Posted on 08/29/2007 6:18:24 PM PDT by YoungKentuckyConservative
In June, Brooke Ryan walked into a Nicholasville Road Applebee's restaurant to celebrate an anniversary lunch with her children.
She walked out humiliated, in tears and without the lunch.
But the incident over breast-feeding her 7-month-old son at Applebee's has spurred the soft-spoken 34-year-old to start a public awareness campaign on the rights of breast-feeding women in Kentucky.
"On a small scale, I want Applebee's to change its policy," Ryan said. "On a large scale ... I want breast-feeding to be accepted."
The dispute with Applebee's began June 14. Ryan chose a booth in the back of the restaurant away from other customers. When her baby, Michael, got hungry, she began to nurse him discreetly, she said.
But a waitress came over and said that if she wanted to breast-feed, she had to cover the baby with a blanket. Ryan said it was so hot that she didn't have a blanket. The waitress then repeated her request. Ryan said she then asked to see the manager and handed him a copy of the 2006 Kentucky law that prohibits interference with a woman breast-feeding her baby in public.
The manager said he knew about the law but a customer had complained about indecent exposure, so she had to cover the baby with a blanket.
Ryan left as her food came, to nurse her baby in the car.
Her lawyer wrote a letter to Thomas & King, the company that operates Applebee's in Central Kentucky. They got no response. After a second letter, a Thomas & King lawyer said the restaurant chain would consider keeping blankets in the restaurant so that breast-feeding women could cover themselves.
"That's like telling Rosa Parks she still had to sit in the back of the bus, but we'll give her a blanket to make her more comfortable," Ryan said.
When contacted yesterday, Mike Scanlon, president of Thomas & King, said he didn't know about the incident. However, he called the Herald-Leader back to say that Applebee's had no policy against breast-feeding.
"It is perfectly legal to breast-feed in public and we support that," Scanlon said. "I'm not sure the manager said cover the baby's head, I think he said cover yourself modestly. This was by no means intended as interference, but a request to do it modestly, which I believe is an appropriate response."
Ryan says that as an experienced breast-feeder, she is extremely modest, and, in that instance, made sure that she was facing into the corner.
"Some women think it's fine to cover up with a blanket, but a woman shouldn't be forced to," said her husband, Michael Ryan.
Sen. Tom Buford, R-Nicholasville, who sponsored the breast-feeding protection bill, agrees.
"She was not treated right under the new law," he said. "There should have been no comment made to her at all; the restaurant overstepped its boundaries. There's no way they can explain their way out of this."
Thirty-nine states, including Kentucky, allow women to breast-feed in any public or private location.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends exclusive breast-feeding for about the first six months and support for breast-feeding for the first year and beyond as long as mutually desired by mother and child. But according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, only 11 percent of mothers meet the six-month mark. Thirty percent breast-feed exclusively for the first three months. Kentucky's rates are 7.5 percent and 25 percent, respectively, according to a 2007 report.
Scanlon suggested that Ryan had an "agenda."
"I note with interest that she had a copy of the statute with her," he said. "I'm glad to let this become a matter that we can all learn from."
But if all Ryan wanted going into Applebee's was an anniversary lunch, she may indeed have an agenda now.
August is World Breast-feeding Awareness Month, and Ryan has organized two related public events:
• A "Nurse-In" at the children's play area at Fayette Mall from 1-3 p.m. Saturday. Ryan says the mall is not a target, but has a place for kids to play.
• From noon to 2 p.m. Sept. 8, she is holding a "Nurse Out" with posters and breast-feeding in front of the Applebee's on Nicholasville Road.
She's also asking for a public apology from Applebee's and training for its employees about the rights of breast-feeding mothers. Some day, she says, she would like to see the international breast-feeding symbol of a mother and child in every restaurant that supports the practice.
"I'm not trying to be provocative," she said. "I want to teach."
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The management at this restaurant is lucky this wasn't my family and wife, as I imagine the impending scene would have turned a lot of customers out the door. I'm not one to shy from confrontation.
It would seem appropriate to me that Applebees' Executive Management needs to hear from good folks like those Freepin' around on here to ensure they understand that "normal" people that "eat" at their restaurant also believe in family and our children's necessary requirement for nourishment ... much of which is lacking in Similac and other engineered foods.
My wife managed to dig up a couple of useful email addresses. FREEP AWAY!!!!!!!
mscanlon@tandk.com
feedback@tandk.com
swarr@tandk.com
It would seem to me that the woman was trolling for a law suite. The kid is seven months old, ween it lady.
Cover the udder and nobody has a problem.
Can’t your wife use a pump and take the milk with her in a bottle?
Every breastfeeding mother should carry slips of paper with the area laws printed on it, just in case. And seven months old is still a baby.
In keeping with the Applebee tradition if she had covered her breast with honey and barbeque sauce things would have been OK. (How can anyone eat their junk?
Why the use of scare quotes around "eat"?
This is so strange. Thirty years ago I breastfed in probably all the major chains, and never had a problem.
Of course, I never exposed myself, always had a blanket, sat in the back, didn’t make anything of it.
Now all this controversy just amazes me.
FWIW, my children hated bottles, never took anything from a bottle. Seriously, not a joke. Some kids just don’t like the artificial nipples.
Not all babies can go from breast to bottle with ease; it can be confusing.
The fact that this person had a copy of the bill, right there in her hot little hand, speaks more to either her exhibitionism OR her desire to get attention by causing trouble.
I’m all for breast feeding done properly.
bump
Ryan said she then asked to see the manager and handed him a copy of the 2006 Kentucky law that prohibits interference with a woman breast-feeding her baby in public.
It would seem to me that the woman was trolling for a law suit.”
_______________
That’s how it appeared to me as well. Hopefully a jury will see it the same way. What is it with these women? They act like mega-attention-seekers.
Breastfeed in the bathroom. Heck, pissing is a normal bodily function, but I don’t do it at the booth.
Modesty is appropriate. Someone walking around with a copy of the public law is NOT just there for a meal. I would bet nothing she said about the meal is accurate either.
Appleby has marginal food, but there is nothing wrong with their behavior. Sorry, but other folks have rights too. That includes a meal without watching someone making a display of herself.
Applebee's lost me when they got rid of their onion peels and horseradish dipping sauce in favor of gourmet onion rings that are harder than stones. Some of their other items they changed too. The food stinks.
I know a girl - actually, I am related to her, unfortunately, who would whip out a tit anywhere and everywhere, and proclaim it as HER RIGHT.
It made me really uncomfortable.
But if that is what you want...
Eventually, even my liberal dumb-ass brother divorced her. He couldn’t stand the constant drama.
She brought a copy of the law, but not a shawl so she could cover herself? No sympathy here.
Do you carry around your driver's license, and/or a concealed carry permit?
Would you eat your Bloomin' Onion or Ribs in the bathroom?
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