06 July 2008

Great moments in nursing

Dad's birthday is in the neighborhood, so we decided to take a family excursion to Cabela's where he could use his gift card and the rest of us could admire the murdered wildlife. This trip was, predictably, perfectly timed for Small Guy to be hungry right in the middle of it.

Cabela's, surprisingly enough, does not have a mothers' room, and it was a pretty hot day for sitting in the car. But I found a nice little corner with some benches. I was prepared with my double layer nursing top and a cover blanket just to make sure. The corner was by an exit so there was some traffic, but no more than I'd have run into anywhere else in the store. I only noticed one person do a double take and I was congratulating myself on being so brave when some fool tried to leave with something in a bag that set off the alarm. I started looking around nonchalantly so as to be even less noticeable, and saw above the exit door--can you guess? a TV monitor broadcasting me and Small Guy going about our business.

I can only hope no one in the back was monitoring the security cameras too closely. And they don't keep the tapes, right? Why would they keep the tapes?

9 comments:

Susan said...

Rebekah, are people touchy these days about nursing mothers? I mean, I know a lot of people find it offensive or "too sexy" or whatever. But when my oldest kids were little, I just nursed them in public. I didn't go to the bathroom. I didn't hide. I didn't use a blanket. I didn't have special nursing clothes. I just kinda hiked up my tshirt a little so that it was kinda scrunched over their little faces (no skin showing), and people thought they were just sleeping. Nobody seemed to know or realize. (Although sometimes those who DID realize would take great offense.)

I've been hearing about nursing moms getting scolded for nursing in public. Is it because more people know about nursing now than they did 20-25 years ago, and so they're on the lookout for moms to be offended by? How come I could get by with so much public nursing and never be noticed?

Anyway, I'm going on the theory that whoever is watching security tapes at Cabela's is going to be clueless as to what was going on. And if they do recognize what you were doing, then they will be grateful to you for being so environmentally conscious! (Do ya buy it? Huh? Huh? I think it sounds good!)

Thursday's Child said...

Oh, how funny! Hooefully they were all busy getting Starbuck's.

Rebekah said...

Susan, I'm just shy. You'd think by my fourth baby I'd be over it. :P I was also somewhat concerned because the state in which this incident took place has a "discretion" requirement in its public breastfeeding law.

Good point on the conservationist factor, though! :D And TC, I hope you're right!

Susan said...

There are LAWS now about nursing a baby in public????? Oh, good grief....

Dawn said...

I just snorted breakfast through my nose. Thanks a lot.

Susan: Nursing "too sexy"!?!?!?! Wow. But it's so . . . horrible. Between hot nursing and the idea that Maria Lactans is porn I'm coming to discover that I have no idea what I'm up against.

Susan said...

When my kids were little, I heard:
1. Nursing is bad. Your child will die of starvation.
2. Nursing is bad. Breasts are for enticing men and for matters having to do with sex. It is utterly disgusting that you would use your breasts for anything to do with a child. (That might come from either the puritanical type or the too-horny type.)

So go ahead and have no idea what you're up against! It's safer that way! It's always such a disappointing shock to find out what other people think about feeding babies. Much better to throw some chemicals together in a laboratory, market them, put them together with water of questionable purity, and then feed that to poor kid, doncha think?

Consecutive Odds said...

Regarding Security Tapes...
(Un)fortunately, some stores do keep security tapes for a period of time, probably not more then a few days, but the interest is in places like cash registers or other places where employee theft easily occurs or outside loss occurs. A store like Cabela's would be more likely to keep tape of the gun area or other places where, if theft occurs, there is a high liability cost for the store. Most security officers aren't interested in breastfeeding mothers.

Reb. Mary said...

What you need to do is request a copy of the tape and market it to La Leche League as a companion DVD for their banner book: The Womanly Art of Sporting-Goods-Store Breastfeeding.

And breastfeeding laws, with clauses? for real?

Rebekah said...

>>Most security officers aren't interested in breastfeeding mothers.

Perish the thought!!!! :O

And how on earth did/do any of you breastfeed without laws? Read all about them here (you'll have to hit the timestamp to get the full URL since I still haven't figured out how to put a hyperlink in the comments):

http://breastfeeding.blog.motherwear.com/breastfeeding_and_the_law/index.html

(One of my favorites is from IL, where breastfeeding in houses of worship is required to be undertaken with reverence befitting the setting or something like that.)