# Dear paper towel filler person....or non-Christmas mini-rants **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 25, 2010, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-paper-towel-filler-person-or-non-christmas-mini-rants/565389 "2010-12-25T23:54:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 24
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2011, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-paper-towel-filler-person-or-non-christmas-mini-rants/565389/461 "2011-02-03T18:01:21Z")
Nice senior discount, Fred Meyer: 10% off. That would be fine, except you only offer it one day per month, and only on certain items. Our grocery bill there on Tuesday was about 50. Our savings: .40, which doesn’t make it worthwhile to even drive out there, fuck you very much. No wonder Wal-Mart is kicking your ass in sales. I’ve sent them an irate email, as there is a local food chain that gives 10% across the board on every Tuesday for both seniors and military. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2011, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-paper-towel-filler-person-or-non-christmas-mini-rants/565389/462 "2011-02-03T18:06:30Z")
Whiney Senior Fucks. Boo Hoo! Gimme my free money! ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2011, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-paper-towel-filler-person-or-non-christmas-mini-rants/565389/463 "2011-02-03T18:21:55Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > Whiney Senior Fucks. Boo Hoo! Gimme my free money! I’m a whiny retired military fuck, thank you very much. ---
**Author:** ![Carol\_the\_Impaler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Carol\_the\_Impaler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carol_the_Impaler)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2011, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-paper-towel-filler-person-or-non-christmas-mini-rants/565389/464 "2011-02-03T18:23:57Z")
Whiney Senior Fucks would be a very confusing headline, with more than one interpretation. ---
**Author:** ![LilyoftheField](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/13edae/32.png) [@LilyoftheField](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LilyoftheField)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2011, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-paper-towel-filler-person-or-non-christmas-mini-rants/565389/465 "2011-02-03T18:39:39Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Get a fucking grip. Or watch the Seinfeld episode from whence the comment came. Oh, of course - Seinfeld! :smack: That’s the only place I’ve ever heard the word ‘catfight’ used! Oh, wait…I never watched Seinfeld! (which around here probably deserves derision in and of itself…) ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2011, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-paper-towel-filler-person-or-non-christmas-mini-rants/565389/466 "2011-02-03T19:07:04Z")
I wish I could YouTube up a clip from \*The Simpsons \*of Bart playing an arcade game called _Catfight_. (“The hair. The hair.”) ---
**Author:** ![curlcoat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea5d25/32.png) [@curlcoat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/curlcoat)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2011, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-paper-towel-filler-person-or-non-christmas-mini-rants/565389/467 "2011-02-03T20:31:41Z")
> [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > Make up your mind. First you say the baby was a month or two old, now you’re asking about a six month old. What you quoted had nothing to do with the baby in Starbucks, it was a guess at how old a baby would need to be before it could go for any length of time without needing to be fed. > [@](#): > > And yes, when my daughter was about six months old or so, I did need to release milk every four or five hours. Mostly I timed my outings so that I’d go out just after I’d fed her, and come back when she needed to be fed, which happened to coincide with me being full of milk. Of course women who hadn’t breastfed at all, or who had weaned their babies from the breast earlier than that didn’t have that problem. This is one of the reasons why the upper class traditionally turned to wetnurses. Nursing a baby will drastically interfere with your social life. As it should. This is the problem right here - women have babies and assume that they can just go on with their regular lives and to hell with how it affects anyone and everyone around them, including the baby. I simply cannot believe that it was in the best interests of the baby to take it to a basketball game and then to a Starbucks. ---
**Author:** ![saje](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saje/32/3631_2.png) [@saje](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saje)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2011, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-paper-towel-filler-person-or-non-christmas-mini-rants/565389/468 "2011-02-03T20:42:17Z")
I am female, 49, & kidless by choice. Women doing things with babies (breast feeding, changing diapers) does make me uncomfortable. I can’t help it, it’s just how I feel. I’m also uncomfortable with foul mouthed swearing for no good purpose, racial slurs, children dressed like streetwalkers, people who are overtly religious. However, that discomfort is MY problem to deal with. Mostly it means finding somewhere else to focus my attention, sometimes it means getting up and moving. I do not expect the world to revolve around my hangups, and my comfort is MY job, no-one else’s. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2011, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-paper-towel-filler-person-or-non-christmas-mini-rants/565389/469 "2011-02-03T20:54:22Z")
> [@saje](#): > > I do not expect the world to revolve around my hangups I think that’s as neat a summary of what’s wrong with \*\*curlcoat \*\*as I’ve ever seen. ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2011, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-paper-towel-filler-person-or-non-christmas-mini-rants/565389/470 "2011-02-03T21:10:25Z")
> [@lindsaybluth](#): > > On a lighter note, Starbucks bagels: $1, +40 cents for cream cheese. Surprisingly tasty and much cheaper than well, anywhere else. Whodathunkit? And the nursing mother comes free! _slinks away_ ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2011, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-paper-towel-filler-person-or-non-christmas-mini-rants/565389/471 "2011-02-03T21:11:57Z")
> [@curlcoat](#): > > This is the problem right here - women have babies and assume that they can just go on with their regular lives and to hell with how it affects anyone and everyone around them, including the baby. I simply cannot believe that it was in the best interests of the baby to take it to a basketball game and then to a Starbucks. Right, because you’re merely looking out for the baby’s best interests here. I’m pretty sure the baby was best off being fed right then, for starters, and that it’s in no one’s best interest to insist that moms cloister themselves at home to avoid hurting anyone’s delicate sensibilities. (You’d be surprised what babies might totally be unaffected by, like my friend whose infant slept through a German “oompah” group at a restaurant during Oktoberfest. The waitress was shocked at the baby’s near-Zen calm.) As someone who has a minor, never expressed out loud/in person aversion to seeing any kind of nursing by any species (or tiny clustered holes in nature, or spiders), I have the good manners to shut the fuck up about my hangups in public, and avert my eyes or find something to do on the other side of the room. Probably rightfully so, people will think you are whacko for comparing such things to over-the-top awful stuff that 99% of the world thinks is inappropriate. And, as someone who is childless by choice, I wish you’d stop “being on my side” because you’re shedding crazy dust (like pixie dust but fucked up) all over the reasonable no-kids people. ---
**Author:** ![curlcoat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea5d25/32.png) [@curlcoat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/curlcoat)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2011, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-paper-towel-filler-person-or-non-christmas-mini-rants/565389/472 "2011-02-03T21:27:04Z")
> [@saje](#): > > I am female, 49, & kidless by choice. Women doing things with babies (breast feeding, changing diapers) does make me uncomfortable. I can’t help it, it’s just how I feel. I’m also uncomfortable with foul mouthed swearing for no good purpose, racial slurs, children dressed like streetwalkers, people who are overtly religious. > > However, that discomfort is MY problem to deal with. Mostly it means finding somewhere else to focus my attention, sometimes it means getting up and moving. I do not expect the world to revolve around my hangups, and my comfort is MY job, no-one else’s. A couple of things that people in here like to ignore - I did nothing in real life, other than leave earlier than I’d wanted to; I came in here to rant. And, because the rant was about OMG teh babeez, they jump all over it. And make shit up. Yes it is my discomfort, but it is one that many many people share and it is one that has only recently (last 10 years?) been thrust upon the general public. Like racial slurs, children dressed like streetwalkers and people changing diapers on tables, if it is pointed out often enough that women dragging breastfeeding babies all over isn’t a good thing, it may end up that it is no longer socially acceptable for women to expect everyone else to help them raise their babies. Plus, as I said way back in my original rant, a big part of what I didn’t like was the fact that I felt like I was set up. I really don’t get why the husband asked if it was OK if he sat right next to me (when he didn’t ask if it was OK to surround me with his basketball team) and then plopped the wife and baby there. There is also the resentment that because I’m female, the world thinks I must LURV BABIES! and therefore the seat next to me in my corner must have been the best place for mommy to sit. I end up having to move away from children fairly often, I suppose because I look like a kindly old gramma or something :dubious: [QUOTE=Ferret Herder] Right, because you’re merely looking out for the baby’s best interests here. I’m pretty sure the baby was best off being fed right then, for starters, [/quote] I am not looking out for the baby at all, I couldn’t care less. However, I find it amazing that all these mommies think there is nothing wrong with dragging tiny babies all over the place - I would never haul a puppy of that age to Starbucks, games, the store, etc. > [@](#): > > (You’d be surprised what babies might totally be unaffected by, like my friend whose infant slept through a German “oompah” group at a restaurant during Oktoberfest. The waitress was shocked at the baby’s near-Zen calm.) Being capable of sleeping thru something is not an indication of well being. Heck, the baby could have been completely exhausted, or coming down with something. > [@](#): > > And, as someone who is childless by choice, I wish you’d stop “being on my side” because you’re shedding crazy dust (like pixie dust but fucked up) all over the reasonable no-kids people. I am not responsible for you believing what other people say I post, rather than what I actually do. Also, if you want to suck up to everyone around you and never have any opposing views, that is also your problem, not mine. ---
**Author:** ![lorene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/65b543/32.png) [@lorene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lorene)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2011, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-paper-towel-filler-person-or-non-christmas-mini-rants/565389/473 "2011-02-03T21:46:35Z")
> [@curlcoat](#): > > A couple of things that people in here like to ignore - I did nothing in real life, other than leave earlier than I’d wanted to; I came in here to rant. And, because the rant was about OMG teh babeez, they jump all over it. And make shit up. Actually, my irritation with you and \*\*lindsay \*\*wasn’t because your posts were anti-baby; it was because your posts were ridiculous and juvenile and showed a basic feeling that you’re more important than anyone in the world, nursing mom included. Really, unless I’m sticking my boob in your mouth and making you drink breastmilk, it’s none of your business. > [@curlcoat](#): > > Plus, as I said way back in my original rant, a big part of what I didn’t like was the fact that I felt like I was set up. I really don’t get why the husband asked if it was OK if he sat right next to me (when he didn’t ask if it was OK to surround me with his basketball team) and then plopped the wife and baby there. Is it possible that perhaps the mom had been planning to sit somewhere else and then changed her mind? I really don’t see this huge plot to go “Gotcha! Now you have to watch my wife breastfeed!” And perhaps he didn’t ask if it was OK to surround you with the basketball team because…well, you don’t own that Starbuck’s, right? It is a public place where the public may gather. Also? babies aren’t puppies. Just sayin’. ---
**Author:** ![Dave\_Hartwick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@Dave\_Hartwick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dave_Hartwick)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2011, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-paper-towel-filler-person-or-non-christmas-mini-rants/565389/474 "2011-02-03T22:01:10Z")
> [@lorene](#): > > Really, unless I’m sticking my boob in your mouth and making you drink breastmilk, it’s none of your business. I would object if you expressed milk into my Americano. My beverage, my choice. ---
**Author:** ![EmAnJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d2c977/32.png) [@EmAnJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmAnJ)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2011, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-paper-towel-filler-person-or-non-christmas-mini-rants/565389/475 "2011-02-03T22:26:15Z")
I’m fine with breastfeeding in public and will probably do the same. I just wanted to add that keeping babies (and puppies, for that matter) at home and not exposing them to noisy or different environments doesn’t allow them to develop certain skills, such as the ability to be around a crowd (or, in a social setting, to be handled by multiple people), the ability to fall asleep when it’s noisy, the chance to look at different and interesting things. A few mothers I know take their kids to noisy events (a wedding reception, for instance) and because of their exposure to noise and crowds, they don’t scream and cry and annoy everyone - they go to sleep. Well, after mom breast feeds them, anyhow. I also know a mom who doesn’t take her baby out at all and she has had little exposure to crowds and noise. She is the most cling-to-mom baby I’ve ever met. She cries when anyone holds her, or even looks at her, she can’t handle noise, and she gets upset if she’s in a new environment. It’s not good for anyone. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2011, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-paper-towel-filler-person-or-non-christmas-mini-rants/565389/476 "2011-02-03T22:28:18Z")
> [@SpazCat](#): > > And the nursing mother comes free! No, if she wants to come, she has to wait in line at the bathroom and pay \*\*curly \*\*her $1.50 like everybody else. > [@curlcoat](#): > > Yes it is my discomfort, but it is one that many many people share and it is one that has only recently (last 10 years?) been thrust upon the general public. Like racial slurs, children dressed like streetwalkers and people changing diapers on tables, if it is pointed out often enough that women dragging breastfeeding babies all over isn’t a good thing, it may end up that it is no longer socially acceptable for women to expect everyone else to help them raise their babies. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, that’s right. Using a breast for its natural function is the same as standing on a table screaming “nigger” or slinging around raw feces. And apparently being expected to mind your own fucking business now means that you’ve helped raise a child. I hope you’re sending birthday cards! > [@lorene](#): > > your posts were ridiculous and juvenile and showed a basic feeling that you’re more important than anyone in the world Another excellent \*\*curlcoat \*\*summary. ---
**Author:** ![curlcoat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea5d25/32.png) [@curlcoat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/curlcoat)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2011, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-paper-towel-filler-person-or-non-christmas-mini-rants/565389/477 "2011-02-03T22:35:59Z")
> [@lorene](#): > > Actually, my irritation with you and \*\*lindsay \*\*wasn’t because your posts were anti-baby; it was because your posts were ridiculous and juvenile and showed a basic feeling that you’re more important than anyone in the world, nursing mom included. Again, I cannot be held responsible for whatever you all want to assume in my posts. No where did I even indicate anything like that. If anything, mothers are considered, and tend to consider themselves, far more important than anyone else in the world. See the fact that you consider some random nursing mom’s wants more important than mine. > [@](#): > > Really, unless I’m sticking my boob in your mouth and making you drink breastmilk, it’s none of your business. I see. So if I were to begin singing in your ear, started a fight with my husband, picking my nose or did anything else that is irritating and potentially gross to a large number of people, that would be none of your business? > [@](#): > > Is it possible that perhaps the mom had been planning to sit somewhere else and then changed her mind? I really don’t see this huge plot to go “Gotcha! Now you have to watch my wife breastfeed!” And perhaps he didn’t ask if it was OK to surround you with the basketball team because…well, you don’t own that Starbuck’s, right? It is a public place where the public may gather. :rolleyes: Well, if nothing else this is a prime example of you reading bias into a post and completely missing the point. > [@](#): > > Also? babies aren’t puppies. Just sayin’. Good on you for figuring that out! > [@EmAnJ](#): > > I just wanted to add that keeping babies (and puppies, for that matter) at home and not exposing them to noisy or different environments doesn’t allow them to develop certain skills, such as the ability to be around a crowd (or, in a social setting, to be handled by multiple people), the ability to fall asleep when it’s noisy, the chance to look at different and interesting things. A few mothers I know take their kids to noisy events (a wedding reception, for instance) and because of their exposure to noise and crowds, they don’t scream and cry and annoy everyone - they go to sleep. Well, after mom breast feeds them, anyhow. One does NOT take an unweaned puppy out into public for unnecessary, selfish reasons, and since humans are mammals I have to assume that this is also true for babies up to a certain age. For example, is it considered safe or even a good idea to take a newborn to Starbucks? ---
**Author:** ![LavenderBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e95f7d/32.png) [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2011, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-paper-towel-filler-person-or-non-christmas-mini-rants/565389/478 "2011-02-03T23:05:37Z")
**Curlcoat** , Go back to [eating napkin sandwiches](http://boardstest.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=11391000&postcount=1909) and STFU about baby rearing. Just because you think discreetly nursing a baby in public is rude does not mean that everyone agrees with you. My husband comes home from work with a woman who drops off her baby in the morning and then nurses the little thing on the bus on the way home. According to him people on the bus find it utterly adorable to see a happy baby being fed near them. Your hangups are not everyone’s hangups. A baby should not be denied adequate nutrition just because you find something rude. ---
**Author:** ![curlcoat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea5d25/32.png) [@curlcoat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/curlcoat)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2011, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-paper-towel-filler-person-or-non-christmas-mini-rants/565389/479 "2011-02-03T23:22:40Z")
> [@LavenderBlue](#): > > **Curlcoat** , > > Go back to [eating napkin sandwiches](http://boardstest.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=11391000&postcount=1909) and STFU about baby rearing. Just because you think discreetly nursing a baby in public is rude does not mean that everyone agrees with you. No, you idiot, and not everyone agrees with you either. It’s amazing how rigid, selfish and unfeeling mothers are these days. > [@](#): > > My husband comes home from work with a woman who drops off her baby in the morning and then nurses the little thing on the bus on the way home. According to him people on the bus find it utterly adorable to see a happy baby being fed near them. Yeah, right. Everyone on the bus finds the baby nursing to be utterly adorable. > [@](#): > > Your hangups are not everyone’s hangups. A baby should not be denied adequate nutrition just because you find something rude. Oh brother. Do you even know how to read? Where did I say a baby should be denied nutrition? That’s right, no where. What I did say is that I think it is rude and selfish, as well as potentially harmful to the baby, to drag it out into public unnecessarily when it is that young. You mommies make the choices to have the baby and then to breastfeed, but I am not even given the choice to avoid you at any time unless I’m locked in my house with earplugs in and the TV off. Is it really all that unreasonable to expect to be able to sit in peace in a coffee shop at 10 pm on a Sunday night without having you sit two feet from a stranger and repeatedly flash your boob at her? What you purposely refuse to get is that I was the polite person in this situation. I was minding my own business but that didn’t mean I didn’t have my stuff pushed around, stepped on before I could rescue it, hearing assaulted and then got to look at a nursing boob (not a pretty sight) several times. And all I did was get up and leave. I am well aware that society thinks that mothers and children should be able to do whatever they want, so unless it’s really bad, I just leave. Doesn’t make it right tho. ---
**Author:** ![LavenderBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e95f7d/32.png) [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2011, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-paper-towel-filler-person-or-non-christmas-mini-rants/565389/480 "2011-02-03T23:33:57Z")
Apparently there’s a huge contingent of breast feeding mommies following poor **Curlcoat** around and forcing her to look at their disgusting breasts. Let us all feel sorry for her as she desperately tries to avoid the horrifying sight of discreetly nursing women and their openly displayed babies. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-paper-towel-filler-person-or-non-christmas-mini-rants/565389.md?page=23) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-paper-towel-filler-person-or-non-christmas-mini-rants/565389.md?page=25)