RE: Gumdrop Tits
Yes, sexual references to breastfeeding ought to be kept out, but there's always someone standing around ready to shame women in some way :(
I think by the time my children were over the age of two or so, breastfeeding was just as much an emotional comfort as much (or more than) a food source. I do agree becoming independent as a child is important and something many are still struggling with by junior high as far as I can see at the school's. I once saw a documentary comparing American to French schools and how the French were in preschool were allowing children the use of real glasses and cutlery and just how independent they were. So, I did do this with my children as well--no plastic sippy cups and they were allowed to light fires, use pocket knives all of these sometimes restricted of children here. I think as a result they're much more adept and independent.
I love the sound of all that broken glass and clashing cutlery in your kitchen!
It is artificial materials and circumstances that keep us infantile at forty!
Restricted environments are not to be confused with controlled ones. (Give a child access to your normal kitchen, but keep your bleach on top of your cupboard instead of the under the kitchen sink.) Protection is not identical to prevention (be around when your child plays, but you don't have to put it on a lead). Endorsement and encouragement is the clue, as you and I well know but how to pass it on? We do what we can: giving our own children the task to set the table with our (basic) crockery, with weight and temperature and its connection to earth which is to give them trust. One meal flows into another and this sets up a stream of trust to flow out into larger life.