Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Rudest Comment

This little blog is in response to a contest about coming up with the rudest comment someone ever made to you regarding your parenting.  Twitters Moms and Care.com are teaming up for this one. See their links in the side bar.

As a parent of a handicapped child who doesn't LOOK handicapped I've fielded quite a few of those. But there are some parenting skills that the roaming public feel compelled to comment on.
 
For example one such skill that spanned the raising of all three children had to do with my breast feeding techniques. I was always amazed at what people felt compelled to share. I was sitting in a shopping mall and my son was crying. He was hungry. He knew it, I knew it and my breasts knew it (breast feeding moms will know what I mean). I sat down with him, covered myself up and discreetly and we all instantly experienced a Zen moment of peace, quiet and contentment. 

Five minutes into the event and older woman (well at least much older than me) came up to me. She was hunched over, trying to get a better look and obviously going to make a comment to me that she felt was called for.

"You aren't breast feeding your child in public?!" she gasped.

Honestly when did this situation become a social gaff. For thousands of years women have been breast feeding their children in all sorts of social situations. However, in the last 100 years or so, it has become "disgusting" and inappropriate to breast feed in public. I refused to sit in a bathroom to feed my child. He had the right to eat anywhere just like any other human being.

I remained calm, looked her straight in the eye and answered, "No. I'm baking a cake." After which I ignored her and let my son ease his hunger and drift off to sleep.  She tisked her way down the mall and I had a little chuckle.



2 comments:

Maureensk said...

I'm doing the rounds, reading everyone's great stories. It is amazing what people will say. It's cool that your come back was so quick. I normally take at least ten minutes to realize that yes that person said what I thought they did. Then the next day, bing the perfect comeback pops into my head, :-)

Maureen said...

@Maureen thanks so much for your comment. Ah it isn't always that way with me. I happened to be alert that day. LOL