Posts
Daniel and I have recently decided that we have a new way to rank favorite restaurants. It's really simple: Good = waiters smile when they see the carseat and discretely pour me new water when I nurse. Bad= waiters stick us at the worst table when they see carseat and stay away from us like we have the plague.
Now, in our current hometown and economic level we can't afford much in the way of restaurants. Here they are either WAY too expensive or WAY too cheap (as in a Hotdog stand) or they are pasta (and too expensive at that, I don't pay for pasta). So it's not like we have a lot of choice ANYWAY! But we do feel that the pricepoint we are at is child-friendly. We aren't talking 5 stars or anything....especially for a three month old...I mean she's quiet unless she's hungry and if she's hungry....I got that taken care of:)
However, we are now down to three. Granted they are all FABULOUS. The staff is accommodating, the food amazing, and the pricepoints tolerable........but we sometimes laugh at our choices.
We simply go: Greek? Sushi? Thai? and that's it.
There aren't a lot of nursing moms out there with me. So far in the three months that we've had the little one I have as yet to have seen ONE OTHER MOTHER breastfeeding in public. I can't be the ONLY one but sometimes I feel like I am making some sort of statement instead of simply feeding my hungry child.
But then again, children are some sort of statement -that is something I am still getting used to. The presence of a child immediately affects how people think about you and what they assume you think about the world. And what you do with that child becomes even more of a statement.
So I'll stand by this one. Breastfeeding in public -go for it!
(and if a restaurant makes you feel uncomfortable with the baby....never go back!)
I was never brave enough to nurse in public. I can remember always going into another room when I was at my in-laws' houses and the one time that I did it away from home, I parked WAY out in EBF in a Wal-Mart parking lot and was STILL worried about people seeing me.
ReplyDeleteThere is a weird and disconcerting stigma about seeing women do this out in public, even though it is the most natural thing in the world - women have literally been doing this for CENTURIES but everyone seems to forget that as soon as they see a breast (remember the public outcry to Janet Jackson's little "wardrobe malfunction" at the Super Bowl? You'd think it was because she had exposed herself ENTIRELY, rather than just partially. Yes, yes, she wasn't breastfeeding, but I'm using this as an example because it was ONE BREAST people saw, and only for a few seconds at the most).
I think the mindset of American society is saturated by sex in some of the worst ways. I place a large part of the blame on the entertainment industry. Women are seen as objects rather than caretakers because of the way the female body is exploited and portrayed. Because of this, men AND women take offense when a woman nurses in public and consider it "indecent exposure". Therefore, women are self-conscious about doing it in public because they have the same mindset as well and are afraid of offending others.
It's pretty sad and so long as things continue to be the way that they are, that stigma will remain. :(