A little more about Faith & Family

Danielle Bean sent me a very nice email in response to my last post. Danielle, if you haven't made her acquaintance, is the homeschooling mother of eight children, author of a couple of books, and senior editor of Faith & Family. That combination of credentials makes me suspect that she is also an accomplished warper of the space-time continuum, since even masterful time-management skills will only get you so far in a life that busy, but I'm just speculating there.

With her permission I am posting a bit of her email here. She says:

I can assure you that Faith & Family strongly supports mothers' rights to nurse their babies at church or anywhere else and considers it a natural, beneficial practice -- not at all a 'shameful' one.

After I received it, I thought back to when I used to edit a little quarterly publication, and I imagined how I would have felt if I had sent an issue off into the world and someone had responded to a single sentence with a thousand-word diatribe. Eek.

So I wanted to be sure to offer a more balanced view of the May/June issue of Faith & Family. There's lots to like -- a feature on cooking with kids that's right up my alley, avoiding both the over-granola-ed ardor of some crunchy publications ("My kids love toasted amaranth grains with amazake! Yours will too!") and the paeans to processing served up by the likes of Family Fun ("Your kids will flip for these parfaits of Oreo crumbs, Cool Whip, and Swedish Fish!"). These were recipes that I would make and my kids would eat, with sensible ideas for kid involvement.

I liked the ideas for family celebrations of upcoming feast days, and the article on families with special-needs kids. I learned that the church is celebrating the life of St. Paul from June 2008 through June 2009. (Was I supposed to know that already?) The spread devoted to St. Paul is lovely, and I was pleased to see so much space dedicated to scripture and art.

And do you know, I even liked the rest of that article on taking kids to Mass. I am picky about magazines but I think I probably will subscribe to Faith & Family. Thanks to Danielle for clarifying their position on nursing in church.

Comments

[mary]

I need to read the article about taking kids to church! Where can I get this magazine? I am SO at a loss about how to take our 22-month old to mass. The last time we went was at my grandma's funeral 3 months ago (not the best circumstances, obviously) and all he wanted to do was RUN and SCREAM. How do you take a very active toddler to church and still get something out of it?

[Sarah]

I'm sure it's a very good publication. When you mentioned the spread of St. Paul, I envisioned a fold out picture of a stained-glass St. Paul with his hand raised in blessing. I wonder how many college dorm walls THAT would get taped to!

I'm glad that the editor was able to clarify the magazine's position. As breastfeeding moms, it seems like there is little encouragment to simply do what you NEED to do that it's easy to feel that a statement like that is more hurtful than is likely intended.

[Pam]

I'm glad Faith and Family supports mothers' right to breastfeed at Mass. Still, your post was very helpful and encouraging. I'm glad you shared the magazine's response to your post, but you also have excellent points that were helpful to many. The Catholic Nurisng Mothers League (http://www.catholicbreastfeeding.org) chat list discussed it briefly and several women on the list felt affirmed and helped by the way you articulated the issues.

It is helpful to bring this up because moms need to feel comfortable nursing at Mass, and even if a magazine article only SEEMS to suggest that there might be a problem with this, moms need to hear that it is okay. I'm glad your post gave Faith and Family a chance to be clear about that.

After all, who needs to be at Mass to receive the graces there more than a nursing mother!?! Moms need to feel free to come AND to meet their babies' needs.

[carmen]

I'm so glad you like the magazine. I've written two articles for them to be published late summer and early fall.