Breastfeeding Play

[Violin D'Ingrate]

I saw a little girl at a toddler play area, who was playing with a doll, and pretending to feed it. Well, instead of using a bottle, she slid the doll under her shirt and pretended to breastfeed.
I know breastfeeding is totally normal and natural, and there is absoutely nothing wrong with it. However, somehow, I was kind of creeped out by it. Common sense tells me its no big deal, obviously its nothing sexual, it was just somehow off-putting. My questions is, if we can acknowledge for the sake of argument that breastfeeding is normal and natural, would anyone else think it was weird to see a kid pretending to breast feed a doll? Or am I just weird? Would it be different if a little boy toddler was doing it?

[Jonathan Chance]

Wouldn't weird me out. Kids play pretend with what they see others doing. Clearly, the kid has a role model someplace who breast feeds in front of her. That strikes me as healthy, not creepy.

That Tori Amos breastfeeding a piglet, thing, though. That creeped me out.

[Fretful Porpentine]

I remember pretending to breastfeed my dolls after watching my mom feed my baby brother, and I turned out ... well, fairly weird actually, but I don't think that had anything to do with it.

I'd say it's quite normal, especially for a child with younger siblings.

[Magickly Delicious]

I don't think it was weird to see that. Although I was raised to think of breastfeeding as normal and natural, so I'm probably biased.

[InternetLegend]

When my younger daughter was between three and five, she would frequently put a doll or stuffed animal under her shirt and pretend to be pregnant. Sometimes she'd play that she was giving birth, too. She'd also stuff cloth into her fairy princess dress to make large breasts. I have to admit I was a teensy bit weirded out by that last, but she (and I) got over it fine.

[Snooooopy]

If anyone ever wrote a play about breastfeeding, I think I would go to see it.

[Keith Berry]

It could be worse. My 4 year old niece has a tendency to proclaim herself a "Frog Witch", whereupon she takes a stick out to the backyard and mercilessly beats and kills imaginary frogs. No one can find a reason for this. Must be something on TV.

I'd say that the play-breastfeeding thing is only a natural extension of the baby-doll thing. Little girls play at feeding babies, burping them, changing their diapers, putting them to bed. This girl probably saw her mother breastfeeding a sibling, or a woman breast-feeding somewhere else given that it's becoming more acceptable in public, and just imitated what she saw. No biggie.

[norinew]

Children make sense out of the world around them by play-acting it. My oldest daughter was almost 4 when I had my second child. For her birthday that year, (her 4th. Her little sister was 2 month old), her grandma gave her a baby doll with a bottle. She told her grandma, "take the bottle back. I'm gonna feed my baby out of my boobies, like mommy does". She's 15 now, and sexually healthy. No harm done.:)

[Audrey Levins]

She won't be, norinew, if you tell any of her dates that.

;)

[Binarydrone]

Originally posted by Jonathan Chance
...That Tori Amos breastfeeding a piglet, thing, though. That creeped me out.
What is this and why have I never heard of it?

[Jpeg Jones]

And where can I get some?

[Jonathan Chance]

It's an interior shot on her Songs for Pele CD. There's no action in the shot. The pig obscures the action, guys.

[cuauhtemoc]

It's [i]Boys for Pele[/b].

And I don't think there's anything weird about little girls wanting to breastfeed their dollies. It actually sounds really cute to me.