to hate it when people offer to "nurse" my child, when they mean hold?

[bohemianbint]

I know, it's an old people thing, and I am probably being a tad unreasonable, but it's a phrase I hate in that context.

I nurse (breastfeed) mY child, and everyone else can just hold him.

AIBU?

This is interesting. I would actually look at it the other way round. Although it's not an expression I use myself, if someone said 'nurse the baby' I would immediately think of cuddle the baby. I would never think of breast-feeding.

The only context I would link nursing and breast-feeding are in the phrases 'nursing mother' and 'wet-nurse'.

On a similar note, I used to get tired of people asking me 'are you feeding her' or 'are you feeding her yourself', when they actually meant are you breast-feeding. I often felt like answering, 'No, I'm not bothering to feed her' or 'No, I always get someone else to do it for me'!

In Canada, people NEVER say breastfeeding (mabe too graphic for them?) they always say nursing.

I never heard this used in UK to mean bf - always a cuddle.

We say 'nurse' to mean cuddle in Ireland too. It is obv regional. And it would remind me of my grandmothers.

What's a 'Mackem' though? Never heard of that.

I like it, my MiL says it when she means she is going to cuddle DS to sleep

My Australian friend asked me if I wanted to 'nurse' her new baby and I was quite confused at first.

However, I find 'nurse' as a euphemism for 'feed' a little more off putting than 'nurse' meaning to hold.

I think nursing is something that involves caring for ill people in hospital.

Nursing a child does mean to hold them without breast feeding them - "nurse" as in breastfeed is an americanism - so yes, YABU

No Podrick, it isn't. The other meanings of nurse came from it's meaning to BF.

My Mum says it, doesn't bother me. But then I've only ever know the word 'nurse' in relation to babies to refer to cuddling/rocking etc - I find nursing as a term for b/feeding more unusual.

YABU - nursery nurses, by definition, nurse children. It doesn't mean they bf them, it just means they care for them.

I have to be honest though, nobody ever said it to me when my DSs were babies so I don't know how I would feel if they did.