God Damn Job, Now, Finally, In Its Right Forum, So Everyone Whose Brain Has Been

[G.C.R]

I have this ace job, where I have heaps of free time. As long as I keep checking that the tapes havent stopped every now and then, I let them roll until they're finished and have that time to do what I like. What I really would like is to finish my CRIT assignment, but for some reason I just cannot concentrate on it while I'm working. Its pretty frustrating.

[girl]

So, today at work, I'm talking to a customer about skincare for the teenage girl she has with her. She also has a toddler in a stroller, I'm not good with ages, but he was old enough to talk, and right in the middle of the conversation, she squats down near the stroller, lifts her t-shirt over the toddler's head and starts to breastfeed him. WTF, people?

[Andrew_TSKS]

People are breastfeeding later and later these days, or at least I think that's what's going on based on the fact that I hear stories like that more and more often.

I know personally that if I could remember sucking milk out of my mother's tits I would be way more demented than I already am, and since I can remember being 2 years old reasonably well, I feel like 2 has to be the cutoff. But I hear about people continuing to do it on an occasional basis right til they send their 5 year olds off to school--or even longer. And that WIGS ME OUT.

[girl]

He was old, yes. But also, he wasn't fussing at all and she was in the middle of a conversation with me, for fuck's sake. I mean, at least finish talking and excuse yourself. It's been crazy people all week this week, so I suppose I shouldn't be surprised.

edit: also, I'm not an expert, but I would think that once your child has teeth, he's probably ready to eat other things.

[Ignatius]

I have a friend who ate breastmilk until he was five.  He had a younger brother, it made him jealous or something, and his ma thought it's be all right if they shared.  Anywho, he turned out AWESOME and not demented.

[Greg Nog]

People are breastfeeding later and later these days

I don't think that's a big trend; from what I can tell, there's always been a pretty huge range in when ladies decide to start the wean.

For the record, I fully support mamas unleashing their mammaries on the unsuspecting public at every possible opportunity.

[Ignatius]

Just imagine if the feeding was a boys' job!

[Thermofusion]

I'm cool with the concept of breastfeeding out in the open, but the prude/man of polite manners within me says you should always say "excuse me" before excreting bodily fluids of any type in public.

[Andrew_TSKS]

Technically, Thermo, this would be "secreting" rather than "excreting", since breast milk is not waste.

Ignatius, your friend does not have the same mom that I have. I don't know if, had I some other perhaps less insane/bitchy mom, whether being able to remember breastfeeding would be no big deal. As it is, I can tell you, it would be a big fucking deal. I'd be in a straitjacket in a padded room somewhere telling a therapist about it. And the therapist would be in another room looking at me through a shatterproof window.

[Greg Nog]

We won't send you on a trip down mammary lane, then.  Keep it like a secretion.

[dumbfish]

Oh, Nog.

My inappropriate nursing story: A friend has Alabama relatives. Eating dinner down there with them, he noticed that the four year-old wasn't eating. The kid was sitting in his mother's lap, playing with some toys for most of the meal. Dan figured the kid had already eaten. Then, kiddo started getting fussy, so his mom asked him what he wanted.
"Mama, titty!"

[YojimboMonkey]

He was old, yes. But also, he wasn't fussing at all and she was in the middle of a conversation with me, for fuck's sake. I mean, at least finish talking and excuse yourself. It's been crazy people all week this week, so I suppose I shouldn't be surprised.

edit: also, I'm not an expert, but I would think that once your child has teeth, he's probably ready to eat other things.

Babies start getting their teeth in at around 6 months.  Up to a year of age, a mother's milk is all the nourishment a baby needs, though of course if someone wants to supplement that of course they can.

And to all of you, it is certainly none of your business how long a woman chooses to nurse her child.  I mean, a woman can do what she wants with her body unless it involves feeding her child?  WTF?  I advise you to take a look at La Lache League International's web site and educate yourselves.

[Andrew_TSKS]

She's welcome to nurse her baby until it's 8 years old if she's OK with me thinking that's sick and wrong.

[dumbfish]

It's no one else's right but mine to determine how often, and how publicly, I am to air out my wang.

[YojimboMonkey]

If you're using that wang to feed a child, it's not the airing out that I'm going to have issues with.

[Thermofusion]

My problem remains not with public breastfeeding (something I'm cool with and support, even if I will openly admit it still makes me feel a little uncomfortable...just something I'll have to get over) but the fact that she didn't offer an "excuse me" or something of the like.  From the way girl described it, she just flowed right into breastfeedin' right in the middle of the conversation, which seems kind of rude on a couple different levels. 

[YojimboMonkey]

I can dig that--though the discussion had veered away from that--but to play Devil's Advocate here, it was probably an "automatic pilot" kind of thing, where it is just so normal for her to stick the kid on the boob that it didn't necessarily occur to her how it might make someone else uncomfortable. 

[girl]

Thermo's right. It's not that it made me uncomfortable, it's that it was really rude. It would have been almost as rude if she took a call on her cell phone mid sentence. (Also, squatting down in the middle of the store in a mall is not the proper place for breastfeeding. I don't really want to start a debate about it, but it's just not. I mean, you wouldn't pull stuff out of your bag and make a sandwich in the middle of the floor, would you? Not if you were a sane person. You'd go sit down somewhere. I'd say the same rules should apply.)

[YojimboMonkey]

Chris, nothing but love here, but you (and some others) commented on the appropriate age limit for breastfeeding a child and I took issue with that and responded to that.  Then later I gave a hypothetical excuse for the lady who breastfed her child in front of you.  If you have a problem with the venue and the situation, that's fine, you were there and I wasn't.  I'll take your word for it that it was rude.  But it really is none of your business how long somebody breastfeeds her child, your comment started off a series of ignorant comments, and I attempted to stop that.

[girl]

No, we're good. 

[Andrew_TSKS]

I guess I'm the one who isn't good.

[dumbfish]

Yoj, do you not think that there is a point that continued breastfeeding would negatively affect the child's development? If a good friend said she wanted to breastfeed her kid until he was 12, you'd think, "Sounds strange, but not my business" and say nothing?
Assuming you think 12-- an age where I recall masturbating and studying dad's Playboys quite closely-- is too old, now all we're talking about is where the line sits. Andrew's suggesting that kids old enough to remember it might be too old. I might go higher-- probably before kid starts school, certainly before the kid's having active sexual thoughts-- but certainly there's a point where I think it's a bad idea.
No one's suggesting legislation setting such a limit, so I don't see a need for the high and mighty tone. Pretty sure we're all pro-mom (in the general sense-- may have to exclude Andrew's) here.

[girl]

No, we're good. 

(you're allowed a different opinion from Jim, you know.) 

[girl]

that page break can be such a sneaky fucker, you know?

[YojimboMonkey]

Yoj, do you not think that there is a point that continued breastfeeding would negatively affect the child's development?

Sure.  I think my second son was nursed a little too long, and I discussed it with my wife quite a bit back then.  I think I should be allowed in that decision.  I don't think you should be.

If a good friend said she wanted to breastfeed her kid until he was 12, you'd think, "Sounds strange, but not my business" and say nothing?

Do you mind telling me where a good friend came into the discussion?  Andrew said that it WIGS HIM OUT that a hypothetical complete stranger might breastfeed a child past the age of 2.  You told a second-hand story.  Chris said that as a general rule she thought that a kid with teeth ought to be eating something else.  If I had a good friend who was considering nursing to such an extreme age, as a good friend it might behoove me to say something to her.  But..

Assuming you think 12-- an age where I recall masturbating and studying dad's Playboys quite closely-- is too old, now all we're talking about is where the line sits. Andrew's suggesting that kids old enough to remember it might be too old. I might go higher-- probably before kid starts school, certainly before the kid's having active sexual thoughts-- but certainly there's a point where I think it's a bad idea.
No one's suggesting legislation setting such a limit, so I don't see a need for the high and mighty tone. Pretty sure we're all pro-mom (in the general sense-- may have to exclude Andrew's) here.

No?  Andrew said "cutoff," you said "inappropriate," yadda yadda.  You say that you're not trying to legislate anything, but you want to figure out "where the line sits?"  What line are you trying to define if not the line where you can say, "that is wrong?"  Maybe you don't want to legislate it but you want to judge, and you want to point and laugh.  To make a similar comment to Andrew's, maybe you have a right to say "that's fucked up, that WIGS ME OUT, haha look at those backwards Alabama people and their mama titty kid," but I also have a right to call you an asshole for saying it.

And I don't think I've ever been high and mighty but you guys are pushing a button of mine.