More on nursing in the pool
If you're in Ontario and pay attention to the news, you've likely heard of this.
Well it's turned into a big brouhaha
Mom is denied her right to breastfeed child in public right? No, I don't think so. Depending on which side of the story you believe, or if you believe the earlier accounts from the mother which coincided with the pool owner asking her to move to the observation lounge, she was asked to move out of the pool onto another part of the deck. Now I can understand this can be a drag having set up, gotten comfortable on the steps and finally got your cranky toddler quieted down, but the pool owner is in a rock and hard place and I just see myself in that mother's shoes and not having a cow about it.
From the time I was a wee little lass growing up in Regent Park we'd spend our summers in the pool. I'm part fish, I love to swim, I do it every week, I have a pool. The number one rule for everyone was NO FOOD. That rule has since relaxed to allow water in the pool. The next rule although totally uninforcable was WAIT AN HOUR AFTER EATING. This too has been relaxed to 1/2 hour. Why? Because kids with full bellies and jumping around in moving water tend to bring up their goldfish crackers.
Now people have been fighting yours truly included, for the right to breastfeed anywhere and everywhere based on the fact that mother's milk was a precious food matched by no other. Food being the word. This is indeed food, it's not a bodily fluid that needs to be relegated to the washrooms or somewhere private. But at the same time, there are places where there is no food and drink allowed. You wouldn't go into a big giant server room to nurse your kid would you? I don't know about the rest of you, but when I let down, I sprayed, last thing I want to do is spray in a big room filled with expensive machines, especially if it was responsible for my internet connection. You would move over five steps so you didn't have to nurse in front of a fire hall.
We have the issue of a mom with a cranky toddler, who still wanted to chat with her friends and stay in the warm pool, who sat on the stairs (don't get me started on that one) high enough for her upper torso to be removed from that warm water-which to me is pointless, because I'd be freezing anyhow, and a pool owner asking her to refrain from feeding her baby in the pool. According to earlier articles, mom and pool owner agreed that she was asked to move to the observation lounge, where typically food is allowed.
Guys, we can't have this both ways, it's either food or it isn't, and frankly, I'd rather have to drag my tired behind out of the pool to a chair, wrap myself and toddler up in a towel and feed baby, than have it classified as anything else.
Food is not allowed in pools, plain and simple, it's against the law and a pool owner needs to be accountable to that. I'm not adverse to swimming in a pool of breast milk, but I am to crackers and Baby Mum Mums and formula, because if you're allowed to feed your cranky baby in the water, so am I. Anyone care to swim in a pool filled with Cheerios?
The right to breastfeed anywhere is there to protect us from people who have the minutely rare disease of having their corneas scorched be seeing a little boob.
"Sometimes women are discouraged by others from breastfeeding in public because of concerns that it is indecent. Breastfeeding is really a health issue and not one of public decency." (Ontario Human Rights Commission, policy)
"You have rights as a nursing mother. For example, you have rights to breastfeed your child in public areas. No one should prevent you from nursing your child simply because you are in a public area. They should not ask you to "cover up" or disturb you, or ask you to move to an area that is more "discreet". (Ontario Human Rights Commission, website)
No where does it say that you are allowed to nurse in places that have no food or drink laws set out by the government. One is not allowed to nurse in front of a fire hall, or pull into a disabled spot because it is the last one and your kid needs to feed. This code does not trump other laws to make us more special. Equality does not mean that we are exempt from the laws of this land, it means that they apply to us equally and we need to follow them equally.
And no where is it even remotely indicated that the pool owner was asking her to cover up or move because of discretionary issues.
It's not there for us to expect special rights from the rules designed to protect/make life easier for the public at large. Yes, breastfeeding is so simple, so pure, so wonderful, but it's a slippery slope and why should the pool owner open herself up to all sorts of criticism and complaints and possibly fines for bending the laws set out by the province for someone who doesn't want to move a few feet over?
Yes it sucks royally to be separated from your conversation with your mom friends when your kid is being cranky, but guess what? That's parenthood. Sometimes they can be soothed by a little boob, sometimes they need to be carried to a quiet place, sometimes they need to go home.
I think this is a mega mountain from a molehill. I guess I can just appreciate the pool owner's point of view that food doesn't belong in the pool. Having been in several pools at the time of a kid fouling them by bringing up snacks, lunches, breakfasts of various sorts, might do that to a person. I certainly don't think this is a human rights issue since this isn't about propiety, it's about keeping the pool clean in this instance and long term for everyone's enjoyment and that isn't such a bad thing. Judging by plenty of responses I've seen, even on Lactivist forums at Mothering, I'm not alone in this.
Another interesting blog on the topic.
http://thelactivist.blogspot.com/2007/09/breastfeeding-doesnt-give-you-right-to.html
Well it's turned into a big brouhaha
Mom is denied her right to breastfeed child in public right? No, I don't think so. Depending on which side of the story you believe, or if you believe the earlier accounts from the mother which coincided with the pool owner asking her to move to the observation lounge, she was asked to move out of the pool onto another part of the deck. Now I can understand this can be a drag having set up, gotten comfortable on the steps and finally got your cranky toddler quieted down, but the pool owner is in a rock and hard place and I just see myself in that mother's shoes and not having a cow about it.
From the time I was a wee little lass growing up in Regent Park we'd spend our summers in the pool. I'm part fish, I love to swim, I do it every week, I have a pool. The number one rule for everyone was NO FOOD. That rule has since relaxed to allow water in the pool. The next rule although totally uninforcable was WAIT AN HOUR AFTER EATING. This too has been relaxed to 1/2 hour. Why? Because kids with full bellies and jumping around in moving water tend to bring up their goldfish crackers.
Now people have been fighting yours truly included, for the right to breastfeed anywhere and everywhere based on the fact that mother's milk was a precious food matched by no other. Food being the word. This is indeed food, it's not a bodily fluid that needs to be relegated to the washrooms or somewhere private. But at the same time, there are places where there is no food and drink allowed. You wouldn't go into a big giant server room to nurse your kid would you? I don't know about the rest of you, but when I let down, I sprayed, last thing I want to do is spray in a big room filled with expensive machines, especially if it was responsible for my internet connection. You would move over five steps so you didn't have to nurse in front of a fire hall.
We have the issue of a mom with a cranky toddler, who still wanted to chat with her friends and stay in the warm pool, who sat on the stairs (don't get me started on that one) high enough for her upper torso to be removed from that warm water-which to me is pointless, because I'd be freezing anyhow, and a pool owner asking her to refrain from feeding her baby in the pool. According to earlier articles, mom and pool owner agreed that she was asked to move to the observation lounge, where typically food is allowed.
Guys, we can't have this both ways, it's either food or it isn't, and frankly, I'd rather have to drag my tired behind out of the pool to a chair, wrap myself and toddler up in a towel and feed baby, than have it classified as anything else.
Food is not allowed in pools, plain and simple, it's against the law and a pool owner needs to be accountable to that. I'm not adverse to swimming in a pool of breast milk, but I am to crackers and Baby Mum Mums and formula, because if you're allowed to feed your cranky baby in the water, so am I. Anyone care to swim in a pool filled with Cheerios?
The right to breastfeed anywhere is there to protect us from people who have the minutely rare disease of having their corneas scorched be seeing a little boob.
"Sometimes women are discouraged by others from breastfeeding in public because of concerns that it is indecent. Breastfeeding is really a health issue and not one of public decency." (Ontario Human Rights Commission, policy)
"You have rights as a nursing mother. For example, you have rights to breastfeed your child in public areas. No one should prevent you from nursing your child simply because you are in a public area. They should not ask you to "cover up" or disturb you, or ask you to move to an area that is more "discreet". (Ontario Human Rights Commission, website)
No where does it say that you are allowed to nurse in places that have no food or drink laws set out by the government. One is not allowed to nurse in front of a fire hall, or pull into a disabled spot because it is the last one and your kid needs to feed. This code does not trump other laws to make us more special. Equality does not mean that we are exempt from the laws of this land, it means that they apply to us equally and we need to follow them equally.
And no where is it even remotely indicated that the pool owner was asking her to cover up or move because of discretionary issues.
It's not there for us to expect special rights from the rules designed to protect/make life easier for the public at large. Yes, breastfeeding is so simple, so pure, so wonderful, but it's a slippery slope and why should the pool owner open herself up to all sorts of criticism and complaints and possibly fines for bending the laws set out by the province for someone who doesn't want to move a few feet over?
Yes it sucks royally to be separated from your conversation with your mom friends when your kid is being cranky, but guess what? That's parenthood. Sometimes they can be soothed by a little boob, sometimes they need to be carried to a quiet place, sometimes they need to go home.
I think this is a mega mountain from a molehill. I guess I can just appreciate the pool owner's point of view that food doesn't belong in the pool. Having been in several pools at the time of a kid fouling them by bringing up snacks, lunches, breakfasts of various sorts, might do that to a person. I certainly don't think this is a human rights issue since this isn't about propiety, it's about keeping the pool clean in this instance and long term for everyone's enjoyment and that isn't such a bad thing. Judging by plenty of responses I've seen, even on Lactivist forums at Mothering, I'm not alone in this.
Another interesting blog on the topic.
http://thelactivist.blogspot.com/2007/09/breastfeeding-doesnt-give-you-right-to.html