Put a lid on it
NS May 27th, 2008
Someone at a parenting forum I frequent posted an awesome lactivism story that I just have to share:
About a year ago i was out with a friend who was just getting used to NIP (nursing in public) with her 3 month old daughter. We were in a coffee shop (Tinderbox, GLasgow, UK if anyone is interested). I’d been NIP in there from when DD was 10days old so it seemed a good place for her to take the plunge.
Anyway babe woke, mama got to nursing. An old man, at the next table, immediately began to grumble and mutter. Soon he was loud enough that we could hear the grumblings of “disGUSting” and “public decency” and “should be ashamed”. I just held my friend’s eye contact and gave her my “Your legal right!” look (legally protected in the UK to NIP).
A few moments of this passed and then a member of staff passed, clearing tables. Old man pipes up “Aren’t you going to do anything about her feeding THAT in here!? It’s disgusting! They should be thrown out!” My friend was getting twitchy. I put a hand on her arm, and said “steady” under my breath.
The member of staff, a boy of about 18, looked at the old man, looked at us and said “one moment sir” to the old guy. He vanished. A moment later he returned with a paper cup and lid. He put the paper cup on the old guy’s table, picked his half-drunk coffee up, poured it into the cup, put the lid on and then holding the cup out to the old guy said “You can’t see them from outside, which is where you’re going now.”
The old guy had a face like THUNDER but he left. We smiled sweetly and BROADLY at him as he left.
Whoever ends up partnered to that boy is a lucky, lucky person. What an amazing attitude! And I love imagining the spluttering old fool leaving the cafe with his paper cup in hand while the lady feeding her baby sat there feeling confident, supported and incredibly proud. We need to hear more stories like this. Any breastfeeders or former breastfeeders care to share a positive experience?
- Activism , Funny Ha-Ha
- Comments(8)
That is a good story!
~Masasa
(Sierra on MDC)
Great story! It put a smile on my face.
I’ll share a positive NIP experience I had once: I flew alone with DD to Chicago to visit family when she was just over a year old and nursed her numerous times on the journey. At the end of the flight when we were all standing up waiting to exit the aircraft, a middle-aged Japanese man who had been sitting behind me stroked TNC’s head, smiled at me and said “You give her your milk, that is very, very good. You should do this for as long as possible and wherever you are.” It absolutely made my day! What a great, supportive thing to say to someone who was worried that some of those around her might be secretly annoyed or ‘disgusted’ at the way she was feeding and comforting her child.
That’s a great story. I don’t have a story as such but I was really surprised when I first atarted nip here in Turkey. I was worried as this is quite a conservative place where most people are muslim. However tI got nothing but support wherever I was. People used to come up to me in the street and ask if Iwas breastfeeding and say, good good, breastfeed as long as you can, as long as you’ve got milk, menn and women of various ages.
Greetings from a fellow expat in Birmingham!
My MIL and I were at our library’s cafe having an afternoon tea and sitting in some supercomfy chairs. My newborn son was quietly nursing away, and a little old lady came up and asked if she could sit in one of the soft chairs next to us. We smiled and welcomed her, and she spotted that my son was eating, frowned, and sat down. (Oh boy, I thought, here we go, and mentally got my info arsenal ready) “You know, Love, it is so sad that you don’t see more mums feeding their bubs that way.” and then went on to talk about waiting to watch her grand daughter in a dance show in the community theatre next door.
Needless to say, I was on a NIP high for the rest of the day
Even my MIL was happy.
That is a fantastic attitude for a wee lad. Many of my friends who are Mums breast feed so discreetly that you’d really never know what they were doing. To me if I am able to do it, it just seems a no brainer, so much less phaff and complication. Sod em all!
Cheers
BC
I was at the craft store and Levi got hungry while we were waiting in line – the cashir said ‘ “Congradulations for breastfeeding your baby, you are doing the best thing for him” and then she said she wished that she could nurse while standing up, walking around like that (Levi was almost 6 months old). Turns out she used to be a LLL leader.
It was the first comment I had about bfing – and it was great! No one else has ever said anything to me, but usually people smile, and Ive never had anythign negative.
Thanks for sharing your positive NIP stories, it’s fantastic to hear!