Welcome to this weekend’s Open Thread! Today’s host is LongOtter, shared by Nathan Rupert on flickr.
Please feel free to use this thread to natter about anything your heart desires. Is there anything great happening in your life? Anything you want to get off your chest? Reading a good book (or a bad one)? Anything in the news that you’d like to discuss? What have you created lately? Commiserations, felicitations, temptations, contemplations, speculations?
Categories: Life
Soggy here, innit? 
In memoriam: Diana Rigg 
Getting out the ‘yes’ 
100 books by women in 2016 
Hoyden About Town 
So, how about public breastfeeding controversy #945? Or is this just a Queensland story? http://www.couriermail.com.au/questnews/moreton/breastfeeding-mums-hit-back-with-protest-at-bribie-island-aquatic-centre/story-fn8m0yu3-1226556092291
I love otters 🙂 My opinion on the whole breastfeeding thing is if your baby is hungry feel him. I don’t see the need to make such a big deal out of simply feeding your baby. Now I do think you should cover up. Not everybody is comfortable with seeing a breast and I think that is where the controversy comes from.
Tanya, it seems to me that the ones making “such a big deal out of simply feeding your baby” are the ones who are telling women to stop doing it where it’s easiest and most sociable with friends and family, the ones who are insisting that breastfeeding mothers go somewhere secluded/dark/cramped instead.
I particularly liked that breastfeeding in public story (no – not just a Queensland story!) given that you can pretty much see the same amount of breast while a baby is feeding as you can in many bikinis. Realistically, if you have a problem with seeing a bit of breast, you really shouldn’t be anywhere near a swimming pool. Or the Big Day Out, as it happens. Plenty of boobage everywhere yesterday. I hope they were all using sunscreen.
Yes. The breastfeeding woman should cover up. Let’s keep uncovered boobs where they belong. In porn. For male gratification only. In this way, boobs can keep their status as objects to be sexually appreciated by men. It makes no sense at all to have society see open breastfeeding as normal and natural and necessary.
Also re the covering up thing – I had two of my children at the height of summer. You get sweaty enough as is with a hot little body pressed against yours. Putting a shawl or similar over the top is not a nice thing to have to do.
Fixed that for you. Now we are in furious agreement.
Oh, that is definitely where some of the controversy comes from. The solution is very simple, and puts the burden exactly where it belongs. People who don’t like seeing a baby eat are welcome to turn their heads. If they can’t do that, they are welcome to put a light blanket over their head.
I believe in Canada, anyone can go topless in public (it was a sex discrimination case), and I’d like the same standard in Australia. It might slow down a few people who are horrified to discover women have breasts! With nipples! All the time, not just for SexyTimes! And turns out, we are mammals, animals who breastfeed their young.
I think the only reason people need cover up is to avoid sunburn. DtJ are having a nurse-in outside the Sunrise studios on Monday because of David Koch’s remarks the other day about this story, if anyone’s in Sydney and breastfeeding.
I concur with this take on the public breastfeeding issue.
Both my nurselings have objected to my efforts to cover them to shield them from sun or wind while feeding. I always suspect people who advocate ‘covering up’ are not coming from a position of experience.
I’m also wary of my language when discussing public breastfeeding. If we just talk about babies’ right to eat then we leave breastfeeding 2/3/4/whatever year olds and their mothers vulnerable to criticism: “It’s not like they NEED it!” etc.
I like the Canadian solution.
I’m keeping my bingo card at the ready…
My child’s first birthday party involving other children (and parents, we’re not yet at the age and stage of drop-offs) is tomorrow . He has imbued the party with the magical power of making him 3. Right now though, he tells me he is 6.
The trend in the weather is reminding me of the summer he was born, unfortunately. But the actual party is in danger of being rained out.
Re. all the thinking about birthday parties, a friend and I are thinking of writing a book of treasure hunts, because we’ve been inventing some not-standard ones for our kids the last couple of years. Idea is to divide roughly by age (a hunt for 3-4 year olds, 5-7 year olds) plus a couple of other categories (hunt for a small space, for a public park, for parents who like to get involved/be left alone). Some templates at the back for people to copy maps, dragons, etc., and fill in the blanks. Anyone think they would buy a book like that?
Mum and I went to see War Horse at the State Theatre today. It was bloody wonderful! I enjoyed Spielberg’s film but found the play much more powerful (and free of the standard Spielberg sentimentality, always a bonus). The story was tighter but the impact really came from the presentation, with the amazing Handspring puppets, lighting and sound effects. I thoroughly recommend it.
Yes, Orlando, I would buy a book like that. I did a treasure hunt for Mr7’s birthday party last year, which was a fantastic idea, poorly executed. But I learned a lot from it. 🙂 I’d love to have some inspiration from somewhere else – especially if it comes with the traps for new players identified!
The funniest thing, now I think about it, about the whole “you should be more disceeeeet about breastfeeding in public” thing, is the number of times I’ve breastfed publicly (eg in shopping centres) and other people have not realised. They often just think you’re holding your baby. Bottle feeding is in my opinion much more attention-catching, the contents needs to be prepared (temperature checked at least) and it’s obvious to everyone when the baby is eating.
I’d have bought a treasure hunt book too. We did a treasure hunt for my oldest’s pirate themed 4th birthday party, at one point a remote control dinosaur emerged from the garden as the kids came past causing much shrieking (it was a birthday present, that’s how we gave it to him) and the hunt ended with digging up a timber box full of chocolate coins.
Dad update – back at the rehab hospital, lithium toxicity issues all cleared up but new medication regime not yet settled- not sure what will happen with that, knee doing well – still in the splint but the physios have been working on getting it bending. So that’s all quite hopeful.
Violet is hanging up her socks. End of an era.
I would be interested in a book like that. You could take it up to late teens or even adults too. Mr angharad did a treasure hunt for one of my birthdays before we had children. He got up and said he was going out for milk, and after a while I got a phone call saying he had been kidnapped by aliens. It had sound effects and everything :-). I ended up traipsing all through the botanic gardens and CBD making phone calls and finding hidden envelopes, and eventually acquiring the layby receipt to pick up my present. He put a lot of work into it, and it inspired a lot of copycat attempts among my friends who were very impressed.
Hi, long time no write. Having a bad day where I’m a little ill and unaccountably grumpy, and I just wrote a long empassioned screed in defence of public breastfeeding for this thread. I’m sitting on it for now as pile on guidelines suddenly occurred to me and I’m not in a patient frame of mind to read back through the guidelines with care. So meanwhile halloo all, I’m enjoying the cooler weather in Sydney, and I may be back with said empassioned screed later on when I can check I’m unlikely to regret it.
We did a cross-suburb treasure hunt at Christmas, with the participants ranging in age from 9 to 67. It was great fun and I’m sure there would be interest for a book.
I can’t decide if this is a spooky coincidence or if I saw a ref to this discussion in a link or a tweet – I had a sudden brainwave to arrange a treasure hunt for my 4yo nephew just yesterday – and now I see this? Is it zeitgeist? Is it telepathy? Coincidence? Prior Knowledge? (No, NO, Probably, Possibly).
Would maybe buy a book but I admit I googled and found some ideas for free, so might not fork out cash.
Shame on the ABC for its coverage of the breastfeeding protests in front of Channel 7 this morning:
Because, sure, it’s just those pesky women’s opinion that it’s legal for them to breastfeed in public, and not a fact. Let’s not get any annoying facts into a he-said-she-said story.
The rest of the article contains several other headdesking moments.
Aqua: well, yes, it’s not as if fact-checking should be a basic component of journalism or anything like that.
Went and saw Les Misérables last night with the family: we all found it very moving (enjoying it seems the wrong word with all those deaths).
On our way out of the shopping centre where the cineplex lives, our normal exit route was blocked by police tape and police cars, so we had to take the longer way out. We saw police officers with their crime scene gloves examining the boot of a car. There’s some headlines this morning about a body found at the shopping centre, so I’m presuming that’s what they were examining. Disconcerting, to say the least.