Celebrating Life

Advent & Christmas Stories

Daily Life

Love's Counterfeit

Coping with Dementia

Conquering Despair

Encouragement

Religious Understanding

Family Stories

Stories of Friendship

Valentine & Beyond

Marriage Encounter

Healing Music

Promoting Peace

School Days

Social Responsibility

Overcoming Trauma

Traute Klein Background

Healing Hug Guestbook

To send me your own Healing Hug story, email me by clicking on the mailbox graphic.

Webmaster's Bio
Meet Traute Klein, biogardener.

Related Articles

Breastfeeding Family Hour

by Traute Klein, AKA biogardener

Breastfeeding hour is the perfect time to focus on the older children while giving loving nourishment to the baby. It forges strong sibling bonds.

My Mother and I

For six years to the day, I was the baby of the family. My mother was all mine all day long for those years and I enjoyed it tremendously. She became not only my best friend, she was my only friend. The boys, being a lot older than I, were all in school. No matter what my mother did, no matter where she went, I tagged along. All the while, she was teaching me by telling me stories and by singing to me. I have written about our relationship in My Mother, the Greatest Inspiration of My Life.

The New Arrival

And then a new life was about to enter this twosome, and my mother did a beautiful job preparing me for it. She was well aware of my motherly tendencies. I played with dolls as though they were real. The daily ridicule of my brothers did not bother me in the least, in fact, I felt sorry for them. In the nine months before his arrival, my mother got me so excited about the arrival of this new life that I wanted nothing more than a brother or sister for my birthday. And then she even timed the event to fall on my very birthday. March 16. I will never forget the excitement of being shown my birthday present first thing in the morning. He had just been born an hour ago and was sleeping soundly. That is what I had wanted, a baby for my birthday. Now I could play with a real doll, and I did. My other dolls got a rest except when my brother was asleep. What about all that attention which I had been receiving from my mother? Suddenly there was this new life in our family which demanded my mother's time. And believe me, he needed lots of it. I had been used to her attention focused on me. How was my mother going to prevent me from being pushed aside and from getting jealous?

Sibling Bonding

Well, she found a way. Breastfeeding became family hour. While my brother was resting in her arms feeding, she continued the practice of telling me stories and singing with me. Baby-feeding time was the hour to which I looked forward the most. Instead of feeling jealous of the attention which the baby demanded, I became my brother's most ardent fan and protector. What a wise mother I had! Eighteen months after that, a little sister joined our family, and she was a real doll. She even looked like my doll. I was attending school by this time and no longer had need of mother's constant attention. It was now my brother's turn to learn from his mother, while his baby sister was being breastfed, and when I was home from school, I would join the family hour. Those hours forged strong sibling bonds. Thank you, Mutti! Thank you for finding a way to be there for us even with a baby in your arms!



Breastfeeding Practices

In my native Germany, breastfeeding has always been a part of public life, just as bottle feeding is in North America. In Canada, I have observed women hiding in a washroom corner, covering their breasts or even the baby's head with a towel or sheet. For someone who has grown up in my homeland that seems a strange practice. I am happy to notice that the new generation of mothers is no longer willing to abide by traditional Canadian practices, even when older women make rude remarks about the exposure of a body part which, on this continent, appears to be associated with sex.

I have written about my experiences with nudity throughout my life in
"Nudity, what does it mean to you?"