Five-Minute Friday: Identity

They began to grate on my nerves each time I saw them, seemingly Scarlet Letters of sorts.

What was meant to be a resource for the lonely and seeking mother, turned into flashy, glaring badges defining me and thus defining you by parenting styles we've chosen or not chosen to embrace.

And so the Attachement Parenting, Breastfeeding and Babywearing buttons had to come down from the sidebar of my home here online during my recent redesign by the fabulous Alita Jewel.

Not because I don't passionately believe in the benefits of breastfeeding and babywearing and the basic tenants of AP such as loving and respecting each person in the family no matter how tiny

but because I don't see you as a breastfeeding mom or a formula feeding mom

a babywearing mom versus a stroller-pushing mom

an AP or a Babywise mom.

I see you

I see me as

whole people

who are loved beyond our modest understanding.

We are more.

More than our parenting choices.

More than our jobs.

More than our self-professed roles.

We are valued

and chosen

and wildly loved

and complexly created

by a Master Artist.

I wasn't planning to explain the facelift here but timing seems serendipitous as my online home was revamped just a week before the controversial Time magazine cover of a mother nursing her toddler son with a cover story title asking Are You Mom Enough? began yet another firestorm. {I'm not linking there, but you can search it if you'd like.}

And I'd like,

if I could, to answer

that for us all

regardless of if we nurse

by bottle or breast

when we are nourishing our loves with love --

that, no,

we are not mom enough.

we are more

because we are beloved beyond belief.