Being as the OP has the advice she needs I will chip in here. This is a cultural thing, and a confusion between the breast as nutrition and the breast as a secondary sexual organ. In developing countries, it is "normal" (not my personal choice of words) for a child to be extensively breast fed simply because it keeps them alive.
In more developed countries it seems to be frowned upon more because we have ample food and it is viewed as an indulgence rather than a necessity to continue the breast feeding relationship for longer than is strictly necessary ie - past the point where solids are established. This chooses to ignore a number of factors, like what the child would benefit most from, or how having this relationship withdrawn prematurely affects the child and indeed the mother.
In my own experience I was unable to BF my son because he wouldn't latch. With my first daughter I did establish a great BF relationship that carried on until she was 2 1/2 and only ended then because my supply dried up while I was pregnant with my youngest daughter. I had problems again with my youngest daughter, and she only managed a few weeks of attempted establishment but supply could not meet demand, so we switched her over. I am profoundly grateful that I had this opportunity at all - and also profoundly guilty that it wasn't more successful.
No one person has the right to say what is right or normal for another. It is very much an individual decision that should solely be based on what is right for the child.