What do you think of this?

[Tatties]

Have a read of this , especially some of the comments at the end..

Nicely said wencelaligo...

She never said you were....

I did read the thread. But you did use it... and shitting I might add, which I also don't think is comparable.

I think it's good not to offend, apart from when the action is indisputably non-offensive. I love the way the blokes compare it to going to the toilet, rather then comparing it to themselves eating a meal. To be honest, the sight of some blokes/women eating is far more offensive to me than having a breast feed.

I get really offended by the suggestions that a breastfeeding mother should HAVE to go to a 'designated feeding room' - why? No-one else has to go to a special room to eat? And certainly not the public toilets - you don't see your average person skulking in the toilets because they want to have something to eat? And you don't see people campaigning against/phoning the police about page 3 girls - breasts are obviously ok when not being used for their natural function in providing nutrition.

And as for the comments about it being a slur on our society that people breastfeed in public - it's just mad. Given that you don't have to look, what business is it of anybody elses? I love the comment about feminists - clearly only a feminist would want to feed their baby when it was hungry. And as for planning before you go out - when was the last time THAT person looked after a baby?

FS - was that too me? SL said we were all blowing it out of proportion... ???

No, it was to SL getting stroppy that she wasn't the one who brought up drunken yobs... no-one had said that she specifically had.

I rarely see people breastfeeding apart from at parent and toddler groups etc. And I'm sure that people are breastfeeding (me for one ).

I have breastfed in public often (and will continue to for the foreseeable future). I am interested in whether I have ever offended anyone.

And why is breastfeeding compared to going to the toilet? They are not the same thing or related much at all .

All those people comparing b/feeding to going to the toilet could compare it to that other very offensive natural function of breathing.

Just read the bit about not exposing bumps to the air due to all the pollutants getting in that way. Hmm.

My town has a no-drinking on the street policy, so this sort of behaviour would be illegal. - Stuart, Surrey
PMSL!

I found that one funny too

I don't want to see this kind of thing. I think it's feminists trying to assert themselves.

• Anon, Liverpool, UK

What a wanker

I particularly like the guy whose way of dealing with breastfeeding mothers is to stare at them. Has it not occured to him that any minute now, someone is going to look up and say, in ringing tones:

'What are you looking at, PERVERT'

My, how I'll laugh.......

No one is forced to like someone breastfeeding in public.

No one is forced to look at it.

Starlover seems to think 'not looking ' means sitting with your head twisted at 90 degrees. There are many occasions when I am 'not looking' at someone without needing to do that...I just don't look!

A case in point might be someone sitting at a table near me with very table manners - slupring a bit too much, eating with their mouth full, dribbling a bit, spitting a bit out, dropping lumps on the floor....you know, the way a baby of about a year old eats?

So, I don't look, if I don't like the way it appears.
In fact, to me, the baby of a year eating that way is doing it that way because he is a baby, and it doesn't bother me. But I can accept that others might feel it's all a bit sloppy, and they might not have the same 'aw, ain't it cute?' feeling I have about it!

I would not expect them to fetch a policeman. I'd just expect them not to look...what could be easier? I remember learning 'not to stare' when I was a tiny tot - so someone who had a disfigurement, or a ridiculous hat, or a spot on the end of their nose, was not made to feel uncomfortable by my discomfort. It's called manners, and we should all teach our children the same thing (I have done so with mine).

Neither the baby, nor the mother, breastfeeding in the street is shitting, weeing, farting or belching. The baby is eating - just as anyone is allowed to do in public. It's natural, but it's natural not in the way that shitting, weeing etc is, but natural as breathing, blinking, sweating...and to the baby, as involuntary as all of those things.

The alternative - mother and baby rooms, cafes - are not always convenient (especially if you have shopping, or a toddler, or you are with other people) and why should we be forced to use them?

People cannot help the hang ups they end up with in adulthood, but part of being an adult is to throw away the ones which are meaningless, surely, and live and let live?

I am all for legislation protecting mothers and babies from harrassment, and it will be a powerful symbol of acceptance when we do get that law.

Really shouldn't keep reading the comments...

Tiktok - perfectly put.

There is a tea shop in my town whose owner has thrown out /refused to serve breastfeeding mothers. I know they have lost trade because of this, but they maintain their positionand recently ased a woman to leave who was feeding on the ground opposite their shop ( not even their property).

I find this very hard to accept and would love a law permitting bf wherever and whenever is necessary.

I intend to go there to bf next year when I have a new baby just because I can

Oh that article! I can't believe that in this day and age the subject of public breastfeeding is even considered worthy of discussion - it should be a given. No one has to watch anyone breastfeed. To me, watching someone breastfeed means deliberately looking at them, very different to noting by a passing glance that someone is b-feeding.

thank you for balanced post tiktok. Have ranted extensively on the other post and on the radio today, so shall bow out now. I just wish we had the law against stopping feeding a baby (as in Scotland) as then it would be totally clear cut legally that noone - police or not - can tell someone not to breastfeed.

thank you for balanced post tiktok. Have ranted extensively on the other post and on the radio today, so shall bow out now. I just wish we had the law against stopping feeding a baby (as in Scotland) as then it would be totally clear cut legally that noone - police or not - can tell someone not to breastfeed.

i'm in scotland i must say although i would bf anywhere anyway, i do love having that law. makes me feel super-earth-mother smug and happy when i bf here there and everywhere...

it must surely come to the rest of the uk soon?

jasnem, wgere is the teashop? anyone fancy trying to breastfeed there?

You do realise that you can actually post comments back about that article don't you? I would love to see Tiktok's brilliantly worded post on that site!