Your sexual orientation probably has less to do with it than the fact that you’ve attained a certain level of maturity. Some “men,” alas, never seem to do so.
Ye gods! Is the SDMB starting up its own animal porn ring now? How can we allow this?:eek: Shock! Horror!
Lynn, I’d love to. However, during the night, Tabithina the Cat moved her litter into the dark and scary recesses of my pre-teen son’s closet.:eek:
We’re rennovating this house in order to sell it (bought a new place in a bigger town). There have been lots of bangs, crashes and strange people coming and going throughout the house, and this will be the third time she felt the need to move her babies in the last two weeks. Thankfully, the worst of the loud work is done here.
I’m going to let her calm down a bit, then I can get some pictures. Tabithina is a tortoise-shell tabby, all five of her kittens are striped. There’s a tortie tabby that looks just like her mom, a pastel peach, a butterscotch, a charcoal gray, and a silver.
Our new (well, built in 1922) house has a large sleeping porch off of the master bedroom, with window ledges that are wide enough for cats to loll upon. I think the cats will make it theirs upon arrival. If I don’t get any photos here, I’m sure I will there.
Our new home is an ideal place from which to launch a kitty porn empire. Whoda thunket? 
I’m a little scared to jump in here given the consensus that seems to be forming in this thread but what the heck. Just to play devil’s advocate for a second…
I’m a relatively mature person who doesn’t frequent topless bars and I think the particular issue with the photos in the OP is pretty ridiculous. That said, I don’t think it’s THAT hard to understand why someone might be just a wee bit uncomfortable with public breastfeeding. Current social custom seems to dictate that (for the most part anyway) people keep their “private parts” covered when out and about. So when that custom is not followed, some reaction to that is not a big surprise.
Now, the fact that anyone might be uncomfortable with breastfeeding is certainly not a justification for not allowing it. However, just because someone feels discomfort at an act (“whipping it out”) that in pretty much all other public contexts would be outside the social norm does not make that person a monster, immature, an idiot or anything like that.
The poster in question called breastfeeding “gross” and comparing it to vomiting. I wouldn’t call that enlightened or mature
Would anyone mind if I stopped in and added to the list of informed people who believe Clint’s ideas are moronic?
As has been said before:
*pumping doesn’t work for everyone
*Using bottles can cause nipple confusion, leading to early weaning
*well-made breastpumps are expensive, prohibitively so for some families
Breastpumps are designed to help out working mothers, mothers who are separated from their babies due a medical condition (on either party’s part) and mothers who need/want to be away form their babies occasionally. They are not designed to protect the sensibilities of people who think breastfeeding should only be done in a private home.
It’s attitudes like yours that have forced legislators in six states to spend time crafting legislation PROTECTING breastfeeding in public. What a ridiculous, bullshit need for legislation. You shouldn’t need a LAW saying you can breastfeed your baby outside of your own home. I’d say we lived in the stone ages, but presumably in the stone ages they didn’t freak out about a baby at the breast. I dunno WHAT era we emulate.
I agree. The problem is not that people sometimes feel discomfort. The problem is that people think that mothers should not nurse because of that discomfort.
My dad, for example, is uncomfortable when I nurse in front of him. I don’t look down on him because of it at all. I understand that his background and lack of experience with nursing are what make him feel uncomfortable. But he knows that his discomfort is HIS problem. When I nurse when he’s around, he averts his eyes or leaves the room or just deals with it. He’s mature enough to realize that the problem is with him, not with the nursing.
My wife has a blanket-thing she drapes over her boobs and our daughter when she has to do it in public. But since that wouldn’t work with our 4 year old, so she only breastfeeds him at home.
When I taught college I had a student that brought her infant to class a couple of times and breastfed him with a similar blanket. No problem. Nobody could see it and no one complained.
I don’t mind a woman breast feeding in public. Most women are very discreet, and really, if they don’t mind me seeing part of their boob, I don’t mind them feeding their child. However, one time while in the mall with my wife and mother in law, we stopped into the Thomas Kincade gallery for a moment. While wandering through, I came upon a young woman near the back, sitting and breast feeding her baby. Attempting to be polite and give her some privacy (because why the hell else would you go into that store? ) I wandered in another direction. Only to see a few minutes later, the woman get up, and start walking around. Maybe it helped the baby digest or something, or she was just tired of sitting, but it seemed that every time I turned around, she was there. I ended up heading outside. Again, not uncomfortable with the act, I just felt like I was pointedly ignoring her, which made me feel rude. Kinda like what Green Bean’s father felt.
Wait a sec, TGWATY, your wife breastfeeds a four year old? Or do you mean when he was a baby?
If you’re still breastfeeding a toddler, I say AWESOME. It’s seldom done so you’re in a minority in the U.S., but there is nothing wrong with it. I know some 3-yr olds who still nurse. Good on ya. Er, your wife.
If she’s breastfeeding two kids–omigawd, poor woman. That means she’s been lactating for 4-5 years. She must be a friggin’ saint. However, I think if the kid is old enough to say, “I want to breastfeed,” then he’s probably old enough to be weaned.
Hee hee, I cannot imagine that. My mother nursed my brother until he was 5, that’s right, 5. He only did it at night, but still!! My poor mom. I know the La Leche League recommends letting kids nurse until they’re ready to stop, but damn!! She’s a woman, not a friggin’ cow.
I grew up to be a beek stronk boy thanks to dr_mom_mcl doing what comes naturally. (Cloth diapers, too.) And AFAIK, she managed to do it without either waving them around for God and everyone to see, or hiding out in the bathroom (EW. I agree with those who said “Why don’t you eat *your lunch in there and see if *you like it?”)
Um, Indygrrl, if lactating more than a few months at a time is enough for sainthood, most of the world’s mothers throughout history and including today are saints. The childbearing range for many areas of the world is still 20 years, with the vast majority of women nursing until they become pregant again (often 2 years or so), continuing as long as that works with the pregnancy, and then having the baby and nursing until they become pregnant again (regularly also nursing an older sibling), and so forth, until they cease being fertile. THAT is the biological norm. Pregnant or lactating or both, for two decades or so. Same for many mammals that have long gestations, and it isn’t unusual for some animals to regularly nurse two at different ages (rhinos come to mind).
Not sainthood qualification, sorry. Just normal lactation pattern. Different from our current cultural norm, but just 100 years ago, the average duration of nursing was 18 months, and back-to-back nursing and pregnancy were the norm, then, too. So, not really a historical cultural norm, either.
As for not being a ‘frigging cow’ - cows lactate for WAY less time, naturally, than humans. Their offspring are born at a greater maturity, developmentally, and mature faster. They also have a shorter fertile span. She’s absolutely not a frigging cow, because she lactates way longer than any cow would, normally.
As for asking to nurse, age of language development is immaterial. My kids could ‘ask’ to breastfeed at birth. They rooted and mouthed. Then later, they asked by making faces and grunting. And later, by patting my chest and smiling. And later by saying ‘yala’ or bouncing up and down, or tugging at the hem of my shirt. And later (for one) by asking with something closer to mature language skills. Capacity to communicate the request is not a relevant factor. Whether it is functional for the mother-child pair IS relevant. Hence the reason the AAP does not specify an upper limit for breastfeeding. It is too individual to define. “In general” acceptable upper-limit guidelines will be far too old for some kids, and far too young for others. MY response to an older child nursing is not, wow, that’s too long, but rather, wow, that child has significant needs. My sympathy toward the mother is not that she is lactating for years, but that she probably has a child who has a higher security need than usual, and the parenting challenges that go with it. Having nursed a child way longer than I expected to (3.25 years), I think I can speak with relative sympathy on the subject. The nursing is not a problem, it is a resolution, support, and help. I’m glad I had it as one of the resources at my disposal.
Also, I didn’t hear anyone complaining about tandem nursing (nursing two kids). Poor her? Not if she doesn’t mind.
RE: The OP, I’m glad she got at least one of the kids back, but I’m concerned about the custody battle for the other, given the local attitudes. Having them taken away at all is still horrifying to me.
(that average duration 100 years ago was from a study of c. 1890 skeletal remains, in the US - other countries may have had longer spans)
Nothing much to add but to echo the agog-ness over the entire situation to begin with. Even in the context of the other pictures, that the DA/CPS got offended most by the breastfeeding ergo topless photos speaks volumes about how much education and loosening of the primordial bone (thank you Taylor Negron) we still need in this country.
To that end, go hedra! You’re certainly laying the smack down on all things natural-maternity of late, and it’s greatly appreciated, at least by me. Get down with yo’ bad mama self!
So, if you were in a public place and there was someone there masturbating, being bothered by that is your problem right? Since masturbation is perfectly healthy and normal and all.
What’s next, comparing breastfeeding to jumping on the table and leaving a huge steaming pile of excrement on some’s plate?
Nursing a baby has ZERO in common with vomiting, bleeding, or fucking masturbating. It is a woman feeding a baby - no more, no less.
A baby has to eat to live. Since when is masturbating a requirement for survival?
Oh. Never mind.
In addition to what hedra said:
IIRC, a woman will continue to lactate until there is no stimulation at her nipple. Milk deposits into the breast due to oxytocin, which works on a positive feedback system. This means that the sucking action stimulates the production of oxytocin, which produces milk, and then sensing the oxytocin already in the bloodstream, more oxytocin is produced. Milk is produced until there is no sucking stimulation anymore. Theoretically, a woman could lactate for several years in a row.
If I have misremembered this info, please feel free to correct me.