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Breastfeeding Mom in restaurant stare off...

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Comments

  • Moderators, Education Moderators Posts: 26,403 Mod ✭✭✭✭Peregrine


    La Fenetre, do not post in this thread again.

    Everyone else, don't reply to their posts and drop the pro-life vs pro-choice digs.

    Mod


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 179 ✭✭greenorchard


    eviltwin wrote: »
    Stay classy dude

    I breastfed my baby in a church a few weeks ago at a christening and the friend who was having her baby christened also breastfed her baby during it too. His head will probably explode now :D


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 24,317 ✭✭✭✭One eyed Jack


    lazygal wrote: »
    Breasts, babies and feeding are different for everyone. Skin contact is really important in the early days and if the baby needs the whole breast out to feed so be it. You might have views on how you think women should breastfeed but that does not mean we all fall into those rules or guidelines. Plus you might have an awkward bra on or the top isn't easy to access and I'm damned if I'm getting a new wardrobe so someone isn't freaked out because my toddler needs to feed.


    I'm not at all suggesting anyone has to follow any rules or guidelines or any of the rest of it, nor am I suggesting anyone has to get new bras or anything else. I'm only saying that there's no necessity for a woman to go overboard and whip out the whole breast, come on now, there isn't, but in any case, she should adopt your attitude and concentrate on feeding her baby rather than looking around to see who's staring at her.

    sup_dude wrote: »
    But a utilitarian milk delivery system is exactly what they're being used for when breast feedimg and shouldn't be thought of as anything else under the circumstances.


    Hmm, how realistic now honestly do you think that is? It's certainly not something I would ever seek to shame someone for thinking tbh. It's crossed my mind on more than a couple of occasions, though I've never actually acted on it, because that would be weird, for me personally speaking! :pac:


  • Registered Users Posts: 307 ✭✭DukeOfTheSharp


    ...so why are people so pissy about her breastfeeding? She was feeding her baby, who cares? Did she walk over the chap who was staring and have him hold the baby? Was everyone forced to watch her? No? Then why does anyone have an issue with this? She should be allowed to breastfeed, regardless of method, without some disapproving muppet staring at her. Does anyone think she wanted to have this happen to her? Because it totally can't be about feeding her baby, it has to be about 'attention seeking'. God help this country when we're so aggressively apathetic we're paranoid that anyone doing something normal and natural is doing so 'for attention'.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,555 ✭✭✭Ave Sodalis


    Hmm, how realistic now honestly do you think that is? It's certainly not something I would ever seek to shame someone for thinking tbh. It's crossed my mind on more than a couple of occasions, though I've never actually acted on it, because that would be weird, for me personally speaking!


    It would be only unrealistic if we go by what you're suggesting and continue to insist women stay covered to breastfeed. There are other countries where it is completely normal to have a woman's breast exposed when breatfeeding and nobody bats an eyelid.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 17,495 ✭✭✭✭eviltwin


    I'm not at all suggesting anyone has to follow any rules or guidelines or any of the rest of it, nor am I suggesting anyone has to get new bras or anything else. I'm only saying that there's no necessity for a woman to go overboard and whip out the whole breast, come on now, there isn't, but in any case, she should adopt your attitude and concentrate on feeding her baby rather than looking around to see who's staring at her.





    Hmm, how realistic now honestly do you think that is? It's certainly not something I would ever seek to shame someone for thinking tbh. It's crossed my mind on more than a couple of occasions, though I've never actually acted on it, because that would be weird, for me personally speaking! :pac:

    One Eye, seriously, how often does a woman do that, expose the entire breast? I've never seen it anywhere, not a cafe, on a bus or even in a mother and babies group. It doesn't happen. But it does happen that a woman who is breastfeeding is looked at, asked to leave a premises, made to feel like she is doing something offensive. Breastfeeding in this country is virtually non existent and attitudes like this are part of it. Its a sad state of affairs that a woman can't use her breasts as they were intended but walking around in low cuts tops is okay or semi naked women on the front of lads mags.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,644 ✭✭✭✭lazygal


    I'm not at all suggesting anyone has to follow any rules or guidelines or any of the rest of it, nor am I suggesting anyone has to get new bras or anything else. I'm only saying that there's no necessity for a woman to go overboard and whip out the whole breast, come on now, there isn't, but in any case, she should adopt your attitude and concentrate on feeding her baby rather than looking around to see who's staring:

    Stop using terms like whipping out a breast. It really doesn't do your argument any favours. Your posts are full of contradictions, on the one hand you support breastfeeding but if any more than a nipple is "whipped out" its a big deal.


  • Posts: 0 [Deleted User]


    I havent found any proof that someone was staring at her. You'd think she would havent taken a photo, wouldn't you?

    And wtf is an intactivist?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,465 ✭✭✭✭cantdecide


    I moved in to a house with some new people and got very friendly with them pretty quickly. They had friends around, a couple, who had their newborn there and within less than 5 minutes of first meeting them, she's sitting across from me at my kitchen table eating and her boob's out as I'm sitting directly opposite at my kitchen table trying to eat and make nice with the guests and there are boobs everywhere.

    Was I offended? Not in the slightest but it quickly became apparent that I can blush uncontrollably at times.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 24,317 ✭✭✭✭One eyed Jack


    sup_dude wrote: »
    So... they shouldn't have to cover up... but they should cover up. You still don't see the contradiction?


    This is very frustrating. They shouldn't feel they have to cover up, but they should only need to expose as much as is necessary in public. If other people's reactions make them feel bad, then they should probably find another way to feed their baby, because they can't control other people's reactions, they can only control their own attitude and behavior.

    The priority in that situation is feeding their baby, not what other people think of them feeding their baby, but if they're going to make a point of doing it in as public a manner as possible, well, some people just aren't going to get all cooey-eyed about it because it's "the most natural thing in the world".

    Plenty of things could be considered "the most natural thing in the world", but humans have come up with plenty of ways to make these natural things just that bit more convenient for themselves. It shouldn't be like some competition to see who win the most natural mummy of the year awards on social media.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 16,706 ✭✭✭✭osarusan


    The argument that 'if she'd been focusing properly on breastfeeding she wouldn't even have noticed anybody staring'* is especially ugly.



    *paraphrasing a few posters.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 16,706 ✭✭✭✭osarusan


    This is very frustrating. They shouldn't feel they have to cover up, but they should only need to expose as much as is necessary in public.
    If it turned out that for this woman, at that moment, for whatever reason, she found it necessary to expose as much breast as she did, what argument would you have left?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,644 ✭✭✭✭lazygal


    This is very frustrating. They shouldn't feel they have to cover up, but they should only need to expose as much as is necessary in public. If other people's reactions make them feel bad, then they should probably find another way to feed their baby, because they can't control other people's reactions, they can only control their own attitude and behavior.

    The priority in that situation is feeding their baby, not what other people think of them feeding their baby, but if they're going to make a point of doing it in as public a manner as possible, well, some people just aren't going to get all cooey-eyed about it because it's "the most natural thing in the world".

    Plenty of things could be considered "the most natural thing in the world", but humans have come up with plenty of ways to make these natural things just that bit more convenient for themselves. It shouldn't be like some competition to see who win the most natural mummy of the year awards on social media.

    Tl/Dr I've never actually breastfeed a baby or toddler but I'll tell you exactly how it works and how you should do it.

    Unless you've actually breastfed, you don't know what works. Both mine feed in different ways.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,555 ✭✭✭Ave Sodalis


    This is very frustrating. They shouldn't feel they have to cover up, but they should only need to expose as much as is necessary in public. If other people's reactions make them feel bad, then they should probably find another way to feed their baby, because they can't control other people's reactions, they can only control their own attitude and behavior.

    That's a very backwards way of doing things. You're basically saying that if there's a problem with society, we should just conform and not try to change it. It's like saying if a girl walks down the street and gets heckled, then she should wear trousers from now on. Nope, the judgers and starers are the one with the problem and the one who should change, not the breastfeeders.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,681 ✭✭✭Fleawuss


    This thread is really getting on some people's tits.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 14,949 ✭✭✭✭IvyTheTerrible


    We have this exact thread every few months. You'll have one person continuously using terms like "whipping them out" when there's no evidence anyone actually feeds a baby in public like that.
    It's the breastfeeding equivalent of the "I'm not a racist but..." argument. Just admit you don't like women breastfeeding in public.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 24,317 ✭✭✭✭One eyed Jack


    lazygal wrote: »
    Tl/Dr I've never actually breastfeed a baby or toddler but I'll tell you exactly how it works and how you should do it.

    Unless you've actually breastfed, you don't know what works. Both mine feed in different ways.


    My consultants have no experience of what it's like to be blind in one eye, nor to have a gammy hip, but I'll trust their judgement and their knowledge and their education any day over my own, because they know what they're talking about, even if they have never experienced it for themselves.

    I don't have to have breastfed to know how it works, I have a fair idea already. We have eviltwin saying that it just doesn't happen that women expose their whole breast, and yet there she is in the OP. sup_dude saying that women have their breasts exposed all the time in other countries (of course they do, but that's a whole different culture, they don't know any different because they've never been exposed to any different).

    It's unfair to be suggesting that because someone has never breastfed a baby that they have no idea what they're talking about when the issue is more about breastfeeding in public, which I have said numerous times now I have no issue with, and even if a woman needs to take off het top and all just to breastfeed, well she should go right ahead... but then to complain because people are staring?

    They're staring because it's unusual, they could react an infinite number of ways, and that's the most natural thing in the world too!


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,555 ✭✭✭Ave Sodalis


    sup_dude saying that women have their breasts exposed all the time in other countries (of course they do, but that's a whole different culture, they don't know any different because they've never been exposed to any different).

    So what? It doesn't mean that we shouldn't strive to be the same. Should we not strive for better just because we aren't used to it? Could you imagine using that argument for other aspects of society?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 24,317 ✭✭✭✭One eyed Jack


    sup_dude wrote: »
    That's a very backwards way of doing things. You're basically saying that if there's a problem with society, we should just conform and not try to change it. It's like saying if a girl walks down the street and gets heckled, then she should wear trousers from now on. Nope, the judgers and starers are the one with the problem and the one who should change, not the breastfeeders.


    There isn't a problem with society though. Some people have a problem with society because they feel like people are judging them for breastfeeding in public. Well they are!

    So either the person gets used to it, or they continue to let it upset them, but that's only one person that stared at them, out of how many that didn't?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,555 ✭✭✭Ave Sodalis


    There isn't a problem with society though. Some people have a problem with society because they feel like people are judging them for breastfeeding in public. Well they are!


    Judging people for breast feeding is a problem!


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,644 ✭✭✭✭lazygal


    My consultants have no experience of what it's like to be blind in one eye, nor to have a gammy hip, but I'll trust their judgement and their knowledge and their education any day over my own, because they know what they're talking about, even if they have never experienced it for themselves.

    I don't have to have breastfed to know how it works, I have a fair idea already. We have eviltwin saying that it just doesn't happen that women expose their whole breast, and yet there she is in the OP. sup_dude saying that women have their breasts exposed all the time in other countries (of course they do, but that's a whole different culture, they don't know any different because they've never been exposed to any different).

    It's unfair to be suggesting that because someone has never breastfed a baby that they have no idea what they're talking about when the issue is more about breastfeeding in public, which I have said numerous times now I have no issue with, and even if a woman needs to take off het top and all just to breastfeed, well she should go right ahead... but then to complain because people are staring?

    They're staring because it's unusual, they could react an infinite number of ways, and that's the most natural thing in the world too!

    Unless you've breastfed a baby you've no idea what you'll need to do to feed them. I had no clue when I started and quite honestly only those who'd actually breastfed had any useful advice whatsoever. None of which told me exposing any more than a nipple was the correct way to feed or that other people's reactions should affect how I needed to feed.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 16,706 ✭✭✭✭osarusan


    lazygal wrote: »

    Unless you've actually breastfed, you don't know what works.
    More to the point, unless you have actually breastfed that baby in the OP, you don't know what works.

    Nobody on here has the slightest clue of the best way to breastfeed that particular baby, but still, so many assumptions.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,644 ✭✭✭✭lazygal


    osarusan wrote: »
    More to the point, unless you have actually breastfed that baby in the OP, you don't know what works.

    Nobody on here has the slightest clue of the best way to breastfeed that particular baby, but still, so many assumptions.

    Yes, exactly. How my two year old feeds now is completely different to how he fed as a new born.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 24,317 ✭✭✭✭One eyed Jack


    sup_dude wrote: »
    So what? It doesn't mean that we shouldn't strive to be the same. Should we not strive for better just because we aren't used to it? Could you imagine using that argument for other aspects of society?


    Wait a minute, your first point was that people shouldn't have to conform to this culture, but you're now suggesting that we should strive to conform to the norms of another culture whose practices suit you? How is that actually "better"?

    I can't imagine using that argument for other aspects of society because I would see that as cherry picking out of context values from another culture and trying to mould them into our own.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,601 ✭✭✭Gaygooner


    Squirt milk in the prude's eye. That will soften their cough


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,644 ✭✭✭✭lazygal


    Wait a minute, your first point was that people shouldn't have to conform to this culture, but you're now suggesting that we should strive to conform to the norms of another culture whose practices suit you? How is that actually "better"?

    I can't imagine using that argument for other aspects of society because I would see that as cherry picking out of context values from another culture and trying to mould them into our own.

    How is not having a problem with breastfeeding an out of context value?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,555 ✭✭✭Ave Sodalis


    Wait a minute, your first point was that people shouldn't have to conform to this culture, but you're now suggesting that we should strive to conform to the norms of another culture whose practices suit you? How is that actually "better"?


    What? How is it not better? How can people not being judged for something that needs to happen and happens for a very specific reason, be the better option? People who have issues with breast feeding not being covered up are the people with the problem. Your arguments are getting weaker and weaker. We should go back to women not voting because why is women voting better? We should also abolish SSM again because why is that better? In fact, we should all judge people for being gay because how is that not better than not judging them. There are places in the world where child labour is the norm but I guess we shouldn't bother getting rid of that either because why is it any better?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 24,317 ✭✭✭✭One eyed Jack


    osarusan wrote: »
    More to the point, unless you have actually breastfed that baby in the OP, you don't know what works.

    Nobody on here has the slightest clue of the best way to breastfeed that particular baby, but still, so many assumptions.


    It's a fairly safe assumption all the same. There's generally no necessity to expose the whole breast in the manner in which this woman has done.

    I understand of course that she was trying to make a point about people's attitudes to breastfeeding in public, but the facts speak for themselves when she could only find one woman to have a stare-down with while she was feeding her baby.

    Her attitude IMO is incredibly immature.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,555 ✭✭✭Ave Sodalis


    It's a fairly safe assumption all the same. There's generally no necessity to expose the whole breast in the manner in which this woman has done.


    So what if the whole breast is exposed? It's not in any way sexual and those who think otherwise have quite the twisted mind. Yeah, it might not be comfortable to do it that way, in which case helpful advice can be offered, not judgement. Why should there be any problem if a woman needs to take off her whole top to breast feed? Those that have a problem with it, are the problem.


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  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 60,174 Mod ✭✭✭✭Wibbs


    I have zero issue with mothers breastfeeding their children "in public". Why the hell would anyone? TBH I find it almost soothing to see*. I was breastfed myself and without getting into that other minefield out there, IMHO it's by far the best start for a kid and should be encouraged, not bloody vilified. I can see why kids go for it, it's lovely, and sweet and minus that fatty greasy vibe with cows milk.

    Unless… it's being done to Make a political Point(™) as part of some hippie/crustie/leftie/knit your own muesli/I was born too late for Greenham Common/I need to be offended agenda for ArseBook. Then you're just being a dick, or tit. As it were. So to speak.
    Attention seeker seeks attention and gets it.

    That's all there is to this story really.
    Aye OeJ, I do see what you mean. These days my Cynic Meter goes into the red when I see stuff like this. I know I shouldn't and know I should reserve judgement, but with so bloody many notice boxes in dire need of ego validation out there being fed the crack of social media, TBH I do tend to err on the side of being well bloody dubious about this sorta thing.




    *caveat; I'm not a boob man. Maybe some blokes are irresistibly aroused and/or riled up? I say FFS resist lads, we're not apes in the jungle. Mostly.

    Rejoice in the awareness of feeling stupid, for that’s how you end up learning new things. If you’re not aware you’re stupid, you probably are.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,644 ✭✭✭✭lazygal


    It's a fairly safe assumption all the same. There's generally no necessity to expose the whole breast in the manner in which this woman has done.

    I understand of course that she was trying to make a point about people's attitudes to breastfeeding in public, but the facts speak for themselves when she could only find one woman to have a stare-down with while she was feeding her baby.

    Her attitude IMO is incredibly immature.

    Again, you're telling us how to breastfeed despite never having done it yourself. How do you happen to know how breastfeeding every child and toddler works for every woman? Because you think it should work that way?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 24,317 ✭✭✭✭One eyed Jack


    sup_dude wrote: »
    What? How is it not better? How can people not being judged for something that needs to happen and happens for a very specific reason, be the better option?


    Is there some necessity in Western society for women to breastfeed in public?

    I don't think there is, and I don't think people actually care all that much either, certainly not as much as some people would want them to, which is why women who make a point of themselves breastfeeding in public on social media merely come off as attention seekers to me personally.

    People who have issues with breast feeding not being covered up are the people with the problem.


    Couldn't they say the very same thing about you though? That if you have issues with being asked to breastfeed discreetly, that you're the one with the problem if you have a problem with being asked to be discreet while breastfeeding in public?

    Your arguments are getting weaker and weaker. We should go back to women not voting because why is women voting better? We should also abolish SSM again because why is that better? In fact, we should all judge people for being gay because how is that not better than not judging them. There are places in the world where child labour is the norm but I guess we shouldn't bother getting rid of that either because why is it any better?


    Those are totally different issues with their own contexts, can we at least try to stick to discussing breastfeeding in public in Western society?


  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 60,174 Mod ✭✭✭✭Wibbs


    sup_dude wrote: »
    So what if the whole breast is exposed? It's not in any way sexual and those who think otherwise have quite the twisted mind.
    T'is a funny one SD. "Naked" and "Sexual" is extremely cultural in nature. In extremis we have Amazonian tribes where both men and women are to use an Americanism naked as jaybirds, save for a thin string belt on the ladies and a penis sheath on the gentlemen. We're talking fannies and bewbs and balls in plain view. However, if a woman takes off her thin belt she is seen as "sexual" and "shameful", ditto for the the men who take of their penis sheaths. It's a fascinating area of human psychology and sexuality actually. We're a species that invented fetish as part of our reproduction.

    Rejoice in the awareness of feeling stupid, for that’s how you end up learning new things. If you’re not aware you’re stupid, you probably are.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,644 ✭✭✭✭lazygal


    Is there some necessity in Western society for women to breastfeed in public?

    I don't think there is, and I don't think people actually care all that much either, certainly not as much as some people would want them to, which is why women who make a point of themselves breastfeeding in public on social media merely come off as attention seekers to me personally.





    Couldn't they say the very same thing about you though? That if you have issues with being asked to breastfeed discreetly, that you're the one with the problem if you have a problem with being asked to be discreet while breastfeeding in public?





    Those are totally different issues with their own contexts, can we at least try to stick to discussing breastfeeding in public in Western society?

    So women like me should only breastfeed in private. If I'd gone along with this "advice" I wouldn't have been outside my house with my children for three and a half years. Stop digging, One Eyed Jack. Breastfeeding in public is perfectly legal and if you've some whacky ideas about whipping out breasts and telling women to be discrete about feeding a baby that says more about how out of kilter some people's views on normal feeding of babies and toddlers is.


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,731 ✭✭✭jam_mac_jam


    Jesus Christ. They are only tits, even if they are whipping them out which most women don't anyway. why would you care its as much as you would see on a beach in most of Europe. I honestly can't understand why it would bother anyone. The child needs to eat if it upsets you look away.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 4,731 ✭✭✭jam_mac_jam


    Is there some necessity in Western society for women to breastfeed in public?

    I don't think there is, and I don't think people actually care all that much either, certainly not as much as some people would want them to, which is why women who make a point of themselves breastfeeding in public on social media merely come off as attention seekers to me personally.





    Couldn't they say the very same thing about you though? That if you have issues with being asked to breastfeed discreetly, that you're the one with the problem if you have a problem with being asked to be discreet while breastfeeding in public?





    Those are totally different issues with their own contexts, can we at least try to stick to discussing breastfeeding in public in Western society?

    Yes there is a necessity, they have a hungry baby. So it is necessary to feed the baby. Fairly straight forward I should think. or should women stay in private until the baby is weened.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,555 ✭✭✭Ave Sodalis


    Is there some necessity in Western society for women to breastfeed in public?

    Yes. Babies need to be fed and that question and your reply to your iwn question just shows your ignorance on the topic.
    I don't think there is, and I don't think people actually care all that much either, certainly not as much as some people would want them to, which is why women who make a point of themselves breastfeeding in public on social media merely come off as attention seekers to me personally.

    But this thread shows in a very clear light that people do care. It's not a case of "I don't see it therefore it doesn't exist". There have been multiple posts on this thread alone saying how they think women should cover up and be discrete when breast feeding. Why should they? What's wrong with it? Why do people feel offended by it? Why should a woman be discrete when breast feeding?
    Couldn't they say the very same thing about you though? That if you have issues with being asked to breastfeed discreetly, that you're the one with the problem if you have a problem with being asked to be discreet while breastfeeding in public?

    No, again, your post is completely devoid of logic and is almost becoming victim blaming if it was applied to other contexts.
    Those are totally different issues with their own contexts, can we at least try to stick to discussing breastfeeding in public in Western society?

    But your logic can be applied in the exact same way here. But because it doesn't add up here, you're just going to ignore it.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,644 ✭✭✭✭lazygal


    Yes there is a necessity, they have a hungry baby. So it is necessary to feed the baby. Fairly straight forward I should think. or should women stay in private until the baby is weened.

    WHO guidelines are to feed until two years of age. So if you followed that and had a few children close in age you'd be years at home feeding discretely without exposing more than a nipple.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 24,317 ✭✭✭✭One eyed Jack


    lazygal wrote: »
    Again, you're telling us how to breastfeed despite never having done it yourself. How do you happen to know how breastfeeding every child and toddler works for every woman? Because you think it should work that way?


    I'm not telling anyone how to breastfeed their own children if I make an observation that it's generally not something that's done in public, and it's certainly not something that's done in public with the whole breast exposed. If the woman in the OP wants to expose her whole breast while she's breastfeeding, then she's creating issues for herself, and she is fully aware of this fact.

    It's also a fact that most people never got the memo that it's rude to stare at other people, but a fair few of them seem to be of the attitude that if someone doesn't like being stared at, that's their problem.

    Some people are just inconsiderate, but most people in society are able to be rational about these things and don't seek to take offense at every opportunity, nor do they seek to cause offense at every opportunity for a few likes on social media.


  • Site Banned Posts: 6,498 ✭✭✭XR3i


    big breast, small baby


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,644 ✭✭✭✭lazygal


    I'm not telling anyone how to breastfeed their own children if I make an observation that it's generally not something that's done in public, and it's certainly not something that's done in public with the whole breast exposed. If the woman in the OP wants to expose her whole breast while she's breastfeeding, then she's creating issues for herself, and she is fully aware of this fact.

    It's also a fact that most people never got the memo that it's rude to stare at other people, but a fair few of them seem to be of the attitude that if someone doesn't like being stared at, that's their problem.

    Some people are just inconsiderate, but most people in society are able to be rational about these things and don't seek to take offense at every opportunity, nor do they seek to cause offense at every opportunity for a few likes on social media.

    You think she's doing breastfeeding wrong. How she feeds might just work for her and her child. Sometimes my toddler wants to feed lying down, or hold onto one breast while feeding from the other. Just because you don't generally see feeding done a certain way doesn't mean this woman was doing breastfeeding wrong.


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,731 ✭✭✭jam_mac_jam


    lazygal wrote: »
    WHO guidelines are to feed until two years of age. So if you followed that and had a few children close in age you'd be years at home feeding discretely without exposing more than a nipple.

    Exactly, I can't see you not having a hungry child outside for two years as quite stupid. The idea that you can restrict feeding a child to in private is laughable. why should you either, its the problem of those who disagree with it really.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,555 ✭✭✭Ave Sodalis


    If the woman in the OP wants to expose her whole breast while she's breastfeeding, then she's creating issues for herself, and she is fully aware of this fact.


    That's an awful attitude to have. Woman should also not wear short skirts because if she does, she could be raped.. but if she is, then it's own problem for wearing the short skirt becausd she should have known and she should wear trousers in future.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 24,317 ✭✭✭✭One eyed Jack


    lazygal wrote: »
    You think she's doing breastfeeding wrong. How she feeds might just work for her and her child. Sometimes my toddler wants to feed lying down, or hold onto one breast while feeding from the other. Just because you don't generally see feeding done a certain way doesn't mean this woman was doing breastfeeding wrong.


    I think you're being very unfair there if your only point is that I observed that there was a better way for the woman to breastfeed. I wasn't the only person who said she should pull the top up, rather than trying to pull her breast out over the neckline of the top.

    Of course that's naturally going to look more unusual than a woman who is breastfeeding discreetly, rather than this woman who is "I see someone staring at me, take a picture of me staring them down" (someone else obviously took the picture).


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,644 ✭✭✭✭lazygal


    I think you're being very unfair there if your only point is that I observed that there was a better way for the woman to breastfeed. I wasn't the only person who said she should pull the top up, rather than trying to pull her breast out over the neckline of the top.

    Of course that's naturally going to look more unusual than a woman who is breastfeeding discreetly, rather than this woman who is "I see someone staring at me, take a picture of me staring them down" (someone else obviously took the picture).

    Again, you don't know there's a "better" way for her to feed. Even thinking that you know better than the woman and child who are feeding what works for them speaks volumes. I'm sure if you saw my two year old feeding you'd think we're doing it wrong. But it works for us. Why would you need to tell someone how to improve something they're doing just fine?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 52,619 ✭✭✭✭tayto lover


    I don't care a bit that she was breastfeeding or exposing herself.
    She was in my opinion spoiling for a row and that's the nub of the issue.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 24,317 ✭✭✭✭One eyed Jack


    sup_dude wrote: »
    That's an awful attitude to have. Woman should also not wear short skirts because if she does, she could be raped.. but if she is, then it's own problem for wearing the short skirt becausd she should have known and she should wear trousers in future.


    Clearly in different contexts, different rules are going to apply, so I wouldn't apply those same rules in the same context you would. I was more thinking along the lines that I get stared at all the time for my various physical disabilities, and I can either get upset by that and go around telling everyone to "stop staring at meeee!", or I can accept that it's going to happen, and the bigger a deal I make of it, the worse I'll make it for myself.

    Some adults think it's their given right to stare at people, it's one of those things that adults learn to accept as a fact of life.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 19,802 ✭✭✭✭suicide_circus


    Attention sought.
    Attention gained.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,555 ✭✭✭Ave Sodalis


    Clearly in different contexts, different rules are going to apply, so I wouldn't apply those same rules in the same context you would. I was more thinking along the lines that I get stared at all the time for my various physical disabilities, and I can either get upset by that and go around telling everyone to "stop staring at meeee!", or I can accept that it's going to happen, and the bigger a deal I make of it, the worse I'll make it for myself.


    Nope, exact same logic in both contexts. I have no problem with not staring at disabled people. They're not zoo animals. Why can't a society strive to stop it, especially when it has been stopped in other countries? Out of those staring, how many are judging?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,634 ✭✭✭ThinkProgress


    So, if a woman was to expose her breast in a swanky restaurant with no child present, it would be considered highly disrespectful and uncivilized. Most establishments would likely request you to leave.

    But if there is a child present, it automatically becomes perfectly legitimate and even normal behavior? Sorry, but this is where my brain gets confused with matters of social etiquette.

    In my opinion, it should either be socially acceptable for a woman to have her breasts on view... or it should be not socially acceptable. Why all the flip flopping around?

    If a female breast is deemed worthy of covering up for matters of modesty... then why should modesty go out the window just because your child needs to eat?

    I don't buy into the notion that one scenario can be considered uncivilized while the other scenario is completely the opposite.


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