Father says wife was hassled about breastfeeding at Six Flags America

Feeding your child in public is thinking of yourself? For real? There are few things more beautiful, natural and amazing than a mother nursing her child. It never really hit me until I started hanging out with this new mom group we've been hanging out with.

I see zero reason that any mother should have to accommodate people made uncomfortable by breastfeeding, and frankly, Maryland law appears to agree.

There are other things that are just as beautiful, natural, and amazing that I'm not allowed to do on a public park bench, though. Just saying. :)

Seriously though, I'm not for women having to shield themselves in order to make other people comfortable. But I will say that I don't fully understand why anyone would want to share something so intimate and special with the public. I'm a pretty private person that way, I guess.

But at least you take the perspective that it's your own choice. I mean, if the law were that women must breastfeed in public, that would be pretty weird. :)

I still thought about getting Simon this shirt when he was born.

We had a woman earlier this year breastfeeding on the Merry-Go-Round. She sat on one of the benches, got off after the cycle, then got back on and did the same thing the next cycle. It made us slightly uncomfortable, more-so because we didn't know what to do about it. It was quite a shock to be walking the wheel and realize that she was breastfeeding.

And talking about it later, I think the girls on my crew were far more bothered by it than the guys.

That makes me want to make all kinds of generalizations about how women are taught not to be modest, but embarrassed of their own anatomy. My opinion isn't based on any research or anything, but having coached more girls with self-esteem problems than I care to count, it's not hard for me to connect the dots.

The problem with breast feeding in public is that father's who are with their children need to keep an eye one their kids and that's a little difficult when there is a breast within view.

Ideame, doesn't the carousel have a no food or drink on the ride rule? :)

The only thing that bothers me about breast feeding is when I catch a peek of the teet. I mean, I've seen plenty of boobs in movies, but it's nudity, nonetheless.

On the other hand, I often overlook the nudity when someone is breast feeding, because it's nature, dammit. :)

I would prefer the mother to cover the boob or do it in a less public place. I probably wouldn't feel this way if I was a woman with a baby.

Is there any correlation to the number of years a child is breast fed and the sooner a mother might seek plastic surgery?

If so she could write off the cosmetic procedure as a medical necessity in such a case....

Jeff, I wonder if it is not simply changing perceptions. Beer and wine are 'icky' to a 10-year-old. I'm sure everyone would agree that view is just a tad different during the college years. A 20/21 year old girl/woman is going to look at breastfeeding far differently than newborn parents.

LK, I can't think of anything to say to that.

As long as she is hot, I have no problem with breastfeeding at parks.:)

It's the militant moms who have given this whole issue a bad name. I'm not that crazy about seeing someone breastfeed, but it makes the kid happy. Just because it's legal doesn't mean it has to be in our faces, though. Be a little discreet about it, and no one's the wiser.

Lord Gonchar said:

You bring up a point that illustrates, to me, one of the paradoxes of modern life.

We now generally accept that breastfeeding is best and natural and beautiful and all that good stuff, but we also have a social stigma about how long breastfeeding is acceptable.

The current worldwide average for length of breastfeeding is 4 years. The natural self-weaning cycle for children is generally cited as 3-4 years of age. Imagine the reaction to a mother publicly breatfeeding a 4 year old.

The juxtaposition between the ideas that breastfeeding isn't a taboo and is natural & preferred and the idea of a social standard that dictates an artifical point where it no longer is socially acceptable is kind of fascinating to me.

EDIT - everyone slipped in on me while I typed.

I think there are some cultural components to this. In many places throughout the world, there are no alternatives to breastfeeding. And most of the women who are breastfeeding 4-year olds are probably not doing so in very public places like amusement parks or malls.

I also think that because of our lifestyle, many 3- and 4-year old American kids are probably twice as large as their counterparts on other continents. I know of many women who are unable to hold or carry even their 2-year old children. I think another thing that might add to the creepy factor is that we have 4-year olds in beauty pageants and playing organized sports. Even riding coasters! There's a definite disconnect between seeing them as babies who need to be breast fed, and the little adults as we sometimes treat them.

You're right, it's totally a cultural issue. It's astounding to me that we refer to some tribal cultures as "primitive" where the women quite openly show their breasts. I will never understand why we consider the female breast "indecent."

While I've always felt that breastfeeding is a natural thing, I absolutely became a fanatic when I saw Simon do it in his first hour of life. I had to feed him a half-ounce or so out of a bottle right away to get his blood sugar up, but shortly after, he had his first taste of breast milk (well, technically it's colostrum at that point), and it was amazing that he simply knew what to do. This tiny little creature gets near the breast and just knows. It's one of the most amazing things I've ever seen.

crazy horse said:
As long as she is hot, I have no problem with breastfeeding at parks.:)

Wow, you can put your penis away now, thanks. With comments like that, I can't imagine why we have the cultural issues we do.

RatherGoodBear said:

I think there are some cultural components to this. In many places throughout the world, there are no alternatives to breastfeeding. And most of the women who are breastfeeding 4-year olds are probably not doing so in very public places like amusement parks or malls.

No, but I'd expect to see it in the cutural equivalent.

That is to say, if you have no alternative to breastfeeding, you probably don't have malls and amusement parks. Whatever the equivalent to those things is, there's probably women openly breastfeeding toddlers there.

Jeff said:
You're right, it's totally a cultural issue. It's astounding to me that we refer to some tribal cultures as "primitive" where the women quite openly show their breasts.

I'm constantly amazed at the instinctual and totally natural things we try to repress in the name of civility.

Gotta say, I never expected the generally conservative reaction that public breastfeeding received in this thread.

Why are Americans so afraid of boobs? In Europe this is a non issue and I would not call that continent "primitive"

I wonder if the worldwide average of four years breastfeeding is by choice or by necessity? Abject poverty would tend to lend itself to breastfeeding.

Frankly, if a child is old enough to say, "mommy...my please have some milk" then that might be my personal tolerance level. Of course, when my son started drawing blood (right around one year old) that was enough for the wife.

Alexatucla said:
In Europe this is a non issue and I would not call that continent "primitive."

A lot of Americans would disagree with you on that, unfortunately. "Over there" is not as good as "here."

By whose objective metric? Yours?

"Over there" is not as good as "here"? Spoken like someone who has never been "over there". There is a lot to be said about the European lifestyle and their sheer joy of life, not too mention, their priorities.

Reactions in this thread do not surprise me at all.