Tea Supremacist

Off the hair debate for a moment... Vegan, what are the attitudes to breastfeeding in public where you are? Over here (or perhaps just the area I'm in?) the attitude is quite conservative, which is a shame. In some places, what is a natural activity can be viewed as fairly offensive. Just a couple of weeks ago I met a friend for lunch and the woman on the table next to us was breastfeeding her baby. The Manager came straight over and asked if she could go somewhere else and do it as it was 'putting off the other customers' (this was a half empty fecking Deli/Cafe, not some glitzy resturant!). She was reduced to having to go to the bathroom and sit on the toilet to breastfeed her child (I was a little confused as to how it was fair to ask her to go somewhere else without providing any appropriate facilities), which I thought was a little too far. It's not the first time I've seen this happen and it's something that I actually find a little upsetting.

Another case was when a group of friends and myself were having some lunch in the grounds of the castle (yeah, that's right, we have a castle to go lunch at where I live!) - these are public grounds and on a nice day it's a great place for families to go for a picnic or whatever. Anyway, one family had a baby and the woman began to breastfeed it. Within minutes, a Mother from another family asked her if she could move or do it in private as she didn't want her children (maybe 6-8 years old) to see 'things like that'.

Sorry for the rant, and veering slightly off topic, but I'm curious to know if everywhere is like this or whether I just come from a conservative, narrowminded area! From speaking to people who are against public breastfeeding it seems to stem from both men AND women, rather than it just being a bit of an uncomfortable thing for a bloke to be around (which, at a push, I can understand). I understand that back in the day it was quite a private thing to do, but surely it can't cause offense these days?

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