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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Claridges Breastfeeding Policy

638 replies

ifgrandmahadawilly · 02/12/2014 20:31

Aibu in posting this here, in the hopes that the people of mumsnet let Claridges know how unreasonable they are being?

www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-health/11267989/Mother-forced-to-cover-up-with-large-napkin-while-breastfeeding-at-Claridges.html

OP posts:
HangingInAGruffaloStance · 04/12/2014 00:27

Breast feeding doesn't involve nipples on display.

Baby needs to put mouth over nipple to get the milk out.

It doesn't come out like a fountain, with an open mouth child being waved around to catch the milk.

jemima1988 · 04/12/2014 00:28

mrhardy

using the same logic you can eat at a table so why can't my child?

Icimoi · 04/12/2014 00:29

But, Mr Hardy, going into a restaurant with your gay partner is a choice. If someone said they were offended by seeing two gay people at a table together, would you think it OK to be asked to leave?

MrHardy · 04/12/2014 00:30

TerraNovice

Well, it's not. My brother wasn't breastfed and has turned out alright as far as I can tell.

Oh, and one of my friends breastfeeds. Do you know what she does though? Goes the bathroom, or somewhere private because she knows people don't necessarily like it. You know another 'revolutionary' thing she does? Has a pump. Sometimes she pumps the milk and stores it in a coolbag if she knows she's going to be out any length of time.

MrHardy · 04/12/2014 00:31

jemima1988 because my eating doesn't involve sucking on nipples.

Icimoi · 04/12/2014 00:31

Mr Hardy, you keep saying that you can't see anything wrong with Claridge's actions. You keep avoiding the question of why you can't see anything wrong with breaking the law. Is there a reason for that?

HangingInAGruffaloStance · 04/12/2014 00:33

Could there be a rule that men who know fuck all about breast feeding and how it works shouldn't opine to mothers on how to care for their children within the confines of the law?

I'd like that rule.

MrHardy · 04/12/2014 00:34

I don't think it says anywhere in the law that she can't be covered up by a napkin. She wasn't asked to leave.

Writerwannabe83 · 04/12/2014 00:35

Are you put off your food when you see animals feeding their young too? I wonder why nobody has invented a breast pump for cats yet so the kittens can be fed whilst out in public....

MrHardy · 04/12/2014 00:35

HangingInAGruffaloStance

Only if women who know fuck all about men will stop making laws for us as well. Not like we don't get treated badly enough as it is.

MrHardy · 04/12/2014 00:36

*rules, not laws.

HangingInAGruffaloStance · 04/12/2014 00:36

The law is against unfavourable treatment, not just stopping breastfeeding.

Icimoi · 04/12/2014 00:36

The law says that it is sexual discrimination to treat women less favourably because they are breastfeeding, and that sexual discrimination is unlawful. Telling someone to cover themselves up as if what they were doing was somehow shameful is treating them less favourably. Therefore what Claridge's did was unlawful.

TerraNovice · 04/12/2014 00:36

Not everyone wants to give their child formula. I won't go into the reasons why breastfeeding is good for your child but suffice to say, the plural of anecdote is not anecdata.

And your friend can pump? Good for her. Not all women can and not all women can take bottles. And I feel sorry for her if the likes of you have made her think a bathroom is an appropriate place to feed a child. Why don't you take your meal and eat it there instead?

DecaffCoffeeAndRollupsPlease · 04/12/2014 00:37

A cover is a horrible idea. I would never have covered my baby's head while feeding as she wouldn't have found it comfortable. Why should babies have to be uncomfortable? Imagine if people were covering over baby's heads and faces with clothes while they were lying in their prams, the parents would be accused of child cruelty, yet this shop thinks it's better to inflict that on a baby than to ignore their own or customer's prejudices- horrible.

Icimoi · 04/12/2014 00:37

Mr Hardy, would that be the women who are in the minority in Parliament wickedly making laws for men? How do they manage that?

Writerwannabe83 · 04/12/2014 00:38

Why aren't you in bed MrHardy? Surely you have something better to do rather than be on here moaning about something of which you are completely clueless about?

HangingInAGruffaloStance · 04/12/2014 00:38

I don't recall having proposed to make any laws "for men".

The equality act is for everyone, anyway. You know, equality.

Maybe you should question what you are doing on a parenting forum seeing as you don't seem to like mothers or children unless they accommodate your neuroses.

Nite nite.

MrHardy · 04/12/2014 00:39

TerraNovice Actually, she doesn't know my views on breastfeeding at all. It was of her own free will. She said, and I quote "I'm going to go and feed now, so I'll just pop off to the loo" and later I asked why she said: "Well, a lot of people don't like it, which I can understand 'cos you don't want to see tits everywhere when you're eating your soup"

Unbelievably, some mothers are actually able to think about people other than themselves. Honestly it amazes me that you're mothers at all if you only think about 'me me me'.

Bellerina2 · 04/12/2014 00:39

Men get treated badly by the law? Oh you're one of those are you? Yes, poor middle class white men. They're the truly disadvantaged and suffer immeasurably. If only they were the majority in positions of power. Oh wait...

TerraNovice · 04/12/2014 00:41

I think you'll find that most mothers are thinking about their babies rather than themselves, and a toilet is not the most hygienic place for a baby to be fed.

anothernumberone · 04/12/2014 00:42

Mr Hardy you are not saying ban breastfeeding your are merely indicating a blatant ignorance about the whole process. In the early weeks bf can take hours out of the day. If for example you have older children who need to be collected from school you may have to bf a baby shock horror outside a school. You may have to go to a doctors surgery and shock horror feed a baby in public. You may have to go to a grocery shop and you guessed it feed a baby in public the list is endless. There is no getting away from it if you bf a child they need to be fed when they are hungry or else they cry. There is often not some place to hide away discretely but even if there was it is only 2 generations ago that there was really no other option so bf happened everywhere mother and child were do it is eating out and not bf that is new contrary to your ignorance on bf and I imagine from your comments all things to do with young babies.

MrHardy · 04/12/2014 00:42

Well if we're banging on about equality...

Why do women hold all the cards when it comes to kids? Why don't fathers get the same rights?

Why is it alright for a woman to cry rape, ruin a man's life and never get punished for it?

Why was GTA V banned in Australia for 'violence against women' - so it's okay to murder millions of blokes but not a woman in the game?

Why are their proposals for women to get 'menstrual leave' each month? What do men get?

I could go on.

MrHardy · 04/12/2014 00:44

And yes, I do think men get treated badly, because we're basically treated like absolute shit by everyone.

Mumsnet is a hive of men-hating. Every relationship thread will get blamed on the bloke and you'll be told to "leave him". Yawn.

anothernumberone · 04/12/2014 00:44

Do = so