Friday, September 22, 2006

Boy Scouts

I've been opposed to the boy scouts for a while now. I think the religious aspect of it is icky, and I don't want to support an organization that excludes openly gay men and boys. If you ask me, it's a club to teach boys how to be the All-American-Stereotypical-Man-Complete-With-Bigotry-And-Religious-Intolerance.
But in our neighborhood it is one of very few ways for Boy to get some social interaction. Boy's friends invited him to join in a fit of neighborliness. I didn't have the heart to say, "No, my son can't go because I support human rights.", and I really couldn't say "No thanks, we don't believe in a deity.". Around here both of those statements are like saying, "I like to eat babies raw, I sleep in bat blood, I fornicate with dogs, and I LIKE IT!".
We had a long family talk about the religion thing, because the boy scouts make you swear you'll do your duty to God. And if you can't swear that, don't bother to join. So Boy was torn. How could he swear on his honor if he didn't believe in God? Simon and Boy came to the conclusion that they hadn't defined "God", therefore a comfortable loop hole had been left in which Boy could rest his conscience. Simon went online and saw that there are, in fact, Buddhist boy scouts. If they could swing it, Boy could. This is what the men folk have concluded, and Boy is happily making plans to camp as we speak.
I, however, am still wrestling with my conscience. Because the bigotry has not been addressed, has it? Simon says this is an opportunity for Boy to change things from within. I don't know. I feel like I'm not standing up for what I believe in. Maybe I should call the ethicist on that NPR show. I feel like a sleaze ball wimp for letting Boy join, but I'd feel like a big asshole if I told Boy he couldn't join so I could be comfortable on my moral high horse.
Sigh.
Boy is going on his first camp out, though. It will be raining all weekend. Raining and cold. On his first camp out. Yep. I'm already a nervous wreck. What if something happens to him? What if he's miserable and rude for the entire trip? I wish his first camp out was one that Simon or I could go on with him, but that won't be this weekend. I'll get back with you on Sunday and let you know how it went.

On the Peanut front: Peanut cut her first tooth on Wednesday! Yay!
Still not into new tastes, but I was reassured to hear from One Tall Momma that her kiddo didn't eat till they were 11 months old. It helps me relax.
My milk supply is taking a turn for the worst. I'm taking a "nursing vacation", only with pumping instead of nursing. The idea is to pump like a mad woman every couple of hours. All day and night. And drink lots of fenugreek tea. And pump some more. We had thought that if my milk supply ran low we'd just feed Peanut some formula. In fact I was putting a bottle of formula in her mouth when the thought occurred to me that maybe she wouldn't like the taste. She took a suck and froze. Like she'd been zapped or something. She took another sip, like, "No, really, this is a bottle, right? 'Cause I know how bottles taste...". Then she took it out and looked at it, like, "The hell?". And that was it. She wouldn't drink any more. So we're taking a two-pronged approach. We spike some of her bottles with formula to get her used to the taste little by little, and I'm pumping like crazy to get my supply back.
I'll let you know how that goes too.
Gotta go pump (big surprise),
ephleba

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