Breast feeding mom upset with Six Flags Great America

Man, this news thread is starting to get ugly. I think I'll have to throw in breast-feeding as another surefire way to light a firecracker at the next cocktail party the way religion and politics will.

Again, to me the issue here was that she was doing this IN the wading pool. Like Jeff and Jeremy (and others) I think breast-feeding in public is a perfectly natural thing but that doesn't mean that it's NOT introducing food into a park activity area that prohibits it.

If Junior walked into the wading pool with a sippy cup brimming with fruit punch you can bet that lifeguards would be all over that. Some here are saying that breast milk is not as unsavory as spit, pee or stool but that isn't accepted either. It's tolerated because it's hidden. I bet you if a kid dropped his trunks and was ready to let it fly he would be quickly escorted away from the pool.

Is there anyone here that feels that you should NOT be able to take a beverage container into a waterpark pool (including a bottle of warm milk) but you SHOULD be able to breastfeed in the water? I don't see the difference.

Urine = death to grass.

Fertilizer (or crap) = life to grass.

Oh, and at the adult pools (like in Soak City) you ARE permitted to drink in the pool. In fact, it is completely encouraged and they are relying on you to do so.

This isn't a problem with the woman. This is a problem with the individual who can't be mature enough to handle it.

A friend of mine has evidence to the contrary Skipper, a patch of grass in his back yard.

As for breastfeeding, its the one activity that links men of all ages. Because honestly, which one of you guys doesn't wish you were that baby?

Paris: You acutally do make a valid point. If there is no eating in the pool, there is at least a leg to stand on. However, I do not know that is the stated policy @ SFGAm. I do know that many parks *encourage* drinking in the pools as skipper has pointed out. I guess I never considered the "no eating" aspect as that was not at all mentioned in the article. Moreover, I was making more of general comments rather than the specifics of this incident for that very reason, I *dont* know all the specifics.

Note: Only Jeff wants the worker fired. ;) I'm all on the re-education side :)

Jeff said:

"You can tell the enthusiast crowd is a sausage party judging by the responses above. Hostyl is right, I'd like to see you eat in a bathroom or locker room. If you find breast feeding makes you uncomfortable, that's your problem, not the mother's. There is nothing dirty, obscene or immoral about the very thing that gives life. Get over yourself."

Thank you. I don't see why this is an issue to begin with. It's a NATURAL thing. I remember going to a local talk show in college one time (as a field trip sorta) and the topic was "Should women breastfeed in public". You wouldn't believe the morons who were offended by the thought of seeing a mother breastfeed her baby in public, whether it was a poolside, bench in a park, or in the mall.

Naturally the "offended" were all men. Besides, it's just a freakin BOOB! Get over it. WHY anyone would stare (and then become offended) at a woman breastfeeding her baby in the first place is beyond me.

You can't even compare it to someone changing their kid's diaper in a restaurant.

-Tina

*** This post was edited by coasterqueenTRN 7/15/2005 2:20:28 PM ***

Am I the only one who would hope for an "accidental" view of said BOOB? ;)

The men that are offended with public breast feeding all seem to me, IMHO, to be suffering from the whore-madonna complex. F%$% my brains out in bed, but I better not see a hint of that whore in public.

Oh come on some of you are acting like there was breast milk dripping all over the place. Have you ever even seen a women breast feed, because if you have you would know that, that baby is not spilling a drop lol. I don't see how the breast milk would contamminate the water when the baby is drinking the milk, and she had an towel or some form of cover over her and the baby. Like i said some of you are acting like she was just sitting there with milk dripping all over the place. I never understood that about America, how can our body parts that were all created by GOD be so bad, if anything the body should be held as an work of art, a thing of beauty not something people make you feel ashamed of. Yet it's ok for women to get their breast filled up with silicone until they look as if they'll pop, it's just not ok to use them for what they were made for and that's to feed their offspring.

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coasterqueenTRN :
I don't see why this is an issue to begin with. It's a NATURAL thing.

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True. But then I can make the argument of "what's the big deal if I want to have sex on my lounger by the wave pool? It's a NATURAL thing, and I'm not hurting anybody. If you don't like it, than don't look." Which leads to another point...

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Juggalotus:[/i}
This is just like TV, Stern and anything else that is "offensive". Just change the station or look the other way. Its not affecting you or your kids in any way shape or form.

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This is the most tired argument of all. Fine, I like to pee in the street. If you don't like it, just don't look out your windows! Or, I'm going to pleasure myself on this here park bench. If you don't like it, then don't look, and tell your kids not to look.

Now, my opinion on the matter? If it's done discretely, I don't see the problem with the whole breast feeding thing. It's not like she walked over to the pool, stripped down completely naked and started squirting people around her. I would prefer that she breast feed off to the side, but whatever.

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Juggalotus:[/i}
VFG, which ads are you complaining about? The ones touting new IM smileys, or the ones that give away free video games?

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I think he's refering to those ads for "True," with the close up shots of cleavage and computer airbrushed images.

Amen westcoasterman!

Clothes are so boring anyway. Too bad we can't just all walk around naked like it was intended to be, then nobody would have any issues.

Well, it would be kind of unsanitary riding coasters that way but still........;-)

-Tina

Burn those bras damnit! :-)

Yeah, and health issues? I'm not sure what that's all about. The only health issues I see are for the baby, breast feeding around pee and poop filled water.

Danimales, I don't think a woman breastfeeding and two people going at it on a lounge chair is even remotely comparable. There is no argument there.

Breastfeeding is in no way meant to be a sexual thing, well, obviously it is to some men.

-Tina

You do have a point there, Danimales. Personally I would never breastfeed a baby in a public pool anyway, for those same reasons. But I think the point is there are WAY too many people offended by women breastfeeding in public. And the only reason they ARE offended is because they associate it with sex.

That's just sick. That was the whole issue with the talk show I attended back in college. These men were saying it was "dirty" as in not appropriate.

-Tina

i guess everyone has their rights. The only thing that makes sense is that their are kids and parents probably would shield the kids from all of that. Most people would see that as offensive. To each their own, but what gets me is why is a baby who cant swim in the water, regardless the depth. That mom should have been thinking more about that then breastfeeding in the water.

Also their are restrooms and such, but that is my personal opinion. There are places for all of that. Wheres no maam at when someone tries to breastfeed in public. Now that was classic television.

I called my wife, who breast fed, to get her take. Surprise she said find a private area and feed the kid. I have no problem with public breast feeding just be discreet. Like I said earlier in the middle of a public pool is just over the top! Six Flags said they have areas for women to breast feed. We are more advanced then we were 100 years ago. It is not a shot at womenhood to be discreet!

OMFG, I can't believe what I just read in this thread. I breast fed my son, I never "whiiped" out my boob. I always had a blanket to cover myself and him, I did it in public. If a baby is hungry, then he's hungry. You gotta feed them. If you don't have time to pump said boob, then you don't. Besides, it does lose vitamins and minerals they need. It's better right from the boob. If some of you MEN don't like it, then tough. We have a right as women to do so wherever. If we can't it's called disrimination.

Why do you think most work places have seperate rooms for new mother's breast feeding, and need to pump (when they can't be with their baby). They do it becuase they don't want to get their ass HANDED to them on a silver platter.

So whoever was complaining VFG, get a life, you are ignorant and just plain stupid.

Katie

Danimales, I'm not talking about things that are obscene or unsanitary. Obscenity has no place in public, but many of the things people find offensive are things that they can just as easily ignore.

You don't HAVE to listen to Stern, you don't HAVE to watch CSI, you don't HAVE to go to church, you don't HAVE to agree with elected officials. Its amazing how easily freedoms are given away when they aren't "My Freedoms".

Actually MB, infants possess an innate ability to swim/float without drowning for a couple months after birth. I believe it pertains to the fact that their entire life to that point has been spent suspended in fluid. Of course, after a few months of terrestrial life, they lose this instinct unless it is nurtured, which is why mother/child swim classes are so popular.

Did anyone read the article?

She had another child with her who she was keeping an eye on while she was feeding the baby.

So, her options were to:

A) Have a 2-year-old throw a temper tantrum because he's being pulled out of the water so she can feed the baby in private.

B) Stay close enough to keep an eye on the two-year-old and have the baby throw a fit because she's hungry.

C) Feed the baby and let the 2-year-old play in the pool at the same time.

C seems the most reasonable to me.

the real question is, what is that lady doing at an amusement park with an infant kid that still has to be nursed. I am neither offended if i see someone being breastfed, and I wouldn't be offended by it. This mother (and the father not to sound sexiest) should not be walking around an amusement park with kids this young, they should be at home taking care of them.