Last night CBC and The Discovery Health Channel aired a couple shows where moms who breastfeed were in the spotlight. For those of you who missed one or both of the shows I thought I would recap them for you. If you taped it to watch later and don’t want any spoilers then stop reading now!
First, Christine Poirier, the owner of Momzelle, a Canadian organic cotton nursing wear business, went on CBC’s Dragon’s Den to ask for $60,000 in exchange of 20% of the business she co-owns with her brother. She brought along her sister-in-law who nursed her newborn baby on national television to model the breastfeeding tops. The Dragons were impressed. They loved the baby. They supported the breastfeeding. Right there breastfeeding got some good press from millionaire media types. Then one of the Dragons gave her a horrible offer of a loan with a high interest rate that she would have needed to repay in two years. If she failed to repay it she would have had to give him 51% of the business. Thankfully she didn’t take the offer. Smart woman! And then after everyone else pulled out the last Dragon offered her $60,000 for 25% of the company. She accepted. I am so happy for her and her brother!
The best thing about her meeting with the Dragons was that they all agreed that she already has a great business. One went so far as to tell her she doesn’t need another partner because she is already doing so well. How reinforcing to hear you’re already fabulous!
It was interesting to see the ignorance of breastfeeding though. One of the Dragons didn’t think it made sense to make a top you only wear for a short period of time. I found myself shouting “I’ve been nursing for 5 1/2 years straight buddy! And some moms would wear these tops everyday! Like a nursing bra! (Shaking head). My Momzelle nursing tank top has already gotten more wear than most of my other tops and I have had it 11 months. It’s still in great condition.
It was also unfortunate that Christine got some stats wrong. She said that the WHO recommends 6 months of breastfeeding, whereas it is 6 months exclusive breastfeeding and then up to two years or beyond. Since Christine has a breastfeeding blog and provides resources for moms on her site I think the pressure of being on TV might have gotten to her because I am 99% certain she knew the right stat to quote.
One thing that I wish that had been said (or at least aired) was that Momzelle nursing tops are made from organic cotton. I think that this is what makes them stand out from the competition. This is certainly what makes them stand out for me.
Second up, the nice PR folks from the Discovery Health Channel sent me a DVD episode of Radical Parenting, which I received the day before the show aired. Read here if you want to find out how I was lucky enough to receive a DVD copy of the episode. The episode featured three families. One who practiced radical unschooling, one who practiced attachment parenting, and The Feminist Breeder’s family who practices gender neutral parenting.
I loved the attachment parenting family who practiced extended breastfeeding, co-sleeping, elimination communication, babywearing, placenta saving (but not placenta eating) and one more thing. (Was it homeschooling?) The mom also led a course on EC’ing at her home. I pictured myself hanging out with this family. They seemed like they would be a lot of fun. I actually applied to be this family when The Discovery Channel was taking applications. I think my downfall was that I don’t EC. But I so would have taken the opportunity to plant a tree with my frozen placenta!
I was not terribly impressed with the radical unschooling family. I don’t like to judge because I am sure there was more than meets the eye, information not shared, etc, but I don’t think you can teach kids about nutrition if you let them eat frosted chocolate donuts for breakfast. I don’t think it’s responsible to let your kids not brush their teeth for weeks or months on end. I don’t think it’s good for a child’s developing brain to not have any semblance of structure throughout the day. But that’s just me.
I thought Gina’s segment on gender neutral parenting was the best. Hers came across as the most together and intelligent of all of the families. I loved seeing her Hyphenated Husband John wash the cloth diapers and Gina install a bathroom cabinet. Gender neutral modelling in action folks! The boys were sweet and adorable, doing all the normal things that young children do – like wearing her high heels, helping mom bake, finger painting and dressing up. Who cares if what was on offer were dresses? (They didn’t appear to put them on anyway). I have boys in my daycare who wear dresses too. Then they go and play hockey. Just saying. Anyway. The boys were the cutest – like buttons on cupcakes. I was really happy for her that they promoted her blog too.
So now you want to watch them for yourself don’t you? Well, unfortunately Discovery Health’s Radical Parenting episode is not going to available over the internet. This is straight from the PR staff member’s pen to me. But it appears you can watch Dragon’s Den if you go here.
Enjoy!
Did you watch either of these? What did you think?
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I watched the Radical Parenting special. I can email you some links to other unschoolers, and unschooling sites if you would like. I really do hate that they didn’t make the show more informative.
My kids do make a lot of their own choices. You read my post, so you know we aren’t as radical as the Parent family, but some families are, and it works for them.
I know a lot of unschooling families live by philosophy, and not so many rules.
Unschooling isn’t just about education, it’s a lifestyle.
I personally see nothing wrong with having a chocolate frosted donut for breakfast. Sometimes we have cinnamon roll, other times we have pancakes, bacon and eggs, some days we have fruit and muffins.
We offer a variety of foods in the house, and the kids are able to choose what they want to eat. Because nothing is restricted they will ask for an apple, or a banana as easily as they would a donut. I think that is the point that was missed in the show.
We don’t have a problem with bathing, because the girls love to brush their teeth, and they would happily spend the day in the tub.
We haven’t been living this lifestyle as long as the Parent family. We are coming up on our 1st year. I can say that unschooling has dramatically changed, and enhanced the way our family works in a very good way.
It’s hard to get a grasp on unschooling until you really get down to the heart of how it works. Our society is not conditioned to believe that our children can learn w/out being taught with a book at a table or desk.
.-= Darcel´s last blog ..Discovery Health Special: Radical Parenting =-.
@Darcel – I do like the idea of unschooling. I agree that children can learn without being taught with a book or at a table or desk. But the lifestyle part, I’m not so sure I agree with. I just feel like parents should shoulder more responsibility for their child’s well being. Obviously it works out for many families and it sounds yours is doing just fine, but I ended p with a number of reservations after seeing that episode and frankly I think that sucks because if I, who am generally open minded, am now feeling more negative about unschooling then the show only succeeded in sensationalizing the concept and not teaching viewers anything.
.-= Melodie´s last blog ..Poll: How Old is Your Nursling? =-.
I understand how you feel put off. I thought the same thing when I first read about how children make more of their own choices.
I was told that you don’t just ask the kids what they want to do that day, or what they want to eat, you provide them with choices. We keep their paths full of things that they are interested in, or that might be interesting to them. One thing always leads to another.
We do have workbooks, but my oldest isn’t made to do them. We have them because she likes doing the puzzles, connect the dots, matching games, etc…
I just hate that you feel so put off, because unschooling is a really great lifestyle. I also realize it’s not for everyone.
I don’t know if you’ve already been to these sites. If not, I hope they can shed more light on unschooling for you.
Hope I’m not coming across as pushy, and know it all. We’re coming up on our first year, so I’m not claiming to be an expert.
http://sandradodd.com/unschooling
http://sandradodd.com/strewing
http://joyfullyrejoycing.com/
This is a Ning group, and you don’t have to join to search through the site.
http://familyrun.ning.com/
.-= Darcel´s last blog ..Discovery Health Special: Radical Parenting =-.
@Darcel – I’m thrilled you took the time to put together some links for me Darcel. You’re not being pushy at all. I am happy to learn more about it. I guess I just thought I had a good sense of what unschooling was and then this show turned that all topsy-turvy on me. I knew they couldn’t be the epitome of unschooling, but I wondered what their style did for other families who didn’t know anything about unschooling or that it even existed. So I will read these and appreciate the learning opportunity! Thank you!
@Melodie, Thank you very much for talking about Momzelle at Dragons’ Den. I was also suprised to hear myself saying that “breastfeeding is recommended for six months”, as I am 100% sure that I said “exclusive breastfeeding is recommended for six months and continued breastfeeding for up to two years and beyond”. This is what I always say! The taping lasted more than 30 minutes and they only kept 6 minutes (I was also explaining what “exclusive” meant: no water, no cereals, etc.). It is too bad the recommendation got cut! But it could have been so much worse, that I am really happy they showed breastfeeding in an overall very positive light.
I am so sad that I can’t see Feminist Breeder in action.
@Christine Congratuations!! That is so awesome. I’m sorry that they cut out such vital info on breastfeeding though.
We used to watch Dragon’s Den in my business classes at BCIT and I always admired anyone who can get up the nerve not only to face the Dragons but also on national tv. I thought the dragons can be pretty intimidating. I’m happy to hear you did so well.
.-= BluebirdMama´s last blog ..Maybe Montessori =-.
I’m only halfway into Radical Parenting, but would like to comment on the unschooling portion. I wish they had gone more into the question of college/careers for unschoolers. I guess I think more along the lines of Melodie, that children can learn without formal training, but need to be taught/shown structure for living in society.
I would love to hear what life is like for the 30 year old who was unschooled. Did they go to college? Was it hard to adjust to class schedules and ciriculum? What about after college? Do most unschooled people choose to make livings in a way that doesn’t require time schedules and rules, i.e. artists? I’ve done some googling, but haven’t found anything from an adult unschooled perspective.
My husband watched part of this after I’d gone to bed. He was laughing about the boy being asked if he wanted to try on a dress.
The topics kind of seem a little biased. I’d like to see more of the extreme parenting that puts children in hospitals – or worse – covered in depth. We are still so hush hush about the abuse that goes on behind closed doors and in bright daylight AND the people that write the books to endorse it.
.-= cypress sun (amy)´s last blog ..garden sonshine =-.
I watched the Disc program and was most unimpressed with the gender neutral segment. To me it seemed like this is what most families do. My son wears necklaces around the house, wears pink shirts, likes to play with vacuums, and so on. I would never deny him a toy that is considered “feminine” because he is a boy.
I think the term “gender neutral” was thrown around a lot, but it was just a name. In practice their family seemed normal and not radical at all. Granted, the radical terminology was under fire in the first place.
The AP family segment focused on EC a lot, which was cool, and overall I liked the segment. I personally wouldn’t wear my son constantly at that age, especially in a ring sling. Ouch.
I would not unschool, and out of everything on the show I most disagreed with the choices not to lead the children in hygiene and nutrition choices. But, it works for their family.
.-= Kim Rosas´s last blog ..Cloud b Twilight Sea Turtle Review and Discount Code =-.
I watched the Discovery Show and being unschoolers ourselves, I was very disappointed in the segment. That was not a good representation of unschooling, IMO. I think it would have been better with older, proof is in the pudding, kids, rather than a young family just spewing off statements you hear daily on unschooling forums and groups.
Unschooling is not unparenting and I’m afraid they came off that way. They say there is no heirarchy but from what they said and showed, the kids run that house. More than anything, they seemed fake.
@Olivia @Vicki – Yes, I agree it would have been better to see how older kids have benefitted from Radical Unschooling rather than young kids in the early years. There is someone I know of who was unschooled and now as an adult lectures on it. Here is a link to his blog. http://eligerzon.com/blog/
@KIm – Yes, I have heard there have been a number of inquiries as to why the gender neutral parenting family was even on the show as it is so normal for a lot of families. I have seen a comment or two from folks who think it is wrong to parent gender neutrally because it goes against what the Bible teaches, so maybe that segment was for those folks.
@Vicki – “Unschooling is not unparenting and I’m afraid they came off that way.” That’s exactly how I felt. You said it perfectly!
.-= Melodie´s last blog ..Nachos and Guacamole =-.
Ugh! I wish I wasn’t so harsh!! Sorry.
.-= vicki´s last blog ..Tsunami Day =-.
Great to read about the show – unfortunately I couldn’t watch it in France. I was curious to find out more after reading your article and came upon an article about what life was like as adults for kids who had been unschooled, that I thought you’d enjoy.
http://www.washingtontimes.com.....t-problem/
hope you have a most excellent day!
Thanks @Ruxandra. The article is about homeschooling kids though, which is a little bit different from unschooling in that homeschoolers follow some kind of curriculum and unschoolers do not. I agree homeschoolers can do well later in life. I actually think homeschooling is the best educational option for many if not most families if they can swing it. It was just the way the unschooling family on the show was presented that made me question their methods. But thank you for going out of your way to provide an excellent link regardless.