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Does a nursing baby offend you?

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Dros said:
....While breastfeeding may be a bonding experience, it does not require, as you seem to imagine, a darkened quiet room for this bonding to take place. ....
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Darkened room??? I never mentioned anything about that. Is there anything wrong in just finding a quiet corner. I also don't believe the mother should be relegated to a toilet to feed her baby, I certainly wouldn't eat in a toilet and wouldn't expect a baby to either.

Gosh I wonder how my mother and her mother survived all those years ago when they couldn't breast feed at the local pub, restaurant or shopping mall? There's generations of people out there who weren't breast fed in public and yet somehow society still managed to move forward.
 
skunk said:
Breast-feeding makes you gay. Just thought I'd say that.
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Now I can't decide whether to support this fact as mothers rights or be revolted by it...
 
Bern said:
Gosh I wonder how my mother and her mother survived all those years ago when they couldn't breast feed at the local pub, restaurant or shopping mall? There's generations of people out there who weren't breast fed in public and yet somehow society still managed to move forward.
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Men managed to move forward. Women were relegated to a "quiet corner", I suppose.
 
Bern said:
Gosh I wonder how my mother and her mother survived all those years ago when they couldn't breast feed at the local pub, restaurant or shopping mall? There's generations of people out there who weren't breast fed in public and yet somehow society still managed to move forward.
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Probably because sadly there were generations of women who were discouraged from breast feeding and told that formula was 'better' for baby. It's really only the past two decades that the 'breast is best' message has come back to the fore and there are higher number of women breastfeeding again - thus necessitating more spaces where they can feed their children.

From what those women who 'spurn' the parent and child room (with nursing chair) in our stores tell us during surveys, they don't all want to be sat in a quiet room while feeding their child. They want to be able to have some refreshment themselves, perhaps feed any other children and socialise with other friends.

There's no doubt that breastfeeding creates a special bond with a child but it doesn't make it any less special if it's not expressed at every mealtime. And while you're entitled to say that it makes you uncomfortable, you're not qualified to say that the woman is any part either a worse mother or a homophobe as a result.
 
Bern said:
I have the right not to like breast feeding in public. It doesn't make me a monster or anything negative, it's simply my rights. I don't like it not because I find it offensive, but because I believe it's the mother not appreciating the nurturing nature of what she is doing. People these days seem to be such a rut over "their rights" they forget about everybody else's. And it is my right to not want to sit next to someone in a restaurant who is breast feeding.
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While you're right that it is your right to be offended by it, but it is the womens right to breast feed there kids in public if they want to. Sorry, people aren't going to give up there rights just to please you.
 
I'm not concerned and I thought the people who were have been wearing blinders anyway.

In the bookstore the other day, there was another magazine cover where most of the breast was showing but no one was making a big deal about it.

Remember the people from Cincinnati who wanted to clothe the traveling Rodin exhibit (or should I say exhibition)? Why would it concern people who never went to see it anyway?

Let women do what they need to do to take care of their children. If parents are offended by such honesty, perhaps, they shouldn't be parents.
 
quagmire said:
While you're right that it is your right to be offended by it, but it is the womens right to breast feed there kids in public if they want to. Sorry, people aren't going to give up there rights just to please you.
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It's reciprocal. So should I give up my rights then to please somebody? Let's not be a hypocrite.
 
Bern said:
It's reciprocal. So should I give up my rights then to please somebody? Let's not be a hypocrite.
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If I said I was offended by seeing a black person at another table whilst eating, should I have my prejudices pandered to?
 
skunk said:
What right do you have to have your particular prejudices pandered to?
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I'm prejudice simply because I don't want to eat a meal across from a woman breast feeding her baby?
 
Bern said:
I'm prejudice simply because I don't want to eat a meal across from a woman breast feeding her baby?
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All the baby is doing is eating. Some grown-ups are far less salubrious to watch at their troughs.

I get the impression that either you don't like breasts, or you only like to see them if the owner is potentially or implicitly available to you.
 
Lau said:
If I said I was offended by seeing a black person at another table whilst eating, should I have my prejudices pandered to?
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That's an offensive argument to make and you're assuming that I am white.
 
Bern: You have a right not to like something and a right to express your opinion, but you don't have a right not to be offended.

Bern said:
People these days seem to be such a rut over "their rights" they forget about everybody else's.
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As you've aptly demonstrated.
 
Bern said:
That's an offensive argument to make and you're assuming that I am white.
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I'm assuming nothing. I'm not saying you're saying that. :rolleyes: I'm white, and so if I was to say that, it would seem outdated and bizarre (not to mention hugely offensive) to most decent people. That's how strange your statement about not wanting to see a woman breastfeed seems to me.

And the reason I said it was to make the point that should everyone have their rights upheld, even if they're outdated, bizarre or offensive to most people?
 
Bern said:
It's reciprocal. So should I give up my rights then to please somebody? Let's not be a hypocrite.
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Is it reciprocal?

Which is a greater imposition: Your request that the mother go elsewhere, or her request that you ignore her if she bothers you? Her breast feeding will have little impact on you (it's not so hard to look away, right?) -- your request that she go elsewhere would have a huge impact not only on her, but on all mothers.



Bern said:
I'm prejudice simply because I don't want to eat a meal across from a woman breast feeding her baby?
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We're all prejudiced -- it's a matter of recognizing those prejudices we hold and then, if we have the courage, trying to work through them.
 
Bern said:
I'm prejudice simply because I don't want to eat a meal across from a woman breast feeding her baby?
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You have a point. But the secret is you have to weigh YOUR rights against OTHERS rights. What is a restriction to you is a right to another. If the restriction is less important to you than the right is to the other person, then the other person wins. So now weigh the rights you want against the restrictions of the other person.

RIGHT: Not see breast-feeding in public.
RESTRICTION: Not feed child in public.

versus

RIGHT: Feed child in public.
RESTRICTION: Be forced to see babies being fed in public.

Now which sounds better? Everyone has their opinion, but I'm on the pro-breastfeeding side here.
 
I'm just going to end my input here by saying thank you for this interesting and mature debate (glad it didn't degrade into a childish tit for tat).

Whilst I will continue to defend my rights in this respect (and that is the right to eat my meal in a restaurant without having to endure a mother breast feeding across from me) I certainly appreciate your valid and reasonable point of views to the contrary. At the end of the day it's all about rights as we have all discussed and having rights purports to each respecting the other's so whilst you say I should respect the rights of a nursing mother I say and my rights should be respected also. It's one of those merry-go-round debates I guess where middle ground is yet to be amicably established.
 
Bern said:
Whilst I will continue to defend my rights in this respect (and that is the right to eat my meal in a restaurant without having to endure a mother breast feeding across from me)
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If we ever find ourselves in a restauraunt together for whatever reason and I want to breast feed my child, you're welcome to move away and eat your meal elswehere so that its not visible to you.
 
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