Motrin moms. I know this is not going to earn me any fans, but I have to say it.
Every time I hear about something “controversial” among the mom crowd on the net, I have to be honest, I just shake my head. We put so much time and focus into things, especially as Americans, that we are “offended” about, that that is the only time I see the community come together to chat this much about an issue. I sometimes feel like the only person in the world that hates political correctness because I think it creates pansies. Yeah, I said it.
First off, I believe Americans are offended way too easily. Scratch that. Moms are offended to easily. Because moms are in constant fights with EACHOTHER over issues like ’stay at home moms vs working moms,’ and ‘breastfeeding or not’ (or how long), or ‘preschool or not’, or pacis or lovies, or……..get the point? We put eachother SO much on the defensive, that we are quick to judge ourselves. And so when someone else, outside the “mom” realm mentions it, its like breaking some kind of code.
Recently Motrin put out an ad on Babywearing. They are doing a series of “if mom spoke what was on her mind, this is what she would say” ads. They are calling them “Mom-alogues” and they premise starts: As a mom you know what its like to have a unique kind of pain that’s often underappreciated. From walking for hours in high heels to staying up all night carrying a feverish child. The MOtrin brand wants you to know we feel your pain.
Here is the text of the ad that people are talking about:
Wearing your baby seems to be in fashion. I mean in theory, its a great idea. There’s the front baby carries, the side baby carries, the sling, the shwing, the wrap, the pouch and who knows what else they have come up with. Wear the baby on your side, the front, go hands free! Supposedly its a real bonding experience. They say babies carried close to the bod tend to cry less then others. But what about me? Do moms that wear their babies cry more than those that dont? I sure do. These things put a ton of strain on your back, your neck, your shoulders…did I mention your back? I mean, ill put up with the pain, because its a good kind of pain. Its for my kid..plus it totally makes me look like an official mom. And so, if i look tired and crazy, people will understand why. Motrin: We feel your pain.
Quite frankly, I don’t look at Motrin point any differently then I would look at another mom that mentioned to me. Its THEIR opinion and they are entitled to it. I don’t get offended because they only are reaching a percentage of the population, an ad just will or will not, pertain to me. If you carry your child on your body, or carry your child at ALL, you could potentially have pains from it.
For the record, Charlotte was carried in a baby bjorn. But she weighed 25 pounds when she was 12 months old. She was abnormally HUGE. I weighed 105 and was 5′2″. I have to admit, I got my fair share of ‘aches and pains’. Now she is 42 pounds at 4 years old and I am still 105. I still carry her around if I need to or up the stairs and its like benching at the gym. Think of her percentage of weight against my body weight. Its astronomical.
If you have been following my blog at all, you know that she is having some issues with her legs and we don’t know what is going on. I have a crying child all day during her awake time, for several days in a row. You better believe I am alternating the Tylenol and Motrin. When it comes down to it, am I going to let my child suffer when there is a safe, dr recommended product she can take that can relieve her pain over an AD a company put out? Next time your child comes down with a fever and you cant give Tylenol, you ask yourself that. “Sorry Charlotte, Motrin offended moms over babywearing, so you need to suck it up”. It just doesn’t make sense to me. And all the drug companies are related, so picking generic wont exactly hurt the companies that spread the patents as it is.
“Baby-wearing” wasn’t even a term when she was born that I had ever even heard of. I have to say, it has become more social and popular among moms, a movement in a way. I could care less if someone wants to carry their child around on their body or what product they use to do so. I certainly don’t view it as controversial.
Maybe I’m missing it all, but I just don’t see why this is a big deal. Maybe because I don’t see people twittering, myspacing, and facebooking:
The plight of Women in Afghanistan
Physical and Mental Abuse of 25% of women IN Armenia
I actually saw someone on a blog say that its set BACK babywearing? Wha-wha-what? Is this the Civil Rights movement? I say, lets utilize social networking to help each other, to bring to light real issues in the world, and if you truly don’t like something, don’t advertise for them. Motrin is laughing all the way to the bank.
Its kinda ironic, isnt it?
~Trisha
I really don’t care about the Motrin ad. I wasn’t really offended, but I could see why some might be. The tone was a bit odd in my opinion. I think they could have taken the same concept & did it differently.
However on the leg thing. I got those bad pains growing up as well. The doctors always said I was having growing pains. I would wake up in the middle of the night screaming in agony. I still get pains mainly in my right leg. I think it is some kind of nerve pain coming from my hip area. Doctors still can’t tell me what is wrong though. Good luck to you, I really feel for your daughter!!!
Trish you are right when everyone has a right to their own opinion. And mine on the Motrin thing is they are wrong. The add made baby wearing a fashion and how it looks to wear a baby, not the benefits of it. I agree that wearing, carring, rocking and holding our children can at times be painful and meds will help. But it is not a sacrifice made because of fashion or it’s the in thing. It is something we do as mothers for the love of our children. This is where the Motrin as went wrong. If the text had been about that fact it would have been fine. Instead they made being a mom seem like a bad experience and makes one mental. We all have those days when we want to run away for a few hours, but to put it in this type of marketing campaign was just bad press. Personally I will not let my child suffer for a bad ad, but there are alternative medicatins. Motrin is just a brand name, there are generic brands that work just as good. Now not all genrics are created equal, but label reading can get the ones that are. In my opinion the makers of the Motrin ad are going to have to do alot of damage control in order for fix this. What offended me was that being a mother makes one crazy and in general is a bad thing. Well it is not. I do not know what I would do without my babies. My experice while not always a bed of roses has been the best experience in my life!
i agree with you trisha! i’m not sure what was so offensive about the ad either…i guess some people got so bored that they needed to whine about something. i read some of the blog entries bashing this ad and was highly entertained. there is so much injustice being done to women and their children around the world and here they get worked up over a stupid ad? THAT angers me. Whatever…Motrin got what it wanted and IS laughing its way to the bank…ahahahaaaaa!
Amen Trish! I thought really? Really, people are getting worked up over this? But I guess Motrint got what they were looking for….advertising.. I have seen this discussed on several websited today alone.
your words were well stated. my problem with the Motrin ad was the tone of the woman’s voice. even my 15 year old called it patronizing (one of her vocab words). I get tired of having to change life to be politically correct, but I don’t like condescending attitudes to any group of people.
I do find it interesting that Motrin pulled it so fast.
What sets back our growth are people who are so easily offended. Shame on you women!
I used a sling caled Snugli to carry my infant son, 27 years ago. I found myself constantly challenged by uninformed people, teaching people many times daily about the value of the sling in forming a bond with my child and aiding him in learning to deal with this often loud, lonely and cold world.
I never got tired of teaching people. I always believed that what I was doing was the best for my child.
Unfortunately, my son grew so fast, that I, weighing 100 lbs, did experience tremendous amounts of back pain. In just a few months, my 9 lb baby weighed 35 lbs and I was unable to use the sling for more than a few minutes.
Move forward, enjoy where we are today. I’m not hearing too much enjoyment, just women who need some cheese with their whine.
Tell Motrin it’s your baby and will carry it anyway you choose.
There are alternative pain releivers that are more natural than motrin so who needs them, when you get back pain just take this:
http://tinyurl.com/5mm7kv
I was angry about the ad, and here’s why:
I work in a boutique fitting women with baby slings, helping them with breast pumps and bras, etc. I also go to a babywearing group and try to spread the word whenever I can about it. A baby sling isn’t just a cute little accessory; it’s a parenting tool, and I don’t know what I’d have done without mine. Yes, it did help me bond with my daughter, and the ad made fun of that. It also allowed me to breastfeed in public without having to be banished to a bathroom or cover my baby’s head with a blanket. It’s a big part of the way I parent, and ideally all moms would at least try babywearing so they could make their own judgments about it.
That ad, as harmless as it may seem to some people, could make a mom who didn’t know any better rethink her decision to try to wear her baby. It truly doesn’t take much. You wouldn’t believe the ignorant comments I have to put up with at work: “Ohhh, I’m always so worried the women who use those things are going to drop the baby onto the floor!” or “Well, gee, the baby doesn’t look comfortable in there!” or just laughter. I am not just looking for things to get worked up over. All I want is to do a good job raising my daughter and maybe, while I’m at it, help some other moms find their way. Maybe they will find babywearing to be helpful or maybe they won’t, but at least I will have tried. It IS important to me, even if most of these commenters think it’s stupid. It’s helped me be a better mother, and I don’t see how that’s unimportant.
And about the Baby Bjorn… It is not at all surprising to me that you had issues with it. That carrier hangs baby’s entire weight on your shoulders/back, as baby’s body is barely even touching mom’s. A sling or wrap, on the other hand, facilitates the way a mom would naturally carry her child, with the baby facing mom and partially wrapped around her (in a hug-type position) or sitting on her hip. I would definitely recommend trying a sling next time if you haven’t already! You may already know all this but I wanted to mention it, because I see many moms who are mystified as to why their Bjorn/Snugli is so miserable.
what in the world.
i don’t know about all this drama… but from what I read in your post I agree with you.
OK, so my apologies to you, then Trisha.
I consider myself to be hard to offend, as well, but I have heard lots of comments like the one from GobiM — meant in all seriousness — from men, women, mothers, grandmothers… (I work with new mothers, so I’ve seen and heard it all) So I took it as a real comment, not someone trying to be witty.
I agree that it _seems_ like a trivial thing to get upset about on the surface, but maybe when mothers realize they can band together and be heard — and so quickly! — when they take issue with an advertisement from a pharmaceutical company, well … maybe they’ll realize that spit-up on the shoulder or not, they can band together and be heard on some of the VERY real issues you highlighted.
Don’t rank on them for being upset and speaking up … encourage them to keep at it.
angela, my comment back to gobi was meaning that his/her comment was funny, in that, i cant imagine the comment that he/she made being REAL. Its such an outthere comment in its entirety! I didnt even get where it came from, so I found it funny that someone could actually SAY “flirt with the shopkeeper”. I wasnt saying his/her opiion was right, but that the way they expressed it was pretty ironic/funny. I am just pretty laid back about offense.
Trisha, I followed your link on NYTimes hoping to find a different perspective from someone supporting other women, but I was disappointed.
First you say in your own blog that it’s the fault of the “Mommy Wars,” the we spend so much time knocking each others choices that we lose all perspective when it comes from the outside.
I might be able to go there except …
When GobiM essentially labeled “babywearers” as unsexy and ignorant … then accuses them of “not only trying to bring back the excess confinement of the mother role of the 50s, they are trying to bring women back to the stone age” …
You say: that was hysterical… I appreciate your comment.
So, just who is it engaging in the “Mommy Wars”?
I agree…people are way too easily offended. But that’s just me.
But on a different note, do you think Charlotte’s pains could be growing pains? I’ve heard of kids having them around her age; especially in their legs and they are intermittent just like you described. Just a though:)
I loved wearing my baby because it freed up my hands. Pure and simple. It really depends on what carrier you’re using. Ones that go over one shoulder aren’t meant for heavy babies or long term use.
The ad is stupid. I never felt fashionable. I felt like I was giving myself a break and could finally make a freaking pancake.
I just thought of this for Charlotte. Have you tried giving her mineral supplements? My legs hurt so bad when I was pregnant and my dad said it was because of a mineral deficiency. I took mineral supplements and the pain went away.
If I hear the word “trendy” ONE MORE EFFING TIME.
Seriously, the NaziMommas get their panties in a bunch over all the most asinine things.
OOOH, what can I be offended about TODAY??
If I’d have written the text of the motrin ad in a blog post, I GUARANTEE YOU it would have gotten some laughs.
Somehow the so-called “Mommy Bloggers” (and hey, I’m a mom and I blog about my kids sometimes, but you know the ones I mean”) think that ALL POSSIBLE UNIVERSES revolve around them and their opinions.
I said the same thing as you last night when I was on twitter: if their voices are so powerful, why not use them to accomplish something important like making sure our kids in this country don’t go to bed hungry.
Apparently that would mean being less self-involved.
Love the post, couldn’t agree more. I must confess, I have not pursued defining my online self as a mommy blogger because I suspect and fear, that professionally I would not be taken as seriously, my credibility would be diminished by being associated with mommy bloggers. I’m sure this will not earn me any new fans, however, it is this type of over-reaction and negative- take the big guy down attitude that causes mommy bloggers to not be taken as seriously as other online groups. In my humble opinion.
Sure, help relieve your child’s pain, but no need to buy a brand name. Money is the only thing that companies listen to, and maybe this will get them the message.
I think the ad undermines moms- we have finally found a way to get things done AND meet our baby’s attachment needs, and now we’re told we’re doing it for fashion??!
One of my primary concerns is that the ad encourages moms to turn to drugs for help rather than to other moms. When I first started wearing my baby over a year ago, I didn’t know what I was doing and it did hurt sometimes. After getting help from a local babywearing group I learned which type of carrier to use and how, and can now wear my 14 month old for several hours without pain.
If a mom is actually in pain from babywearing, she should get help or stop wearing baby- drugs will just mask the symptoms and she could seriously injure herself.