“That’s so gross…”
The Hubster, my sister and I went to San Francisco Japantowne today with The Little Empress in tow. (We went last weekend as well but without my sister as she was working.) We did the usual — got lunch at one of our favorite restaurants before walking around to check out the Miyako mall. We came back to the Kinokuniya building to visit our favorite dessert place, Sophie’s Crepes. As usual, the place was packed so I sent my sister in to order the crepes as it would have been too crowded for me to wear TLE on my back safely. TLE was getting fussy in her carrier and so I found I nice place to sit next to Sophie’s while waiting. It soon became obvious that TLE was hungry so I nursed her, using my jacket to partially cover her up. At some point, she got antsy about the cover on her head so I let it slide off.
My sister later told me that a guy in line at Sophie’s noticed that I was breastfeeding. He pointed it out to his girlfriend who commented, “I wouldn’t breastfeed in public. That’s so gross.” My sister was standing at the same angle as the girl who made the comment said it was obvious that I was nursing but it’s not like you could see anything.
I don’t consider myself a hardcore lactivist but I believe that my child has as much of a right to eat in public as anyone else does. If TLE is hungry, I’ll feed her. That would be true whether she was formula or breastfed. It just so happens that TLE is a breastfed baby so instead of being offered a bottle, I offer her my breast. (Or she’ll fuss and throw herself down to boob level, which is what happened while we were waiting.) Nursing covers don’t work for us; she likes looking around at the world and it is too much trouble for me to force her to be covered.
It burns me that people consider breastfeeding to be gross. What is so gross about it? Breasts are for feeding babies! ARGH!!




