snort
You’re right! You clearly have a personality disorder. Welcome to the club; here’s your membership card! 
In that case, why not just give the baby the real thing as opposed to some inferior facsimile?
Just saying, is all. :rolleyes:
So, you’re at Starbucks in the middle of summer, and a couple teenyboppers come in wearing tank tops. A guy in a suit goes over and complains to the store manager about how he can see the girls’ armpits.
Do you hope the manager tells the girls to cover up?
Daniel
Oh, nyctea scandiaca, nyctea scandiaca, nyctea scandiaca… are you really in N. Virginia? Because I live in Maryland and I’m having this overwhelming desire to kidnap you and force you to watch me nurse my child a la Clockwork Orange so you will just get over this!
Please, please, please go back and re-read what you just wrote and see all the incongruences in your post. You say that you’re all for giving people the freedom to do whatever they want as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone else. And you’re even willing to admit that a women nursing her child in a public place like Starbucks doesn’t hurt you in the slightest but you go on to call nursing “awkward”. It’s not awkward in the slightest. It’s normal. It’s natural. It’s how mammals feed their young. That’s all it is!
The bodily fluid in question is breastmilk. The reason why it exists and is being excreted is to feed a baby. The baby is being fed. With a breast. The thing that exists to feed a baby. Why is this so hard to understand? It’s not about etiquette, it’s not about “pet peeves”. It’s just feeding a baby. That’s all it is.
I need to either shell out the $15 bucks to continue my crusade or else someone else is going to have to take the torch. My guest pass ends today.
Join us…join us! You know you want to.
Daniel
Sure, because he knows that doing so will get him the real thing.
Gee, I dunno, to pacify it? Even a thumb will do in a pinch if all the baby wants is comfort & security. :rolleyes: to you too.
Ya done good! 
I, for one, am interested in seeing you and your reasoning stick around. So, pony up, sister!
Just remember that in real life you rarely have the opportunity to contribute to a worthy cause for the privilege of ripping your opponents’ arguments to shreds. It’s money well-spent, in your case. 
I guess the fact that pacifiers are supposed to simulate a human nipple is lost on you. Though there is quite the variety of pacifier out there, for some babies, they’re still a piss-poor imitation for the real thing.
Well, Dangerosa, I happen to disagree with you that I’m setting my son for food issue later in life because we’re still demand nursing at 15 months. And we just had his 15 month pediatrician appointment where I mentioned to the ped that we’re still nursing and interestingly, she didn’t seem alarmed or concerned.
And while I’m sure my son could get his comfort and security from a cuddle just as well as from nursing, I really have no desire to try to glean from him if he’s truly hungry or just wants to nurse for comfort all so that some stranger who happens to be sitting across from me at Starbucks won’t glare at me because I’m nursing him instead of “teaching” him to go without. Not to mention the fact that my 15 month old is pre-verbal and wouldn’t be able to tell me one way or the other anyway.
Your kids must be gifted or mine is well on his way to special education classes along with his therapy for his food issues, because as much as I would like to explain to my son that Target is not the place to throw a hissy because he can’t grab that stuffed elmo doll of the shelf, all of my “explaining” goes in one ear and right out of the other. Which, from what I understand, is very typical behavior for a 15 month old. Rationalization is not in our bag of tricks just yet. Removal from the situation, distraction, etc is.
The weird thing about this whole back and forth that you and I have been having about nursing 15 month olds is, how can you tell just from looking at a child how old he/she is? There are some big 8 month olds that just to look at them could easily pass for much older and there are some petite 18 month olds that could pass for much younger. Like I said before, I don’t prescribe to some arbitrary age limit for nursing.
So right. so very right.
Sometimes breastfeeding women (and I was one, so I’m not anti-breastfeeding) remind me of tatoo’d Goth kids - “Why is everyone staring at me, they are so insensitive, they hate me!!!” And so often the nursing women are the ones that are very “in your face” over breastfeeding. I remember many many breastfeeders whining in one sentence about how “insensitive” other people were about their breastfeeding, and in the next sentence saying something directly insulting about bottlefeeders.
People who give a don’t think discrete breastfeeding should happen in public ever need to catch a clue bus. But a nurse in isn’t discrete breastfeeding - the whole purpose of a nurse in is to nurse in people’s faces and make a point.
I do understand all of the above. I have been aware since birth of the function of a breast.
I still stand by my statement that: Breast feeding, IMO, is a bodily function that 1) involves the exposing of a body part which is usually covered and 2) involves the excretion of bodily fluids.
As such, I personally would rather do it in private, and personally would rather not see a bare breast hanging out in certain public areas. I think most women would rather do it in private, if they could. I think most women would rather avoid exposing their bare breast in public if at all possible. Don’t you think?
P.S. Please don’t kidnap me! I have seen plenty of breastfeeding mothers, I don’t know why you think me watching you is going to change my mind.
P.S.S. Another thing I find annoying about breastfeeding is that slurping noise, IMO.
If I join, to I get acess nyctea scandia’s home address so I can stand outside her bedroom window and nurse?
And I think this place is a baaaaaad place because I haven’t gotten a lick of work done all day!
[QUOTE=Jeff Olsen]
Sure, because he knows that doing so will get him the real thing.
Jeff, babies just aren’t that manipulative. And you know, I bet he cries…to get me to pay attention to him. That little stinker!
No, he just didn’t like pacifiers. And I don’t blame him. It’s not a real nipple, there’s nothing coming out of it…what’s the point? My son is just too smart to be that easily fooled. Must take after his mom.
Pray tell, how would seeing you nurse change my opinion on the matter? I have seen tons of nursing in my time. Why would seeing you make any difference?
Babies aren’t that manipulative?
I’ve seen my friend’s sister’s kid (less than a year old) throw a toy or a pacifier or something on the floor repeatedly and squeal with glee at watching someone repeatedly go pick it up for her.
She learned pretty damn quick what gets desired results.
Um, yeah, and…? The whole point of sitting at lunch room counters, riding in the front of buses, boycotting, strikes is…well, to make a point.
Bingo on the removal from the situation, distraction thing…works for nursing as well. Its laying the groundwork for the later rationalization phase (which my four year old still hasn’t gotten to). And a hungry 15 month old should be able to get by on goldfish crackers, cheerios, tofu (or whatever you feed yours) and water - if they are hungry and not crying for comfort.
It isn’t an arbitary fifteen months here. Generally, kids who walk and talk are too old to breastfeed in public, unless there is an overriding need (and comfort isn’t it in my book - but I’m not talking about passing laws (well, except the ones that give you are right to breastfeed which I support) and what do you think if I walk out of Starbucks thinking you are inconsiderate). Its a size plus developmental level thing in my mind. Like porn (and I’m not comparing breastfeeding to porn, just using a well known quote) “I know it when I see it.”
See, people raise their kids in just about a zillion ways. Sometimes that inconviences me and I think they are being rude. I think people who take their four year olds to $50 a plate restaurants are being rude. Not the place for four year olds, but I don’t make the rules (I can ask to be moved, but if you think I’m being insensitive because I ask to be moved away from your four year old, you are being a hypocrit). I think people who let their kids scream in Target and don’t remove them are being rude. I actually have little problem with a fifteen month old breastfeeding - but I know other people would think you are being rude - and I really can’t see why you’d need to be rude in that situation.
Did you mention to your peditrician that you were still “demand nursing” or nursing. Nursing is perfectly normal at 15 months. I may be wrong, but I’d guess that at least some peditricians would have problems with demand nursing at 15 months. Maybe yours doesn’t. I’m neither a child development expert nor a peditrician, just a mom who has read a LOT of books (I have a challenging four year old that we’ve made some mistakes with - including allowing her comfort crutches because she “needed them” and “you can’t spoil a baby”), and demand nursing at fifteen months does ring some warning bells for me.
I’m reading the Washington Post’s Live Online chat with columnist Marc Fisher, http://discuss.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/zforum/04/r_metro_fisher081204.htm and there are a few interesting comments on the breastfeeding column from yesterday:
So is the functional end of a bottle.
Who said anything about being manipulative (on preview: other than catsix)? Babies learn, it’s what they do other than eat & sleep. Is it not possible that yours learned to refuse a pacifier?
Good point made by both!
You know, that’s what I thought, too. But I was wrong…oh so wrong. And we are paying the price.
Babies - little infants - are not manipulative. Babies by six months can be. Babies by a year certainly can be. I raised my son and daughter almost right after each other (they are not even 13 months apart). My son, even tempered and un spoiled. My daughter…eeeek!
On the paci thing - my kids weren’t paci kids cause I wasn’t a paci mom - some moms are, some aren’t, mine spit it out and I didn’t want to spend their early months putting it back in, so no paci. Babies who want to suck for comfort will find something (fingers, hands, toes, mom’s hair - I know a few hair suckers) if a paci, breast or bottle isn’t provided.