In the past week, I've been on holiday with DS at an overcrowded, too-popular tourist holiday destination, and in my own town (University oritentation week, full of students).
In that time while feeding DS out and about (nothing on display, any exposed boob completely covered by DS' head, but also not wearing a breastfeeding shawl) I have had:
(1) a grandfather tell me I should cover up when breastfeeding in front of his grandkids
(2) a grandmother say I shouldn't be breastfeeding when they can walk and talk
(3) a woman of grandmotherly age tell me I'll rot DS' teeth and he should be drinking real milk out of a bottle (I presume "real milk" comes from cows...)
(4) a child laugh and point, then try to push our pram into the lake, while adoring parents looked on and laughed as the child tipped the pram over down the bank
(5) another child decide to come up and try to push DS out of the way, as in batting at his head and climbing on my lap, in order to feed, while parents laughed and took photos and then told me their child had more right to be breastfeeding than mine because mine was too old
(6) a man come up and film me while his wife stood there giggling with her hand over her mouth
(7) a pair of young women walk by saying "OMG that's disgusting. It's like 5 years old" "God, why would anyone do that?" ("It" being DS)
(8) a group of young men say "oh shit that's so gross" "OMG she's going to have the saggiest tits ever" and pretend to vomit, while their friend made melon-holding hand gestures emphasizing the apparently saggy tits
Until the past week I'd been fairly good at ignoring any unwanted attention, giving a baleful eye to anyone who dared look affronted. But I didn't reckon with tourist season/ uni students and DS being a pretty big 15 months.
Is breastfeeding a toddler in public really that unusual?