We were at our four-year-old’s end of the year class picnic last night, enjoying the beautiful New England May weather, the dogwood trees raining white petals over the playground, good eats, and wonderful friends.

I was talking with two Super-moms about how it’s about time that Moms support instead of judge each other, and the subject of breastfeeding came up. One of the Super-moms was recalling an incident 15 years ago when her husband was commuting on the train and a woman started breastfeeding her baby. Noticing the Super-mom breastfeeding, another woman exclaimed “That’s disgusting!!” to which her husband retorted: “That’s what breasts are for!!” standing tall on that train with his hands on his hips. As my Super-mom friend recounted the incident, her pride at her husband’s response and support of her and all women was palpable, and beautiful to observe.

A discussion ensued about the fact that hellooowww, why isn’t this obvious fact talked about–ever? Women have breasts to breastfeed. That is why they’re there. Not to pose for Playboy. Not to put food on the table and yachts in the harbor for plastic surgeons. Not to give construction workers something to hoot about as a woman walks by.

The fact of the matter is that breasts are there to feed babies. No one can deny this fact, and so to talk about breastfeeding as “disgusting” is just sort of bizarre. I went to many years of school for Clinical Psychology to be able to say: that’s called denial (you don’t need to go to school for psychology to see this obvious fact, but I like to use my degrees for something ).

Is it disgusting when a mother horse feeds her young? A leopard? A fox? No, that’s cute and adorable. But when a human being feeds her baby, it’s offensive? Now this Super-mom is very open-minded, yet I find it challenging wrapping my brain around this one.

As my Super-mom friends and I talked about it, we decided I should write an article about it, just to get the discussion started. It’s about time, we agreed.

I knew that I would kick up some feelings around this topic (like I did with my article “Full and Starving”), as it seems to be fully loaded (helloooww, a woman gets kicked off a plane for breastfeeding her child and a national drama ensues?), but this Super-mom thinks it’s about time to clear the air and find some balance on this important and ignored topic.*

*Just to be clear: for all of those Super-moms out there who choose not to breastfeed for a myriad of reasons: rock on!! I do not judge in any way any Super-mom’s choice regarding whether or not to breastfeed. This is an extremely personal decision and I support and applaud all Super-mom’s decisions, which are hopefully done by listening to their heart and following that perfect guidance. Every woman is different and every family situation is different. For me or any Super-mom to judge another’s choice about breastfeeding or anything, really, would be unfair and downright silly. This is not my intention. My intention is to get a dialogue going about this national misunderstanding at best and dysfunctional denial at worst. So that all Super-moms can support each other in all of their decisions–including the decision of whether or not to breast feed, and if their decision is to nurse their young, garner the support and the respect that is deserved.

“Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.”
-Carl Gustav Jung

“Laughter is the shortest distance between two people.”
-Victor Borge

Even if there is nothing to laugh about, laugh on credit.

“Laughter is an instant vacation.”
-Milton Berle

“Laughter gives us distance.  It allows us to step back from an event, deal with it and then move on.”
-Bob Newhart

“Carry with you wherever you go.”
-Hugh Sidey

“You can turn painful situations around with laughter.  If you can find humor in anything, even poverty, you can survive it.”
-Bill Cosby

“Over-seriousness is a warning sign for mediocrity and bureaucratic thinking.  People who are seriously committed to mastery and high performance are secure enough to lighten up.”
-Michael J. Gelb

Two years ago a Prana Power Yoga student of ours who happens to be a fantastically talented photographer offered to shoot our children month-by-month as they grow up—on trade. File that under: gift from the universe.

Last night we were having our monthly shoot. The girls had chosen their outfits, the baby’s diap was changed and he was dressed and his hair brushed, the lighting was perfect outside.

We started shooting photos, my girls posing and “not posing” with complete comfort and joy, as practice in front of the camera will do for anyone, and my son was doing a pretty amazing job himself, for all of his 17 months.

We were shooting by the baby pool, where we spend a lot of time on hot afternoons, and it started to thunder. We moved from the pool for safety reasons—to blowing bubbles in the yard, and it started to rain.

Moving inside was an easy transition, until Sagey, our four-year-old, had a total meltdown because she “wanted to do down dog” instead of shooting a family photo in front of the Buddha.

Now if you’ve ever experienced a meltdown (and what Super-mom hasn’t?), you know that there is really no going back. The train has left the station.

Apparently, Sagey hasn’t read all that I’ve written on Super-mom.com and talked about in my classes at Prana Power Yoga about “beginning again” and “breathe in light, exhale stuck negative energy,” because girl, there was no stopping this meltdown.

We all agreed she should go ahead and DO a down dog, and then we would take the family photo. No, she didn’t want to do a down dog. She had wanted to do it before and she hadn’t, and so now everything was ruined.

The photo above was taken during this Super-mom moment, and Kelly (our photographer), Philippe, and Madison (our ten-year-old) laughed about how this was “A Super-mom moment.”

The laughter softened the energy in the Buddha room (we call it that instead of the “living room”), and Sagey began to calm down.

Having a family photo shoot after a four-year-old participates in a sleepover with her ten-year-old sister and her sister’s friends–complete with bike and scooter riding till too late, a drive-in movie, lots of popcorn, going to bed after midnight, and waking up too early: file that under: never again.