Yesterday (Saturday), Jillian wanted to go to a craft fair at Ben Franklin's. The craft fair was labeled "Ladies' Day." That should have been my first warning, but we wanted to spend time together as a family, so I begrudgingly tagged along (and ended up spending more time wandering through the actual store than Jillian- I am such a girl about some things!). The craft fair that boasted "lots and lots of vendors" was buried in the back corner of the store. They were so buried that we thought we had missed the big occasion. We wandered around the store, after meeting a very nice elderly man who told us about all of the discounts on frames and stuff and completely neglected to mention "oh yeah, we have a craft fair with lots and lots of vendors going on in the very back corner of our store." Well, after 15 minutes of browsing we came to the back corner of the store where there was a tiny room lined with tables and crammed with women. It was the saddest little craft fair we have ever seen, and after four years of marrieage I am confident to call us connoisseurs of craft fairs. And we are not exagerating when we say that the first woman manning the first table we came across was breast feeding! And she was as shocked to see a man entering the room as we were to see her breast feeding! Who has the audacity to assume that no women will bring their husbands to a craft fair?! I learned my lesson that "Ladies' Day" means "Ladies Only Day."
**WARNING: I am going to rant. If you are a public breastfeeder, you should be proud enough of it that you don't mind what others think before you read on.**
I respect breast feeding. I served a mission in one of the most liberal countries in the world, and witnessed fully-exposed public breastfeeding on a very regular basis. And let the comments of hate come, but I am vehemently opposed to public breast feeding by mothers that are obtuse enough to think that a man walking into the room is an invasion of their privacy. If you really feel that way, get a pump, think ahead, make a bottle and take it with you! Or think ahead (especially if you are a vendor at a craft fair!) and ask the manager of the facility you are at if there is a private room that you may excuse yourself to when the time comes to feed your child, and make sure you have someone to cover your table. Or in the very least, be modest, comfortable, and confident about it- you have no right to be shocked that a man is in the room while you're doing it if you are comfortable enough to do it in public. I have a child, and when she was nursing, Jillian didn't feel comfortable with people seeing her nursing, no matter how modest we tried to make it. So we adjusted our lives and our schedules to make sure we were home at feeding time (of course it helped that we were severely limited in where our pediatrician lets us go in public).
There's my rant.
3 comments:
haha Steve I just loved your rant. I completely agree too. I have nothing against women who breat feed. I wish I could have with my children but it is so uncomfortable to around women who whip it out in public. Heck even a little banket would be so much better.
I feel your pain there. lol
You Americans - bloody violence on TV is juuust fine, but a baby getting fed whenever said baby is hungry is "weird" to you ;)
I just had to laugh though - at the craft fair, what a perfect opportunity for said lady to learn how to knit! Or sow. Either craft borth has found good solutions to the nursing in public "problem", baby slings either sown or knitted made so that breast feeding is made possible without anyone but the mom and baby seeing anything.
See? Crafts has the solution to all of life's problems! :D
I AM SO OFFENDED!! haha just kidding. You're funny though...I do agree with you to a point...but I also think it's sad that something that is so natural and normal (or should be) is so "shunned" in our society now. I think breastfeeding should be more accepting...or that places should be more accomodating of it. Because things don't always work out like you said in the real world - sometimes you can't plan for it or whatever and if you have to be out and have to feed your baby, you should be able to. Its so frustrating to me to be somewhere, my baby's hungry, and feel so uncomfortable because there is nowhere to do it privately! I'm pretty uncomfortable doing it in public myself...I have a hider thing but try not to have to use it any chance (try to do it at home as much as possible). Mostly, I just end up doing it in my car in a parking lot where no one's at because I end up feeling too uncomfortable. :) Anyway...I agree w/ u but I feel that it's a lot easier said than done to be able to always prepare for it.
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