Sippy Cups Are Not for Chardonnay: And Other Things I Had to Learn as a New Mom

Sippy Cups Are Not for Chardonnay: And Other Things I Had to Learn as a New Mom by Stefanie Wilder-Taylor

The "author" writes about her own experiences as if they are facts that ALL mothers are HONESTLY experiencing (and if they don't admit it then they are just lying and she doesn't trust them). I have no problem with people writing about their personal experiences and I certainly don't have to agree with their views; in fact, whether I agree with Wilder-Taylor is irrelevant. The problem I have is that she writes as if she is the authority over issues that she has only experienced first-hand. She uses a lot of, "you will feel..." "This will happen to you..." It's ironic because she writes at length about how she hates it when people tell her what to do or how to feel and yet that's what she does to her readers.

She also over-simplifies just about everything she writes about and doesn't give factual information. For example, in her breastfeeding section she gives only 2 extreme scenarios: If you choose to breastfeed and are eventually successful at it then you are a breastfeeding nazi or you're a sane person who realizes formula is best (mothers I know don't fall into either extreme camp). Again - it's fine to share one's personal experience, but she attempts to give factual information and even brings in her own expert to back herself up. For example, she says that her pediatrician has not seen any differences between breastfed babies and formula fed babies in his practice. Ok, either she's lying or he lied to her. All one has to do is read statements based on years of research from the World Health Organization or the American Academy of Pediatrics to see that this is simply not statistically sound (you don't need a college degree or even a high school diploma to understand this).

I know how excruciatingly painful and difficult breastfeeding is for many women (including myself). I know mothers, for a variety of reasons, who exclusively breastfeed, exclusively use formula, and breastfeed and supplement with formula. I do not judge women for their decisions as she clearly does which again is ironic as she's doing the same thing to her readers as she feels the lactation consultants, doula, La Leche League volunteers and complete strangers have done to her.

In her chapter on "little braniacs" she writes, "if you're dying for your child to speak Chinese, why not adopt a Chinese kid? The upside is in a few years they can do your taxes. On the other hand, they'll cost you a bundle in car insurance." Not only is this not funny, but it's extremely ignorant. She says a lot of things like this in her book which readers might interpret as "real" and "so hilarious" but why does one have to say, quite frankly "mean" things at the expense of others and others' choices? This has nothing to do with being "PC" at all, by the way. I simply think it's unfortunate when people need to make fun of other people to make themselves feel better.

I believe that new mothers need to support one another (as she also says she believes, strangely enough). I also like it when new mothers are willing to admit that they are not perfect and it's refreshing when we can laugh at ourselves. Though Wilder-Taylor claims to do all of this, she actually just judges other new mothers and their decisions as well as puts them into 1 extreme camp or another in virtually every page. I felt like I was in high school again reading a book written from one of the "mean", not-so-bright girls, but I'll stop here. I don't want to stoop down to Wilder-Taylor's level.