A denim jacket, knee-length cotton dress and sneakers. Apparently, this is slutty - when breastfeeding. Image: Supplied.
This article originally appeared on Claim Your Mumjo and has been republished here with permission. By Kate Louise.
So today I was shamed very publicly for a number of reasons.
Shamed by a mother and her daughter. The mother maybe being in her 40s the daughter around the age of 16. I’m totally assuming that, but that was my guess.
Anyway here is what happened…
It’s school holidays at the moment, so the Parents Room at the local shopping centre was standing room only and Mr. 15-months wanted to feed. Rather than allow him to get more grumpy the more hungry he got (typical male), I went out to the couches in the middle of the centre and starting to feed him, discretely of course.
I saw this mother and her daughter walk past and the daughter tapped her mother’s arm and pointed at me. *Here we go*
The mother charged in my direction.
“That is not on” she spits at me, “Go and do that where my daughter and I don’t have to see you.”
Quite simply and politely I replied, “My baby is hungry, so I’m going to feed him, I’m sorry if it offends you but him feeding is what’s most important.”
Angrily she pointed at Oscar: “That is not a baby, he is way too old to be feeding off your tit.”
I’m starting to get a little more frustrated now as I also have my four-year-old sitting by my side.
“He is my baby, he will be my baby and this is how we choose to feed,” I replied.
The mother crossed her arms and asked, “So if he was still ‘your baby’ at seven, would you keep feeding him?”
“If that’s what he wanted,” I answered.
She scoffed and rolled her eyes, looking as though she was done, when her daughter chimed in:
“And you look like a slut.” To which her mother laughed and gave her a high five as they turned to walk off.
It blew me away.
I had my four-year-old with me, I was discreetly feeding my 15-month-old. I am not a person who is overly comfortable in my own skin but I am confident while I feed. The dig at how I looked, hurt me. The fact that mother thought that was appropriate to say to another human, another female, another mother just hurts me to my core.
I am not a person who is overly comfortable in my own skin but I am confident while I feed. The dig at how I looked, hurt me. That this mother thought it was appropriate to speak like that to another human, another female, another mother just hurts me to my core.
A lovely old lady who I had seen watching the interaction came up to me. She gave me a hug and encouraged me to continue feeding Oscar as long as I wanted.
She ensured me that I looked beautiful.
That is what we should be doing! Loving and supporting one another. Whatever your choices as a parent, having happy, healthy children is what is most important.
Kate is a mum, midwife and a blogger who wants to help mothers support one another. You can find her on her blog, Claim Your Mumjo, and Facebook.
