When the topics of breastfeeding, circumcision and vaccination come up, you get many people trying to force their opinions on you. They usually say something along the lines of “you’re not informed” or “you’re uneducated about the topic” because if you disagree with them, then that means you are WRONG and they need to CORRECT you. To them, it has nothing to do with personal choice or parenting style. It’s their way or the wrong way, and they will make damn sure you know how stupid and uncaring to your child you are by not following their beliefs/actions. And then, God forbid, you still don’t agree they tell you to “GTFO”. There is no middle ground, there’s no agreeing to disagree. They don’t seem to understand that people have different beliefs/views on these subjects, that for all their articles backing up their opinions there are just as many backing up their opposition’s opinions as well. Hell, they have even compared circumcision, vaccination and not breastfeeding to child abuse.

Breastfeeding
I didn’t breastfeed Raven and if I ever had another child, I still wouldn’t breastfeed.  Not because I can’t, but because I didn’t/don’t want to. I had Raven just 9 days after my 17th birthday and the thought of me breastfeeding turned my stomach. Hell, it still turns my stomach. Now let me clarify that, the thought of ME breastfeeding turns my stomach, not seeing someone else do it. The few times I have actually noticed a mother breastfeeding you couldn’t see anything but maybe the back of the child’s head. And trust me, I was looking (hey, I’m a pervert and get it honestly). But even if the women wouldn’t want to cover up at all, it still wouldn’t bother me. Breastfeeding is what boobs were made for. Hell, if a woman just wanted to whip her boob out in public for no other reason than to say “Look at my boob”, it wouldn’t bother me one bit. I would look, maybe take a picture or two but I wouldn’t feel offended or disgusted. It’s just a boob.

What I don’t like is this seemingly growing trend that many breastfeeders have with their holier than thou attitude that if you didn’t breastfeed then your child will not be as smart as a breastfed child, you won’t have a good bond with them and you just don’t care or love them as much as they love their child. I call bullshit, big bullshit. My daughter didn’t have any breast milk what so ever, all formula feed, and she makes straight As and is an extremely talented, and well-mannered young women. And our bond seems to be at the very least (but probably better than) above average for most other mother/daughter bonds. And I won’t even dignify the whole “you don’t love your child as much as you should or you would breastfeed” agreement because that is nothing more than a scare tactic that many breastfeeders use. Also, the whole “statistics/studies/articles show” argument is invalid IMHO because you can find a statistic, article or study that says just about anything you want it to. For example, a quick search turned up this article. Now, I’m not saying women shouldn’t breastfeed. What I am saying is that people shouldn’t be demonizing others because they choose a path different then their own and really, is it any of your business whether a women chooses to breastfeed or not? Whether to breastfeed or not does not reflex how smart the child will be, how much you love them or how much of a bond you will have with him. All these breastfeeders are doing is trying to scare the mother into their way of thinking, which is in no way any less worse than what they accuse formula companies of doing to “trick” mothers into not breastfeeding.

Circumcision
Whether a parent decides to circumcise their son is between them and their doctor. I know that most other countries do not regularly circumcise babies and I have nothing against an intact penis. Ewan McGregor is intact (and willing to show his huge light saber in many of his movies) and there is nothing wrong with that penis what so ever. However, if I ever had a son I would have him circumcised because 1. My husband would want it that way and since he has a penis and I don’t, he knows more about them then I do (I can feel the anti-circumcision people’s blood pressuring rising over that comment) and 2. My husband is circumcised and in his 33 years he has never had any problems yet we had an older family member who wasn’t circumcised and he had nothing but problems because of it.

What bothers me is how some of the people who are against circumcision act. For example, one women berated another who disagreed with her opinion because as she put it “It’s not my penis, its my son’s and he has the right to decide what happens with it” yet she sees no problem in piercing her 5 month old babies ears. Yes, I know piercings can grow over but it’s still pretty hypocritical if you ask me.

It also gets my blood to boil when I hear these people tell soon-to-be mothers that they have the only say when it comes to circumcision and to pretty much ignore the father’s opinion if he doesn’t agree. How is that a good, healthy relationship if one parent can completely overrule the other on something as important as to circumcise or not? Do they not feel that if the father has an active role in the child’s life, then he should have 50 percent say in whether the baby is circumcised or not. It is not a decision that should be left to one parent alone when both parents are actively in the baby’s life. So, you either want the father to be involved or you don’t. You can’t expect his involvement only when you deem fit or whenever he agrees with you. And the whole “I birthed him so I get finale say” is bullshit. If you truly believe that then how can you expect the father to also pay child support and/or care for the baby?

To me, this attitude and these actions are nothing more than an elitist mentality that seems to be running rampid in society. I have more important things to worry about in my life than whether or not Penny down the road is going to breastfeed or circumcise little Joey. And frankly, it’s none of my damn business or for that matter anyone else’s damn business either.

So, now that I given my long-winded opinion/rant on the subject, let me here yours.

Also, there seems to be more people trying to find ways to climb even higher on their horse so they can look down on everyone else. For example, I consider myself a Christian in the sense that I believe in Jesus/God and believe he is my savior. However, I don’t give two shits what religion other people are because I believe religion is a personal/private choice that should be left up to each individual.

However, I have noticed over the past few years (especially as Facebook got more popular) that many “Christians” post status, pictures and what not about how “real” Christians should think and feel. And if you don’t agree with them than “you are not a real Christian”. It’s more than a little asinine.

If you were such a good Christian, you wouldn’t be sitting on your ass sharing pictures on Facebook that say “like if you love Jesus, keep scrolling if you love the Devil” or posting status about how “real” Christians don’t celebrate Halloween. You would be out there helping the less fortunate, getting your hands dirty and trying to make the world a better place without forcing your views down other people’s throats. Instead, you decided that a true Christian would sit in their heated or air-conditioned home and complain about how every other Christian is not as good of a Christian as you are.

But it’s not just with Christians. It seems to be the norm now a days to have such an elitist attitude. “Oh, I lost some weight so now I’m going to tell everyone how much healthier I am than them and what they should and shouldn’t eat because, even though my BMI still classifies me as obese, I am now a health/exercise freak.” And I am not over exaggerating. I girl on my facebook friends list who I went to high school with lost about 15 to 20 pounds and is now commenting on everyone else’s status and pictures about what they should be doing to become healthy even though she still weighs over 300 pounds!  And I’m not having a go, because I am no skinny Minnie and know how hard losing weight is. But it’s not even like these people are asking her advice about weight loss. She is just randomly going around commenting.

It is more than a little sad that this is what the world has come to. It also makes me hate about half of the people on facebook.

You don’t know how excited I am about having a washer and dryer. We didn’t have one before (we use to have a set but when we sold our first home and moved in with MIL we had to give them up) and I was doing all our laundry at my Mom’s house once a week. And even though I love spending time with my Mom and really appreciate her letting me use her washer and dryer it’s so much easier to just walk downstairs to the basement whenever I need to wash something.

And even though I received money from my mom, a washer and dryer (plus installation and a 5 year warranty) from my Dad and Stepmom and a riding lawn mower (which wasn’t for my birthday but I am counting it as a B-day present) from my Stepbrother, the best gift I received was from Raven. She drew me a picture from The Ricky Gervais Show. She knows how much I love Ricky Gervais, Karl Pilkington and Stephen Merchant, and is the perfect present for me!

Anyway, Raven is off for this entire coming week for Easter/Spring break. And I am glad. I enjoy her time off of school and not just because I get to sleep in past 5:45 am. I hope everyone had a good weekend/Easter holiday!

The only thing left was a diagnosis of Inflammatory Bowel Disease, which could not be “proven” unless the vet took a biopsy of Jedi’s intestinal wall, which meant exploratory surgery. I was not going to put Jedi through that so I started once again scouring the internet trying to find a better way to either manage or get rid of his chronic diarrhea. And thank the good Lord, I found the website CatInfo.org written by a vet (she went to veterinary school for equine medicine). Dr. Lisa A. Pierson, DVM, has become an outspoken activist for optimal feline nutrition and care including eliminating dry/commercial cat food from every cat’s diet. I really did not know just how bad brand name/commercial cat food truly was until I found her site.

I followed her recommendations and took Jedi off the dry cat food (Friskies Indoor Formula) and have been feeding him Freshpet for the past 2 weeks. I chose Freshpet because it has been the only food on her recommended cat food list that I can find around here.

Since switching the food, Jedi has had harden stool for the first time in months. He still has diarrhea regularly but it has decreased from up to 7 times a day down to 2 or 3 times a day, and some days he does not have diarrhea at all! I am hoping that he will continue to improve over the next few weeks and that his chronic diarrhea will be a thing of the past.

It really pissed me off how mislead I was about the quality of commercial cat food. Even the recommended food our vet gave us is pretty much shit. Here is a compression of the ingredients list of Friskies Indoor Delights and the Freshpet we are currently feeding Jedi.

Friskies

Ground yellow corn, corn gluten meal, chicken by-product meal, meat and bone meal, soybean meal, beef tallow preserved with mixed-tocopherols (form of Vitamin E), turkey by-product meal, powdered cellulose, animal liver flavor, soybean hulls, malt extract, phosphoric acid, calcium carbonate, potassium chloride, salt, choline chloride, dried cheese powder, added color (Yellow 6, Yellow 5, Red 40, Blue 2 and other color), parsley flakes, taurine, calcium phosphate, Vitamin E supplement, zinc sulfate, ferrous sulfate, niacin, manganese sulfate, Vitamin A supplement, calcium pantothenate, thiamine mononitrate, copper sulfate, riboflavin supplement, Vitamin B-12 supplement, pyridoxine hydrochloride, folic acid, Vitamin D-3 supplement, calcium iodate, biotin, menadione sodium bisulfite complex (source of Vitamin K activity), sodium selenite. D-6002

Freshpet

Chicken, Chicken Liver, Ocean Whitefish, Natural Flavors, Eggs, Carrots, Spinach, Pea Protein, Pea Fiber, Vinegar, Salt, Taurine. Zinc Chelate, Calcium Sulfate, Potassium Chloride, Iron Proteinate, Copper Proteinate, Manganese Proteinate, Calcium Iodate, Sodium Selenite, Niacin, Vitamin E Supplement, Thiamine Mononitrate, Vitamin A Supplement, Riboflavin, Calcium Pantothenate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Biotin, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Folic Acid.

Take a look at the first 10 ingredients in the Friskies list versus the first 10 ingredients in the Freshpet list. It’s not just a coincidence that the amount of food allergies and diagnosis of Inflammatory Bowel Disease in cats and dogs has been steadily raising over the past years. Cats are not designed to eat ground yellow corn, corn gluten meal or any of the other crap cat food companies are getting by with using.