Ms. Traister, if you have spent any time in a real corporate environment and not writer lala theory land, you would understand that sometimes quitting is a hostile workplace is the best option for the individual. Don't quit unless you have another job lined up of course, but don't put your career on the line acting like Norma Rae. We can't all be Norma Rae.

In reality, sexist pigs do get away with it, all the time. The company, if it is forward, many institute a round of sensitivity training seminars following a complaint, but I have seen some men survive after having numerous complaints made against them year after year and if they are producing income for the company, they stay and the women get shuffled to other departments. When they stop producing, the list of complaints and internal investigations will be presented as part of the cumulative package justifying the firing, but the real reason will be economics.

It is very difficult for women to forego breastfeeding. Those who do tend to lie and claim medical reasons (i.e., having to be on a medication that is passed through the milk). It is even more difficult for women in the Bay Area I think. There is no end to the "solutions" offered by the lactation militia but for some, the solutions just don't work fast enough to feed the baby. It is more important for a mother to feed her baby then let it starve and go hungry while the mother waits for the fennulgreek to work.

I breastfed and the milk came as easily as the mastitis did. My kids did not sleep through the night until they were one year old. I had to work and pumped as much as I could given the constraints of my work day, and supplemented with formula without any problem in terms of nipple confusion or digestive problems.

There was no problem. I stopped visiting the La Leche League boards because it can become so extreme.

There is terrible one-upmanship among mothers when it comes to natural birth vs. epidurals vs. c-sections. Then it continues with breastfeeding and who knows what else. Homeschooling vs. private school vs. public school I guess.

I am glad that among my women friends, the extremists are few and far between and we discuss to learn about each other's experiences rather than to judge each other or refuse sympathy when a birth plan or lactation plan simply doesn't work out. It usually isn't from lack of trying.

You have my sympathies. I hope you will find comfort in your memories of him.

Can we talk foreign policy? Hillary Clinton is pushing for the formation of a Palestinian state. Isn't this major political news? Worthy of commentary-- yet nary a mention in Salon? I am tired of reading about the loser GOP. Can we get on with current events?

I breastfed my daughter, pumped, supplemented with formula as needed until she was 14 months old and a new pregnancy with early complications required me to stop breastfeeding. She never got sick... until she turned 2.5 and started nursery school where she catches a new disease every g*d* week.

The immunity boost from breastfeeding works in the earliest newborn days before the child's immune system kicks in for itself.

My 3 year old daughter has memorized the entire script of Dora Saves the Mermaid. But I can sense she's moving on. To Ariel, of course. Since last summer, if you asked, she would tell you, she was going to be Ariel when she grew up. Then my husband took her to Disney on Ice and now her career ambition is to be "an ice-skating mermaid."

But my one year old son is still deeply in love with Dora.

I don't hate Dora or Diego or the Princesses or those weirdly hip Backyardigans. My daughter has learned all kinds of spanish words from Dora and knows the names of all kinds of exotic animals from Diego. Her playacting frequently involves her scaling the dangerous cliff ledge (of our sofa) in order to save the cute chinchillas.

How is that any different then me and my 1970s playmates throwing capes of flannel receiving blankets over our unitards and underoos and reliving the plots we'd seen hatched on SuperFriends?

Why be threatened by a cartoon? It plays on Noggin-- they don't even have commercials fer chrissakes. Just memory games and songs about shapes.