Why Do Some Of The Mothers Of Today Find It Necessary To Feed Their Babies Indiscreetly?

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2857391/Claridge-s-staff-order-mother-cover-huge-napkin-started-breastfeeding-12-week-old-baby.html

Yes it is a natural function, but there are also many other natural functions that we possess but still don't find the need to display them openly in public.

[China Doll]

So if two women go out for lunch, one breast feeds and one bottle feeds, the bottle feeder is ok to feed her baby and eat her lunch but it might be better if the breast feeding mum goes to the loo to do it discreetly just to because it could cause offence? Sounds like a fun lunch date.

Plus the 'time and a place' argument is - what the feck is a restaurant for if it's not to eat at an appropriate time?!

[China Doll]

For a thread about boobs, there's an awful lot of *** being spoken.

[China Doll]

bo11oxs

[mazie]

Most of the normal "bodily functions" satisfy us, and I hope we would prefer to do them in private but feeding a baby, who could object to that if done discreetly...I've done it and would again, alas I'm too old but loved it. If that is all some people have to moan about they need to get a life!

[ganesh]

Again mazie, you said it yourself-if done discreetly, and no-one can possibly object if it is done discreetly. I don't think bottle feeding actually involves any nudity china doll which is the whole point of the discussion. The restaurant obviously felt that this woman was not being discreet enough and gave her a napkin to cover her boob whilst feeding. I see no problem with that. She was obviously an attention seeker, which is why she has taken her 'trivial' story to the newspapers.

[sunny-dave]

It's natural, it's normal ... smile and move on.

[Cloverjo]

I breastfed discreetly in a cafe once, but I felt very uncomfortable and so tried to make my trips into town fit around my sons feeds.
I think I have only ever seen a woman breastfeed in public once. She was on a train and just shoved the baby under her top - like the lady in question here did - no one took any notice.
I understand that some older people feel uncomfortable about it. My parents and in-laws were very awkward when I was feeding. I had to sit in a separate room to do it.

[sherrardk]

She doesn't look the sort who would breast feed anything other than discreetly. It's not nudity and throwing a napkin as big as a tablecloth over her and her baby just draws more attention to them both. I have never seen any mother just lob her boobs out and let it all hang out, someone who has just had a baby hardly wants the world and his wife to see their over inflated breasts and flobby stomach.

[2sp_]

It's the insinuation that there is something shameful about breastfeeding that I find most disturbing.

[bednobs]

if thi is a problem of "mothers of today" what did "mothers of yesterday" do? Just stay inside for six months? AOG, how did your wife feed your children? I don't get it - surely sometimes in the "good old days" babies needed feeding when their mothers were not in hte house?

[New Judge]

"Plus the 'time and a place' argument is - what the feck is a restaurant for if it's not to eat at an appropriate time?!"

I think you'll find, china, that most eating establishments have a rule that only food purchased there may be consumed on the premises :-)

Personally I usually find eating among children of most ages a bit of a no-no. It's always a bit messy and noisy. But in particular I think I'd be a bit miffed if I'd pitched up at Claridges for afternoon tea (£75 per head for the "festive" offering) to be seated next to a grizzling child and I imagine that was uppermost in the minds of the staff there. Still each to their own.

For her part the delicate Mrs Burns (I've never heard of her apparently famous comedy actor husband, by the way or of anything he's said to have performed in) could do with getting out a bit more (though perhaps to McDonalds rather than Claridges). It seems she burst into tears following her humiliation and I don't doubt she was, as is the current fashion, left "devastated". Still at least she has promised never to return so I suppose some good came from the whole sorry episode.

(New Judge retires to the nearest nuclear fall-out shelter).

[bednobs]

a child who is hungry and not being fed is much more likely to be grizzly than one being breastfed.
At least macdonalds wouldn't have batted an eyelid

However, i agree with you about being left in tears about it - ridiculous - perhaps she SHOULD stay in if that can make her cry

[andy-hughes]

I have to weigh in with the supporters on this.

To return to AOG's original Question - "Why do some of the mothers of today find it necessary to feed their babies indiscreetly" - my answer is -

I have no idea, I have never ever seen it done, and would be surprised if anyone else has either - the exception being some dippy 'earth mother' type who insists on making a song-and-dance about it, which is indeed unacceptable.

I adore babies, and will always look at one when ever I get the chance.

If I saw this lady, it would take about half-a-second to see that she is feeding her baby, so I would not bother looking again until she had finished - it would be odd to do so.

So the idea that it is 'offensive' I find rather strange - if w woman feeding a baby offends you, don't look!

I am sure that most modern mothers are perfectly discreet - I recall sitting down to talk to an acquaintance who was holding her baby, and I realised after a few minutes that she was actually feeding, but that didn't interrupt our conversation - and why would it? No-one around us even noticed what she was doing, and why would they?

The notion of embarrassing a nursing mother by asking her to cover herself up with a napkin, as though what she is doing is not fit for human gaze is not only grindingly chauvinistic, it is seriously ill-mannered, and I would make a serious complaint if it happened to me.

With regard to the notion that women should feed their baby in a toilet, and the baby does not know where she is, that is true, but the mother does!

When my youngest was a baby, twenty-five years ago now, I lost count of the number of toilet floors I changed her on because there were no male changing rooms in those days.

When our local council installed one in the city public toilets, I was overjoyed, and went in to use it, only to find a council road sweeper's cart parked in it!

This is 2014 - babies drink breast milk - it's not the end of the world if you happen to see it.

[237SJ]

As an aside, if I had to feed a baby in Claridges toilet I wouldn`t be at all bothered. Have you been in there? I have. It`s more a luxuious lounge/powder room than a toilet. I kinda get the impression that some people think it`s a urine smelling, ceramic tiled bog!

[ludwig]

It's nonsense. You can't see anything in any of those pictures. She should have just ignored them and carried on.

The fact that she's then gone to the Daily Mail makes me lose some sympathy however.

[Svejk]

Yes, sj, and the graffiti's in Latin. ;)

[Mamyalynne]

Will Claridge's staff serve you lunch in their luxurious loos?

[joeluke]

Don't see the problem with women breastfeeding in restaurants

The dining table could easily double up as a changing table too if the sprog's dirty nappy needed changing

[New Judge]

[GCHQ has just intercepted this message from a nuclear bunker somewhere in southern England]:

Of course, all this could have been avoided if Claridges had been sensible enough to ban children under 21 from entering the premises.

(runs off to find tin hat)

[bednobs]

well, i sort of have to agree with yu there as well nj