Is this weird?

[coffeegonzo]

I actually think I agree but my children's friends were horrified; their teacher (- sixth form but it could have been in other classes too) had a child who was off colour but the six formers needed teacher near exams etc, so she brought the crotchety off colour 18 month (?) old into class and breast fed during class. The students found it "ultra awkward"... I half think this is a good life experience for them, admire the teacher's dedication, but also think actually it's a bit weird. Maybe a teeny baby but this was a toddler.....maybe that makes a difference for me, I can't decide... It's a friendly independent school- teachers first name terms, relaxed but quite academic.

The breastfeeding wouldn't bother me. The possibility that my 'about to sit exams teen' had been exposed to some bug would.

Well maybe.

Or maybe:
a) Other people could get used to having small children and babies around and the distractions that can occur;
b) Working outside the home could be similarly structured around flexible hours;
c) School classes could be structured differently to allow for teachers to manage their own smaller children.

And maybe workplace culture could get used to the idea of some disruption. It's even possible that having children with them could improve parents' workplace productivity.

I find it interesting that the situation described by the OP has provoked such an intense reaction!

I don't think the breastfeeding is the issue, bringing a poorly toddler who could make all the students sick before exam time is very unfair and wrong. The toddler disrupted because it was ill and it wasn't fair on it or the students. Nothing wrong with breastfeeding to soothe a toddler, the toddler shouldn't have been there upset and sick crotchy though.

If the toddler wasn't been contagious (which we don't know, just suspect given childcare falling through) and crotchy and just slept then it shouldn't have been a disruption, with or without the breastfeeding.

SorchaN yes it has provoked reactions!

I think workplaces should be more open to these situations. In this case though, a small ill child could really be detrimental to the quality of "work" it's mother is able to do.
This school is fairly open to all sorts of eccentricities- some teachers have had their dogs in class ( and no i'm not equating the toddler with a dog...) and they have used innovative teaching methods too. The school as I said is reasonably relaxed but gets superb results. i would name it but i don't want to out the teacher etc....

I genuinely am stunned that you think that's remotely workable.

The number of businesses that operate 9 - 5 due to cost of utilities, key holders, ensuring they comply with the law regarding working alone, the cost of implementing changes to schools to allow this, changing the school structure to accommodate the needs of teachers children is bonkers as it would put on parents instead.

Planet la la land when there are perfectly good systems in place already.

If the toddler was not well enough to go to childcare then she wasn't well enough to be taken into a school environment.
The disruption caused by the child being crotchety and the possibility of the spread of infection to the class are pretty considerable and the teacher would not be giving her full attention to her class - she must have been distracted.

A bad decision on her part. As said up-thread a better alternative would have been to skype the class.

And I do not think workplaces should be child-friendly. Many workers need to concentrate 100% and children tend to be noisy!

I don't think breastfeeding is weird in general (bf all 3 of my own yadda yadda), but I really don't think this was the right place to challenge societal norms. Teachers are supposed to be robots without sexual organs . Far less distracting.

Did the students have the option of leaving the room until she'd finished if they didn't want to watch?

Wow, coffeegonzo, that's amazing! Definitely rather eccentric!

Glad to hear about the superb results. It probably helps when the eccentricities seem particularly out there!

Why in the name of all that's holy should people have to get used to the distractions that small children and babies bring with them in the workplace???

I'm finding it hard to take you seriously actually, Sorcha. I think you're on the windup for reasons best known to yourself.

MN would hate me I've had a few jobs where i couldn't allow a baby through the door even for a second. breastfeeding arguments would get you no where.

many work environments would be breaking the law letting a baby through the entrance

I'm surprised that people think that she is wonderful for taking her ill child into her workplace tbh.

Especially a classroom environment.

Not read all the responses, but I'd suspect if it was a tummy upset or something contagious that she wouldn't have brought child into school. Growth spurt, teething all the other reasons toddlers get clingy and ill. Nothing wrong with it.

alot of contagious things start off as cold symptoms which most people ignore as, well, toddlers get colds.

If it's at a nursery usually then there's every chance the child's been exposed to say chicken pox. which starts off as a bit if a cold and a whiny toddler.

on any other thread thud be outrage over that. pregnant staff and all that.

stomach bugs in non verbal children, well you don't have that conformed til they have vomited. up till that point guess what they are tired clingy and whiny.

you never know. The kid was 18 months he can't say

To anyone who think this situation was professional and a good idea

Imagine that you've just finished preparing your work for an important presentation that would affect your chances of a promotion, and you need to talk with your manager to discuss the final ideas and go through it with them. In this meeting they've decided to bring their poorly toddler with them, it's being grumpy, coughing and crying and demanding your bosses attention because of that. Anyway you carry on, because you have to do this report tomorrow and the manager needs to help you finalise, anyway, manager is distracted etc. And then She starts breast feeding her toddler whilst you're trying to talk to her about this presentation. She puts it down, it starts playing and chatting away and playing with it's toys.

Is that Professional?

Would you think"go her!"

The answer to the op's original aibu...

Breastfeeding toddler - not weird.
Bringing toddler into workplace - bit weird.

Particularly if it was all day, not just this one lesson.

The kid was 18 months he can't say

And yet a few posts ago you had him repeating verbatim the conversations in the staff room....

I was talking in general about people taking kids to work.

depending on the age of the child it poses different risks and senarios. particularly they poster who seems to think work paves should he child friendly. but it seems MN is willing to overlook sense or safety or privacy when it comes to breastfeeding.

places

And pointing out to the poster who thinks it's all about male Victorian values that it can actually be a serious issue having a child in the work place especially when there is going to be confidentiality issues. any lid under age of 12 isn't supposed to be left home alone and so if people started bringing in sick kids you would have a whole range of ages and understandings

Multitasking and dedication, my eye!

She's been given a position of authority over the children in her classroom due to her position as a professional. Her legal and moral responsibilities require that her attention and focus be on those children and not on her own (sick) child. Her mere presence in the classroom doesn't fulfill her contractual duties. In addition, she purposely brought an unconventional and "impossible not to notice" distraction into an academic setting when, I assume, the children were preparing for an exam, as well as exposing EVERYONE to possible illness.

I don't even know why I felt it necessary to type this. This situation really seems quite bonkers.

I can't help laugh at people thinking we should get used to people bringing their children to work! Wtf? It's work, you are there to work! What child wants to spend the day at their parents job being ignored.

Besides which, this was a sick child. Work place sickness is bad enough with adults not taking time off when ill and spreading their germs to everyone, with having a sick grumpy child spreading them too!

Addison lee allow parents to bring babies in. Not sure whether the toddler trial was allowed to continue.

Addison Lee. They a) had a buddy for people who bought in children so that a colleague could take over if there was an inopportune moment b) decided it only really worked for babies under 12 months because of the mobility issue c) concluded that it reduced workers productivity to 60% but felt that was ok due to loyalty and long term benefits to the company.

Something that REALLY doesn't work in a classroom where kids need 100% every day in the short term and where a teacher will generally will be working alone.

I think I work in a very similar school. Lots of colleagues bring dogs to work - the children take them for walks at lunch times! Healthy children are reasonably often around too (for a start, the boarding houseparents' children live in the school.)

My youngest is pretty much being raised by our oldest year group (I'm joking, of course, but she does spend a lot of time in school - I'm a performing arts teacher and there's often a corner of the performance space cordoned off as a play pen and hovered over by my daughter's adoring fan club.

A sick child though, I'm not sure. I don't think that was right. I can see the dilemma but think the teacher should have asked the school nurse if she could leaver her in sick bay (should be possible in a relaxed independent school?) My school prefers us to do that than take days off anyway.

On the breastfeeding - as an adult I don't think she did anything wrong. But thinking back to being 17 I would have found it embarrassing (and the boys in my class wouldn't have known what to do with themselves!)

I think what she did was awful and could have a possible detrimental effect on her students. The breastfeeding is surplus to the situation, however (for whatever reason), some students may feel awkward or uncomfortable about it. Any other time I'd say 'so what', but she came in specifically to help her A level students. That means she wanted to give them her full professional attention. Instead she brought in a possibly contagious child that she had to take primary care of. That's not something worthy of awe and applause, and it's certainly not an appropriate time for 'life lessons and making a stand for mothers'. Although she may have succeeded in putting a few of those kids off having their own anytime soon, if they seen how life consuming babies are I guess.