Claridges Breastfeeding Policy

[ifgrandmahadawilly]

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

I find it a bit embarrassing the reaction to this. Women shrieking that it's their right

It is their right. And who's shrieking? You wouldn't be claiming to hear shrieking just because it's women doing it, would you?

If I point out that it's my right not to be murdered, would you claim that I was shrieking about my rights?

Um... maybe her, you know, phone, had, like, a camera on it?

Oh yes of course, and amidst the tears she said she shed, she decided to get her mum or sister to take a nice smiley pic of her and post it for everyone to see?

I don't think so darling.

Nancy, I don't claim to speak for every old person. My point is that bring uncomfortable with breastfeeding is an individual thing, that can't be blamed on generational differences.

I have a 26 year old colleague who thinks breastfeeding is disgusting. When she is 90 she may feel the same. It is her issue. Older people aren't fragile dolls whose preferences must be accommodated, no matter how unreasonable.

Let's keep in mind that one had complained about this child being fed. Older people shouldn't be blamed for this nonsense.

Argh, that should say no-one.

Nobody cares about mothers Breastfeeding it's the militant types who are screaming discrimination who then appear on local news and twitter.

Well nobody cares apart from the perverts who think it's like defection and the weirdos who can't bear to hear women's voices in public and deride it as 'screaming' or 'shrieking'.

Nothing they have done or said is against the law.

Portofino, the Equality Act says that it is sexual discrimination to treat a woman unfavourably because she is breastfeeding, and sexual discrimination is against the law.

Telling a woman that what she is doing is somehow shameful and she must cover it up, and requiring her child to feed with something over his head, both constitute unfavourable treatment based on breastfeeding. Therefore clearly Claridges were acting against the law.

Claridges have already tweeted an apology yesterday.

For someone who was 'so upset' by the incident, I wonder why she decided to take her story to the Guardian?

Maybe wanting publicity for something else?

I think there is another agenda to her actions and nothing to do with feeding her child.

pinkfrocks EVEN if she has an agenda, even if she invited a full camera crew with lighting kit to Re-photograph her at Claridges, even if next week she announces her starring role on Eastenders SO WHAT? It still exposes the discrimination. I am glad she went to the press. Establishments need to know this is not OK.

Claridges have behaved like arses. They should never have asked her to cover up. It is ludicrous. So, I am glad that their attitude has been exposed and that there has been such support for this woman. Hopefully when the baby she is feeding feeds her own baby there won't be such a strange Victorian attitude about feeding in public.

pinkfrocks when you eat meat in public do you stop to think, and ensure that you do it 'discreetly' so as not to upset anyone, or do you give it no thought as its just another part of your day?

Or is it just boobies that you think people are offended by?

So this mother went to the media with the story? What is so wrong about that? It is a story the media are happy to run with. She was clearly mightily pissed off about the way she was treated as I would have been and she didn't mind being in the center of a story about it. Good for her.

It seems a lot of people on this thread really can't stand women having a voice and an opinion and using both publicly. How very dare they?

pinkfrocks do you think she have just stayed at home and sobbed her upset quietly into her milky cleavage?

Pinkfrocks, that was a bit rude, I don't think I put anything in my post that required the snide response of Naive or what?. And to be honest, it's a bit odd that you suggested she would need a cameraman to take a photo. Most phones these days have cameras. Where else do you think she was tweeting from?

Stuff gets picked up from twitter all the time now. I doubt she went to the press herself over this, but if she has friends and contacts in those circles who follow her on twitter then they probably picked it up as 'newsworthy'. And as her husband's an actor then it's more likely than if she was someone like me (ie a complete unknown).

Why would someone with an agenda take their family and 12 week old baby to Claridges? How could she possibly know that the waiter would do this? Or, pinkfrock, do you suggest that she's been spending the last 12 weeks wandering around every overpriced tearoom in the capital with her baby, mother and sisters and her camera just in the hope of being able to make a point about breastfeeding?

Honestly, this idiotic "agenda" point gets trotted out every time one of these reports comes out, and it never stands up to any sort of examination. It just smacks of desperation.

If it was a fat, ugly woman in Chicken Cottage the media would have been a lot less interested.

Good looking, middle-class lady in 5 star establishment is much better story.

It's the "militant breastfeeding agenda". I have it filed in my bookshelf next to the "feminist agenda" and the "liberal conspiracy".

I think there is another agenda to her actions and nothing to do with feeding her child

How exceptionally fortunate that Claridges were prepared to cooperate.

Ah, y'know, it's all in a day's work for a militant breastfeeder, spending hours and hours researching places to go and be publicly outraged as some kind of publicity stunt. I mean, it's not like people with small babies have anything else to be doing.

It's the "militant breastfeeding agenda". I have it filed in my bookshelf next to the "feminist agenda" and the "liberal conspiracy".
The harping, screeching and screaming from that shelf must be deafening leedy

If it was a fat, ugly woman in Chicken Cottage the media would have been a lot less interested.

That's more of an indictment on the media than anything else though? It's like if you look at the Telegraph, only pretty blonde white girls are worth photographing getting their A-Level results on the front page.

:)

Hanging your colleague really needs to be re-educated about this....

I was actually a bit ewww (more prudish to be honest) about BF in public... until I spoke to my mum who said "I BF you in public when I was younger it was my right" etc...

and I also spoke to friends etc who BF in public. In fact a lot of them, surprise surprise, don't like having to do this but if there's an option between hungry baby and BF in public well of course they do the latter.

I don't have DC so of course I wasn't putting myself in the DMs position.

Now I am far more sympathetic and supportive.

FWIW, I completely agree that Claridges were out of order & deserve the opprobrium being heaped upon them. But at the same time I don't think that viewpoint is incompatible with thinking that, if possible, a bit of discretion (as practised by the woman in the story) is common courtesy.

When I was feeding my DDs I knew that some people might be uncomfortable with it so was discreet (not to the extent of using a cloth, I have to say) when feeding in public/mixed company. Their uncomfortableness may have been misguided but what's the harm in taking account of other people's feelings? It cost me nothing and made life easier. Breasts have more than one function - they are practical and sexual - and to pretend otherwise is deluded.

Having said all that I do wonder about the veracity of all these breastfeeding discrimination stories.....I fed 2 babies for the best part of a year each in all kinds of public places and never once noticed so much as a raised eyebrow!