Memories of Rosasharn

Honest Toddler author Bunmi Laditan asks: is there something wrong with wet nursing in the wealthy secular West?

ATSRTWT

Cheap, reasonable alternatives abound, so it can't be a matter of BATNA disparity. If anything, the opposite is true. We sort of expect wet nursing to be the recourse of folks who can't afford anything better.

Of course, the same is true of ox tail soup or chitterlings. When I was a boy, those were the foods of poor people. Same goes for growing vegetables in your backyard or canning peaches, or knowing your way around a sewing machine. Time was, there were a whole pile of things that ordinary folks were obliged to do because anonymous, impersonal exchanges were either unavailable or beyond the means of the typical citizen. Not so anymore. We're now wealthy enough to play at being poor. It's a nice thing to be able to claim, that.

I'm on Bunmi's side. Rock on, weird mom. There are a whole lot of other hobbies you might choose that would be a lot worse for you and for them kids. Proust!

h/t Double D