Like a Champ

I frequent a message board for married woman that was a spin off from a message board for newly engaged women planning their weddings. On the boards, I see a lot of posts about pregnancy: who's pregnant, who's trying to get pregnant, who just had her baby, etc. They're pretty uninteresting to me for the most part, but that is probably because I have a kiddo and not intending on having another one soon. I read these posts and sometimes I think, "Meh. Big deal. So you had sex. Got knocked up and gave birth. Me too. But can you walk backwards on a tight rope while juggling three blazing batons and singing the National Anthem in Pig Latin? Now that's real talent."

Of course, I do understand that a lot of the PG posts ("pregnant" not "parental guidance". Hee hee! Pun intended.) are about woman who struggled to become or stay pregnant and they're celebrating or looking for support when things go badly. I'm totally with that.

But it all gets kind of weird to me when a mom on the board will announce that another mom had her baby (that's not actually the weird part) and run down the stats. It looks something like this:

MrsMamaJama: TwinkleToes339 had her baby! Baby Madison Feathers TwinkleToes339 is a beauty. 8 pounds, 20" long and breast feeding like a champ. All is well with mama and baby.

Okay, so can you guess which is the weird part to me? And it's not that TwinkleToes339 is breastfeeding (though, when did announcing that you're breastfeeding become a required part of motherhood is beyond me.) That's cool. That's recommended. Brava. It's the "like a champ" part that makes me go "Whaaa?" I don't really get it. I mean, I do get it, but aren't there better phrases?

"Champ" always makes me thing of Mohamed Ali. "Breastfeeding like a champ" makes me think of a breastfeeding Mohamed Ali. And not baby Mohamed Ali. Full-on, heavy weight champion of the Wide World of Breastfeeding:

Michael Buffer (famous boxing announcer): "In this corner, stands our defender, coming in at 10 pounds, 11 ounces, champion heavy weight nurser, Mohamed Ali! Now let's get ready to ssssssuuuuuccccckkkkkllllleeeee!"

Think about that next time someone says their child is breastfeeding like a champ. And maybe ask to see their kid's title belt.