Comments about ‘A mother is asked to leave a New York store for breastfeeding in public. She comes back the next day with 15 nursing moms.’

Return to article »

Published: Sunday, July 13 2014 12:30 p.m. MDT

  • Oldest first
  • Newest first
  • Most recommended
Franklin, IN


Thanks mom for not putting my nourishment up for debate...

Your Son

Third try screen name
Mapleton, UT

Being asked to cover up is quite a different matter than banning nursing.
Most women know how to nurse without being immodest. People around her are oblivious to what she is doing.
But some women have to exert their rights in such a way that it makes those around them uncomfortable. Militant right-seekers have presented themselves on a variety of issues, including breast-feeding. In fact, these displays are an act of protest in themselves. It is part of the strategy.
Thus, we will go on being assaulted for the cause, using babies as props.
Me, I prefer modesty.
Next up? For millennia men and women did not have restrooms; they relieved themselves wherever they happened to be. It is very natural. So....


I will never understand this. There's no harm in using a privacy blanket or a shawl, and yes I'm a breastfeeding mother. It is super awkward to see other people's private parts. To a baby it's just food, but that's not the way breasts are viewed by the rest of society, and honest people will acknowledge that. Have the courtesy to bring a cover, and stop using your baby as an excuse to flash innocent passersby. It's not right to blame other people for your lack of impropriety/preparedness. Even when I don't look, just noticing a 13 year old staring at some woman's exposed boob is super awkward!

Utah, UT

In further headlines... business owners no longer have rights over their private property...

Hamilton, IL

I nursed my bAbies but never felt the need to draw attention to myself. I understand their right to do it, but I personally don't want to see some woman's boob hanging out either. Experienced that in Portland. There is absolutely nothing wrong with a little self respect and modesty

water rocket
Magna, UT

I support the act of breast feeding as a valuable bonding experience between mother and child, but the mother should exercise modesty and discretion. A mother flaunting her enlarged milk filled breasts in public while feeding her baby is gross and shabby behavior, IMHO. cover it up, for crying out loud!

South Jordan, UT

It never fails that those who think mothers should always be able to cover up or leave or use a bathroom are those who don't actually breastfeed. Most babies fiddle with something while eating, including pulling a cover off. It's summer time, it's hotter and uncomfortable under a cover for both mother and child. I've done the bathroom thing because I was too embarrassed as a young mother to feed in public, but I was also pretty grossed out to feel like that was the only place I had. It should be considered natural and normal. There are plenty of historical images, both paintings and photographic evidence that our ancestors didn't have this issue. If nobody is objecting to bikinis, the back of a baby's head is a lot more innocent and normal.

Salt Lake City, Utah

@ Reflectere: Businesses are not private property in the same sense that a home is private property. When a business owner applies for a business license, they agree to follow the laws governing business ownership. Businesses cannot ban otherwise legal behavior, nor may they allow otherwise illegal behavior.

@ Demisana: Agreed. Nursing mothers show a lot less than many others and should not be treated negatively for providing for their children as God intended.

Twin Lights
Louisville, KY

Most of the breastfeeding moms I know successfully breastfeed without many issues. They can be reasonably modest (even in a very public place) and work things out. I don’t know why it’s such an issue for these folks.

Why must we make this so hard and turn it into something to rage about? Is it really about breastfeeding or is it about something else?

Hamilton, IL

Perhaps you didn't get the part of my comment where I was a nursing mother. I had six and managed to do it with modesty and dignity. Some people just like to push the limits in everything.

Quiet Neighborhood, UT

Each business should keep a blanket for the mom that needs one. If mom chooses to breast feed without a blanket, that is her right. I will then just stare at mom. If she accuses me of being improper, I will just tell her I am admiring the natural act of breastfeeding. Urinating is natural Demisana, but I would never get away with that in public. There are too many people addicted to attention.

orem, UT


Nursing is natural but covering up or if you can't, finding a private place is appropriate - and I was a nursing mom many times. Yes, some babies cannot abide being under a blanket because it is hot or they just don't like it, I had a few like that so we found a private place. No big deal. I think I knew every public bathroom in my county. It made for good stories later. :)

I just don't see this as a hill to die on and I am a strong advocate for breast feeding.

Farmington, UT

@ Kalindra-- What ever happened to modesty, respect for others, a sense of propriety and the desire to not call unneeded attention to our own anatomy?

One of the problems I see is teenage boys are either very curious or extremely uncomfortable witnessing this "natural act." And the fact that Hollywood has zero morals is no reason to abandon common decency in the name of demanded rights.

Nursing is a private matter, just like hygiene issues that fortunately still remain so. Natural does not equate to public.


When you start eating your meals in public bathrooms, you can start equating eating with urinating.

The reason women have bigger breasts than men is so they can feed and care for their babies.

How interesting, in a paper and a state that scream so loudly about "family values," to see so many people made so uncomfortable by nature as God intended it.

Tooele, UT

Re: ". . . came back the next day with 15 other nursing mothers for a 'nurse-in' . . . ."

I guess she showed them, huh?

These callow, exhibitionist activists were not standing up for freedom. Rather, they were standing up for a perceived "right" to exercise control over others and extort special treatment for themselves. Nursing bare in a public is no more natural than urinating or excreting bare in public.

It's only the accident of their date and place of birth that compels these controlling women to force their views on those around them through this immature, iconoclastic public display, rather than through the intelligence or security service of some national socialist or bolshevik organization.

Control over others is their issue. Not nursing.

A Guy With A Brain
Enid, OK

Breastfeeding: no problem with that. If that's what you choose and it works for you, great.

Breastfeeding in public: tacky.

Salt Lake City, UT

Let me get this straight: A company can buy space, improve it, pay to stock it, employ it, advertise it and light it..but can't establish it's own policies

UT Brit
London, England


"I think I knew every public bathroom in my county"

I would be appalled to think of my wife feeding our child in a bathroom. I certainly would not bring a meal in there and start eating.

to comment

About comments