Why would anyone lie about this?

mumps

AubreyMac wrote: »

I wouldn't want to see someone breast feeding in public. Even though someone may have a legal right to do it, I think it's a bit selfish to do so in middle of shops or cafes. At least do it discreetly.

Yes it's natural, but so is having a poop or making love.

You have probably seen it hundreds of times and not even realised. Most mums manage to do it without being obvious. I have fed in public loads of times and only had "outrage" once when a middle aged woman came up close, had a jolly good luck and said, "I thought so, disgusting."

Reminds me of when I worked for a local police force, there was a joke about an outraged woman who complained about the man opposite walking round naked. Police arrived and said, "But you can't see into his house from here" She replied, "If you stand on that table and lean over to the side you can see." Solution? Don't stand on the table. Simples.

DevilsAdvocate1

mumps wrote: »

Awful isn't it. bottlefeeders always seem to moan about people being nasty to them but I really think breastfeeders get more abuse, certainly the abuse they get is nastier (in my opinion) as your post illustrates. Hope you didn't let her put you off, these sort of comments are really damaging to your confidence when you are trying to establish feeding.

No she didn't put me off. I breastfed all 3 of my boys and for quite a long time too.

HurdyGurdy

I smelled a rat as soon as the story first broke. In a busy city, in a busy store, and a man has taken a child from it's mother's breast and marched off down the store with it, leaving the woman's breast exposed, and - presumably - the child screaming, and not one single witness came forward to corroborate her tale?

It was obviously a lie. I just cannot fathom why she would tell it.

TBagpuss

AubreyMac wrote: »

I wouldn't want to see someone breast feeding in public. Even though someone may have a legal right to do it, I think it's a bit selfish to do so in middle of shops or cafes. At least do it discreetly.

Yes it's natural, but so is having a poop or making love.

Why don't you want to see it? in what way does it affect you?How is it any different to seeing a small child eating in public in any other way?

And, if you have issues about discretion, why not simply exercise some yourself and look the other way, if you find the potential brief flash of breast so disturbing?

I'm genuinely curious, are you able to expalin what it is,. specifically, which bothers you about it so much?

The word 'selfish' which you used really puzzles me becuase a mother breastfeeding has exactly zero impact on anyone other than her, and her child. Selfishness is about putting your own wishes and feelings above those of others in a way that is detrimental to those others - I am struggling to see how dealing with your own child (and incidentally, reducing the chances of that baby wailing or making a lot of noise which might be disruptive to others) can be seen as selfish.

FireWyrm

pollypenny wrote: »

Well, I couldn't imagine anyone breastfeeding in front of a class of teenagers! :cool:

They, the kids, would be mortified.

If you are doing it properly, most people dont even notice. I was feeding my son in the front living room talking to the in-laws one Sunday after lunch and it took my MIL a full 10 minutes to catch on to what I was doing. She couldnt work out why my son was lying cross wise covered in a muslin. I've fed in cafes, in the backs of cars and even in a public concourse and no one yet has bothered me.

Most women simply smile and look away.

Everyone else just does what they are supposed to do, which is avert their eyes and stop gawping like a bunch of virgin teenage boys. If mothers taught their boys that this was entirely normal and natural, the men would stop behaving like purile children and keep their eyes in their heads. The British culture used to have a wonderful ability to ignore what it didnt want to see. Why is this any different.

theoretica

FireWyrm wrote: »

If you are doing it properly, most people dont even notice.

In my ideal world the burden of discretion wouldn't be on the mother and doing it 'properly' wouldn't require pretending you weren't.