Random Extras on Extended Breastfeeding

My mother couldn't get over the fact that my kid was nursing and could talk - and could, therefore, ask for it. She wasn't horrified, she was amused. Although, come to think of it, she was mildly horrified when I nursed Miss M. on an airplane when the three of us were on the way home from California, about a month before the final final. I was just trying (unsuccessfully) to encourage a nap. But my mother had nursed her kids for 10 months/8 months/6 months - back in the day when not a lot of people nursed at all - and none of those little people were talking when my mom was nursing.

Doctor Mama had a great post a while ago about nursing her the two and two-thirds year old (he's since weaned himself). She mentioned that eventually people stop asking if you're doing that. I think I only lied about doing that once. The Berkeley Parents network has a nice joke about extended nursing in Berkeley:

When my son turned two, I told a friend, "Well, I guess I'm going to have to start lying now when people ask me if he's weaned." "Oh," she said, "in Berkeley, you don't have to start doing that until they're four." "You don't have to start weaning until they're four?" "No, you don't have to start LYING about it."

And if you need reasons for breastfeeding at all, Electric Boogaloo had some good ones, like #8: "Researchers have not been able to show that breastfeeding doesn't give you magical powers".