win, you've been plucking facial whiskers and your thighs touch skin to skin."
Could that be...? Does that mean...? Hope you're not pregnant.
"Hello from the mother side," she sings. "I think I might break down and cry because I love my children, but I don't want any more. Can somebody pass me the pinot noir?"
I think, being a mom in her own right, Adele herself would see the funny side of this parody.
"The Mother Side" ranks as one of our fave spoof songs about parenting. See also this one about MILFs, which made us swoon even harder for this celebrity charmer.
RELATED: Breastfeeding Success During Stressful Holidays 
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