Really? I find it's just the kick in the arse I need! It reminds me that I am more than just this moment in time and that I have overcome some huge things in the past and have the resources to continue doing so
And that's the way you can flesh out what seems like a "nothing" statement to me. It confirms and validates your approach to parenthood in just the way you need.
But if I am going through some sort of personal parenting hell, and I have posted on here pretty much every time, lol, when someone says that to me it means nothing. I already know it won't last forever but that doesn't make the pain of those moments any easier to bear for me. It is not my motivation. I need people to offer more support and understanding as you say, to me in that specific situation. In my mind, that statement is not one that I am able to flesh out in the way that you can.
I agree in that often it is a validation used for people who have already made a decision. For example, the statement HM=HB used in the feeding threads - I think often people have already made the decision to bottle feed their child and need to be validated in their choice. Now, I breastfed Natalie, I am 100% for breastfeeding, and I don't believe I have ever used the statement in this context (or ever, actually!), but I can see some instances where it might be appropriate. I don't want to offend you Bx - I did read your story and I am so very sorry that you were forced by circumstances beyond your control to stop breastfeeding. Obviously the phrase was useless to you. I think sometimes I see posts by desperate women who never had the burning desire to BF, but gave it a go anyway. I think you really need to want to breastfeed to be able to do it, unless you are very lucky and don't find establishing BF difficult. I don't see the point in unhappily breastfeeding if it is something you realistically didn't want desperately to do, so in this circ I don't have a problem with the statement.
I've not personally been in a place where the statement would be of use to me though, lol. Natalie was a pretty consistently unhappy infant so the whole idea was pretty redundant for us two.