Quite a long time ago now ((about 17 years ago really) I attended a Nursing Mothers meeting (Now Australian Breastfeeding Association) on "Breastfeeding the older child" Breastfeeding my 10 week old (and not certain how long that was going to last) I imagined that they would be discussing feeding babies over 6mnths old. My eyes probably nearly popped out of my head and rolled across the carpet when the counsellor spoke about feeding her four and a half year old kinder girl. I kept a low profile but remember thinking "Well, that's OK for *women like that*, but I would never feed a four and a half year old".
Guess what? I did. My amazing son taught me lots of things about mothering - that it was normal to breastfeed past 4 was only one of them. Mothering pushes out boundaries far further than we ever thought they could go. My experience has taught me best to never make judgements. As a mother I have found my self doing *a lot* of things I never thought I would do.
The normal age of weaning (see Kathy Dettwyler's work) is estimated to be between 2.5 years and 7 years. Very seldom do we see normal breastfeeding in our culture - only 20% make it to 12 mnths, and only about 1% to the World Health recommended 2 years.