To be so upset and angry because of complaint about my friend breastfeeding?

[memoo]

My friend and work colleague had a DD 6 months ago. We both work in a primary school.

Several weeks ago my friend visited her old reception class in school. The class topic has been 'Growing' ang the reception teacher thought it would be nice for my friend to bring her DD in during the lesson where they would be talking about babies.

I've just had a phone call from my friend and I'm really angry at what she told me.

Apparently at the end of the lesson in school my friend needed to feed her DD and so sat quietly in the reading corner away from the children while she BF.

Friend had a call from the head on Friday telling her that a parent has complained about her BF'ing in front of the children

This parent said that her DS had said he had seen Mrs "boobies" and had been a bit giggley about it.

The head is being lovely and only spoke to my friend about purely to let her know what has happen and as far as I know this parent has been put in her place.

I am just so shocked that this parent could do this. I know the parent in question and the more I think about it I#m getting more and more angry!!!!

yes, to enable women to have choice we need to make QUITE SURE that breastfeeding women are not made to feel uncomfortable

i said to you before daftpunk if you don;t want to see it, that is your problem
look away
leave the room
don't expect bfing to stop or be hidden because of your hang ups (yes it IS a hang up if you have a problem with seeing bfing - let's be plain - that is a hang up)

so...women are allowed choice. So the 'choice' of women who don't want to see breastfeeding in public should take precedence over the choice of women wanting to feed their babies and leave their homes at the same time, and the choice of hungry babies wanting to be fed. O...kay...

You are completely bonkers dp, sorry but you really are.

Daftpunk, of course not wanting to see breastfeeding is a 'hang up' (def: psychological or emotional difficulty or inhibition), and actually quite a serious one if it leads to bf women feeling uncomfortable.

Of it's allowable to feel that way, but don't lets pretend that it is on the normal spectrum for a grown adult, for goodness sake.

lol @ me being bonkers......true actually, i am sometimes...

but when you get someone wanting to delete a post just because i said children are better off with married hetrosexual parents, you have to question the level of bonkerism going on around here.

I am amazed that there are 4 and 5 year olds who DON'T know about breastfeeding.

DS was breastfed and knows that is how you feed a baby, he also knows that it can be quite difficult and sometimes people use a bottle instead (interestingly he knows this because a friend was bottle feeding and he wanted to know what she was doing to the baby - because the bottle was unusual not the other way round).

He asked, I told him. He didn't feint.

He (and I) wouldn't have blinked an eye or even considered that this was inappropriate.

MorrisZapp, I actually preferred quiet places to feed DS because he was very easily distracted and liked to turn his head to check stuff out (whilst holding my nipple in his gums/teeth). I still frequent my favourite cafes in Sydney - they are my favourites cause they have large pink signs on the door saying Breastfeeding Mums Welcome!

I can't even believe there's been a discussion about this, let alone such a long one

OP I think your friend should just ignore and not give it a second thought. The person who complained clearly has far too much time on their hands and really isn't worth any time worrying about.

It's a whole lot easier to avert one's gaze than for a mother to have to find somewhere 'private' to bf. Just so's someone is relieved of the bother of turning their head 90 degrees....

I have only read OP but some people are so umm I don't even know what word I want! The Mum who complained should have just explained to her child that thats how babies are fed, not complained! My DS1, who is 4 1/2 actually asked a bottle feeding Mum why she wasn't giving her baby Mummy milk! LOL

'You may think ii is lazy and unimaginative Gunner but the children absolutely love anything like this. '

They absolutely adore it-I have never met one who doesn't!

Some people bf and some bottle feed-it is down to personal choice, but I can't see why one set is allowed to feed their baby anywhere, in front of everyone and the other is supposed to hide away at home and do it in secret, as if it is something to be ashamed of. There would be a public outcry if bottle feeding mothers were told they couldn't feed their babies in public!
The sensible parent of the DC who mentioned it should just have told him in a matter of fact way that the baby was hungry.

I agree with memoo (I apologise if I got the name wrong)and I don't think it a good thing if parents have to control every aspect of their DC's life - especially when it comes down to what they see in the classroom.

This discussion is just going round in circles now, really.

I can see the point gunnerbean made about no food and drink being allowed in the classroom. However I don't realistically think those kind of guidelines should apply to babies who are still mainly on milk, as they can't understand waiting or social niceties or anything. Babies fart, burp, shit themselves, interrupt you... (all loudly!) they are not expected to behave politely in other ways.

I think you'd have an argument if the mother had got out, say, a sausage roll to feed her child. But not a breast or bottle (of milk). Also, I think you're not helping yourself with the fact you keep stating that a classroom is not a place to breastfeed - as I understand it, you also think it would be inappropriate to bottlefeed in the corner of the classroom as well, so why not just say "A classroom is an inappropriate place to feed a baby" - much less inflammatory, and although I don't agree with you it at least makes more sense than insinuating one kind of feeding is acceptable where another is not.

Don't really understand where the argument of "women should have choice" is coming into it.

loving the fact that daftpunk has come back on to derail the thread again with her wonderful flavor of homophobia and er, feminism. lol!

That really is bonkers.

My friend BF in the local Halifax bank once when there was a cafe across the road. Most of these women do not BF discreetly with a small cloth or blanket over their boobs, its all for show 'oh look at me i'm an earth mother'. Pathetic really

i really do think that we need people like dp on mn to pull us up short and remind us about mainstream thinking, and i do kinda really like her posts, so i hope she's feeling okay about this thread.

... but i confess i have lololed about fifteen times today at the idea that she is fourth on the Fascist Party hit list. come on dp, you've got to give us the background on that one.

pathetic not to have a blanket covering you when breastfeeding? Of course. Pathetic
of you to be bothered methinks.

Unfortunately I don't really need reminding Aitch, I stopped breastfeeding in public with dc2 as sick of funny looks, etc.

yeah, where is their hooter hider!

luvoneson, what?

WHY are tits so scary? i am completely baffled by all this. we all have them. male posters' wives have them, they're GREAT THINGS. why does the sight of them frighten people so?

(i'm speaking as a former non-discreet bfer. i was the world's worst, just desperate to get dd2 latched on, lost all inhibition about skin being seen. how hilarious to think that people were cowering.)

ah yes sorry about that olympic, but remember, she is also providing a public service re gay and common law parents.

I have an idea - you get spies who cut eyes out of faces in newspapers to look around incognito right? BFers can cut the tits out of the page 3 women, stick their nipples through the holes, and to the observer, she is simply reading page 4 of the newspaper

lol, vg.

(although the guardian doesn't do topless)

LOL SouthMum.
Did you see that episode in the adoptive parents series Aitch where the gay couple were approved to adopt? They still couldn't get a social worker to recommend a child for them, even after being approved. It was quite sad really.

could always paint a rather taxing crossword grid on them instead teehee