If that tidbit about Germany is true, I have to say that I'm caught between admiration and resignation.

It's great that they'd declare that 3-year stretch of time a right, and protect it -- but disturbing that they'd need to do so by declaring it the child's right instead of the parent's.

Maybe that's the approach that we'd need to take here to get the same concessions. "You're not really coddling the women, boys, you're just giving the children what they deserve." The only trouble is, framing it that way silently concedes that anything seen as "women's needs" is still unimportant.

Gee, Doppelganger, I'm so very glad I have you to speak for me -- along with every other woman alive.

I hate to shatter your comfy little illusion, but I, for one, would gladly trade with Keira. Small ones give just as much pleasure during sex, and feed a baby just as efficiently. They also come without the significant aggravation of drawing the focus of every mouthbreathing waste of skin in possession of a Y chromosome who thinks mammary glands were created to be toys/possessions/living cable TV for men, and that the woman they happen to be attached to is irrelevant.

If I weren't worried about the surgery affecting my ability to breastfeed, I would have had mine reduced from a C/D to a B years ago.

This place is teeming with people who've got the whole world figured out today.

Kufir, no mental disorder is "completely controllable." Actions are based, oddly enough, on thoughts. When your brain is caught in a loop of "must be thin, I'm too fat, must be thin, I'm too fat" it becomes almost impossible to make yourself eat anything that might make you more fat. As for hurting other people, well, they're trying to hurt you! They just want you to stuff yourself because they're jealous of your self-control/they want to be prettier and thinner than you/they don't care how much it hurts you to be ugly/they don't understand. And yes, sometimes they get to the point where they'd rather be dead than fat. (Given the abuse we heap on the overweight on the other end of the spectrum, I'm not sure I blame them.)

In any case, you can't make a sound decision when all you have is skewed input. That's the *definition* of a mental disorder -- your brain and your thoughts can't be relied upon. So why would you expect someone whose brain is feeding them a skewed message to make the same decision you'd make without the skewed message?

"I would have, but I didn't because (insert reason here)"

... When what goes in the space for "insert reason here" is a worry about keeping the functionality of the breast (as opposed to turning it into a non-functional purely cosmetic appendage) I think most people (obviously not you) would say that's a sensible concern. When I'm past childbearing age and they are purely cosmetic, hell, I might just have them removed altogether. They become a potential serious liability with very little upside at that point. The only thing my statement proves is that functionality matters more to me than size -- I'd prefer to be Keira's size, but not at the cost of functionality.

I don't see a problem with period control, but maybe that has something to do with the fact that I went through labor three times with less pain than my menstruation brings me one week in four (or three, or two if I'm really "blessed.") I'm as natural as the next female, reusable pads as backup for a MoonCup and all, but I don't see what's so glorious about blood and pain reoccurring through maybe a fifth of my life.

As for shoving something up your hooha, it's both funny and bewildering how no-one's very squeamish about that unless the "something" in question isn't shaped like a phallus and is designed to do something other than give sexual pleasure or deliver semen. I hang out on a women's health forum which sees a lot of scared females practically every week asking "I was an hour late with my pill; do you think I'm pregnant?" I'm all for continuous release hormones via a method that you only have to think about once per month, thanks.

You may not have noticed, but your teenage daughter is pregnant. It would have been nice of you to *ask* her if she wanted to babysit someone else's three-year-old before you volunteered her services.

I realise that you, yourself, do things like jetting around the country after your water's broken, so this may not have occurred to you. However, I promise you that for the vast majority of pregnant females, watching an active three-year-old, however sweet the child, does not make the list of "things they really want to do." Do you *always* promise out your daughter's time and resources that way, without consulting her? If so, I think I begin to understand better why she made some poor choices when she finally was able to slip the leash.

Also, speaking as a mother? No girl who dates anyone like your daughter's boyfriend is allowed around my own small daughter until she's been separated from him for at least a year. Ever.

No Love,

Me.