Today I had an interesting conversation with my student Cris. Over the weekend she welcomed her niece into the world, and had a funny story about her other niece who is now a big sister. Cris said that her sister-in-law told the older niece that her breast was now for the baby and no longer for her. I asked Cris how old the older niece was and she said 2 years old. My reaction to this was "WOW, a 2 year old breastfeeding." Then Cris went on to tell me that it is common in Brazil for women to breastfeed their children until 4 or 5. The thought of this made me cringe. Of course I am not a mother and I have no idea what it is like to breastfeed but I really cant imagine a 4 year old child playing with his toys, getting thirsty and running over to his mom's boob for a top up. The shock that I felt about children breastfeeding until 4 or 5 was reflected in Cris's eyes when I told her the majority of American mothers stop breastfeeding after 6-9 months, and some mother's choose not to breastfeed altogether. Her exact words were "Isn't that cold?" I didn't know exactly how to respond to that question. Then she went on to tell me that the doctors practically yell at mothers who choose to stop breastfeeding before 2 years old, telling them that they are bad mothers and they don't want whats best for their children. Harsh!
This conversation easily led into a conversation about how smothering Brazilian mothers are. Over the weekend Leto and I went to his favorite restaurant (Empanada's Bar) to watch his soccer team play. While we were there a family came and sat next to us. The boy, who was about 8 was playing a Nintendo DS. His mother picked up a french fry and put it in his mouth while he was playing. She did this repeatedly while he did not take his eyes off of the screen. She even fed him soda. Now of course this is not a super common event here in Brazil but I wasn't very surprised by it either.
Brazilian mothers are notorious for their smothering. They take baby talk to a new level! And every woman, weather she has had a child or not will sing the "Happy Birthday" song to a child who is under 1. I asked Leto why women do this and he said it was to prepare the child for their first birthday party, so the child wont be scared or cry during the singing of the song but will clap along and maybe sing a word or two. Of course times are changing and vurturaly all women work and raise children at the same time but the smothering continues. I guess it is one of those cultural differences that I will never understand and Leto knows I will not be a smothering Brazilian mother, I will leave that up to him ;-)
