Posted on 04/30/2005 5:56:16 AM PDT by tuffydoodle
Nursing mom gets unwelcome reception
FW mall says security firm made a mistake
10:37 PM CDT on Friday, April 29, 2005
By KARIN KELLY / WFAA-TV
For many mothers, breastfeeding is the most natural thing in the world.
But it turned into an embarassing situation that angered a North Texas woman this week after she said a mall security guard harassed her.
Adrian Sparks was shopping at Hulen Mall Thursday, and decided to discreetly nurse her eight-month-old baby under a blanket in the food court.
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Karin Kelly reports "The security guard came over and asked me to stop, and either go to the restroom or to leave," Sparks said.
The guard told Sparks a food court customer had complained, even though Sparks was covered with a blanket.
"I told him it was perfectly legal for me to nurse my child," Sparks said. "And that they sell clothes more revealing that what I was doing right here."
Of course, it is legal - but soon another manager approached.
"He said, 'well those rules don't apply because we're a private facility,'" she recalled.
Friends who breastfeed have rushed in for support.
"The human race wouldn't exist without breast milk," said nursing mom Rachel Tarbutton.
Some are members of La Leche League, an organization that supports mother's milk for health and bonding benefits..
"To know that she is getting everything she needs from me, from my body, is (important)," Sparks said.
Mall officials said the incident was not normal procedure, and that t heir new security company made a mistake.
"That is not a Hulen Mall policy," said manager Kevin Davies. " We support what she was doing, we support moms and all of our customers, and feel badly this occurred."
That's not all that reassuring for Sparks, though.
"I don't think I'll ever be able to shop there again, because I was just so upset about it," she said.
Raw and bloody? Geesh! You should have stopped breast-feeding when they got teeth!
"That doesn't happen for at least four hours."
You are telling other people how their body works??? I could feed my baby then 10 minutes later, if I heard a crying baby, didn't even have to be my own, my milk would let down.
When you have a brand new baby and your nipples aren't used to breast feeding, they can get very sore, painful and bloody.
You don't have kids, do you?
We were discussing when they become full and painful, not what happens when you hear another baby crying. And where were you when you had just fed your baby and heard another one crying? At the mall????
"It's ok. I used to make all kinds of arrogant assumptions about parents and parenting...and then I became one."
Smartest post today.
Just as you pulled your car over, I used to go out to the parking lot at the mall and sit in my car with some relaxing music and nurse. I can even remember one early evening at a Christmas. Sitting in the car and nursing, the sky was filled with stars, and I had Christmas music on the radio. Much better than all that noise at the mall. Maybe that's why mine are musicians and into cars. LOL.
WRONG!!!! I have three - including twins which I breast-fed at the same time, so you see I do know something about it. My my, aren't you quick to judge what you think you know about someone!
I give up. You're too stupid to reason with.
It seems to me that over the past 20 to 40 years we, as a culture, have forgotten one very important concept that, as I recall, we use to understand. "Mind your own damn business."
It seems that today everyone thinks everything that goes on is their business. The Federal Government certainly sees EVERYTHING as its business, the limitations of the Constitution be damned.
Do cops ever get called and say, "Sorry, we can't get involved in that, it's none of our business."? For example, when a small child acts up in school.
How is it that we have come to believe that everything is everybodies business? Maybe, just maybe, if there is a woman breastfeeding in the next table IT'S NONE OF YOUR DAMN BUSINESS!! Maybe, just maybe, if someone is doing something you don't like IT'S NONE OF YOUR DAMN BUSINESS!! Maybe, just maybe, people who complain about things should be told to MIND YOUR OWN DAMN BUSINESS, rather than being treated as if being a complainer gives you priority over all others.
I think socialism and mass media have turned us into one huge 'small town' of busy bodies who hate other peoples' freedom.
Well, I have some things to do, so I'm going to go mind my own business.
Why are you calling me stupid? Because I breast-fed without doing it in public or because you have lost the argument? Or are you saying I didn't breast-feed my babies correctly?
Do you consider it a problem to want to feed your baby in private? If so, why?
Apparently not enough? :)
It's not like forever.
Sheesh!
If you can't make small sacrifices for 18 months, what will you do when you are faced with huge sacrifices?
Public places are public spaces.
What goes on is everyone's business.
You want privacy? Take it home.
"Public places are public spaces.
What goes on is everyone's business.
You want privacy? Take it home."
See, you are a PERFECT example of what I'm talking about. This is the EXACT socialistic attitude I'm talking about. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE ILLUSTRATION. Where on earth did you get the idea that just because it happens in 'public' that makes it everyone's business? THAT, MY FRIEND, IS SOCIALISM PLAYED OUT IN OUR CULTURE. That is also the attitude that is the foundation for all attacks against freedom.
Wow!
Would you say the same about watching a baby drinking a bottle? It's no different and in no way comes anywhere near a man whipping out his penis and peeing in public.
The ones complaining about public breastfeeding probably have no problem with women dressed in such a manner that their breasts are clearly exposed but covered enough not to be "indecent exposure".
ping
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