Nursing Your Kids

First up a video from Fox News Boston. If you don’t feel like clicking over, the story is that a woman brought her five kids to Old Country Buffet for lunch. She wanted to nurse her youngest privately in the banquet room. The lights were on in the room and the doors were open, but the woman was told by a waitress that the room was closed. She and her family were seated in the center of the restaurant. She asked the waitress and the manager if she could just nurse her son in the room, but according to her story she was told no by both employees and that she had to nurse her son at her table. She wants an apology. The manager claims she never said she wanted to breastfeed in the banquet room. The waitress claims she told the woman she could breastfeed in the room but they couldn’t eat their meals in the room. An apology is unlikely since Massachusetts has no public breastfeeding laws.

My take is that the woman doesn’t deserve an apology. She wasn’t asked to leave the restaurant she was just told she couldn’t use a private section to do so. The restaurant was perfectly comfortable with her nursing her child. She wasn’t. I can understand why the restaurant employees wouldn’t allow her entire family to eat in a closed section. The section wasn’t staffed and opening it to her family would encourage others to eat there as well. It sounds to me like the woman just wanted a private section where all of her children could eat undisturbed. What do you think?

The next story out of Albany is about a woman, Kristin Kelly, who was asked to leave the New York State Museum by an employee. She stopped to nurse her child on a bench, covered up with three blankets, and a woman wearing a name tag who looked like a museum employee told Kelly she was offended and that she should nurse her child in the bathroom. Kelly kept breastfeeding her son, but she was upset and embarrassed by the incident.

The museum’s response was that based on Kelly’s description the woman who asked her to move was probably not a museum employee. They also want to stress that they are family friendly and women are welcome to breastfeed wherever they want. New York state laws protect a woman’s right to breastfeed wherever they want.

It sounds to me like the woman who asked Kelly to move was probably not a museum staff member, but if she was I think the museum’s response was appropriate. It sucks to feel nervous and embarrassed when you’re trying to feed your child in public, but it’s good to know the museum was on Kelly’s side. But three blankets! She really wanted to make sure she was adequately covered. I’ve always found that the more you try and hide what you’re doing the more attention it seems to draw. I’d like to recommend a Hooter Hider. They’re lightweight, stylish, and you only need one to cover up completely.