That's a great post Mantaray!
I read something a while back about how 20 + years ago mothers were more inclined to be supportive of each other in their mothering efforts and journeys, rather than critical or judgemental. It talked about how times have changed so much and so many mothers now have such strong opinions on what is right and wrong... for everyone.
Do you think that might be because nowadays we all have access to so much more and more varied information? We also have much less expert filtering of the information available to us.

I think when i was born (34 years ago), there was pretty much Doctor Spock and nothing else, wasn't there? So almost all mums were using the same book, with the same advice. And the advice in that book was given by an expert and published by a company whose editors believed that the information was expert (validation of sorts). I think it would be easier to agree on things in that situation.

Now so many of us have access to such a wide variety of new ideas and new information, that things are quite different. It makes for more variation, more discussion, more disagreement. I think it's interesting, but I also feel that it's riskier because anyone, with no qualification at all, can put up a website saying anything at all. People tend to trust what other people write, but it's much harder to tell if someone is being sensible or being a nutcase (not suggesting that anyone here is the latter, mind you - but we've all seen some pretty strange stuff on other websites), when all you have to go on is what they write online. I tend to be a bit cynical about this and to think that humans in general are too trusting to be safe online, if that make sense (which is not to say that I don't use internet forums like this, in a variety of topics, extensively).

I have to say that this thread is making me think harder about where the line is between opinions (I believe that anyone is entitled to think whatever they want about anything) and actions (I don't believe that all opinions should be translated into actions). And also about where the line is between choices that parents should make for their children and choices that they should not make for their children (questions of childrens' rights versus parental rights also partly come into that, in my opinion). It's certainly interesting stuff to think about.

However all that is probably subject for a different and more general thread. If I can ever marshall my thoughts clearly enough to post about it and solicit other peoples' ideas, I will (not today, though - got washing to do, dinner to cook, and animals to feed...).