Does this baby deserve dinner? | PassiveAggressiveNotes.com

#1 liddy

mmmm…that chef’s hat implies this is really an upscale milk room!!

Apr 7, 2011 at 10:21 pm rating: 12 small thumbs up

reply to this comment

#2 Astounder

I’m Team Mom for this one, sorry Bitter Submitter.

Apr 7, 2011 at 10:25 pm rating: 85 small thumbs up

reply to this comment

#2.1 JetJackson

Sorry, team submitter on this one. The guilt-trip picture and rhetorical question… totally unnecessary and potentially divisive like the blurb says.

Apr 8, 2011 at 12:21 am rating: 64
#2.2 The Elf

Team needs to make a phone call. You aren’t using that room for the entire work day (and if you are, see your doctor) and if you do need to use it while I am in the room making a phone call, I’ll most likely leave. You can ask me to leave too, for privacy.

I support the idea of having a place to use a breast pump or feed the baby, assuming the office has nursing moms on staff, but I do not support the idea of rooms set aside for ONLY that purpose no matter if it is in use or not. Privacy is precious around here, and I’d like to make a damn 5 minute phone call without the entire office hearing why I am going to the doctor!

Apr 8, 2011 at 7:52 am rating: 71
#2.3 Who? Me?

@The Elf, you said you’ll “most likely leave”. Exactly. “Most likely”. Which means that on some “very important calls”, you’ll ask for “just 5 more minutes” of a room that you’ve squatted, and then, guess what, you’ll lose track of the time.

Multiply that attitude times all of the other clever non-lactating employees who have discovered “this wonderful room that is always empty” and you get a sense of how frequently the room is not available to the poor schlups for whom the room is “reserved”.

BTW, where I worked I was not the only one to use the room. It was not “my” special room. Here’s a wild idea: Multiple employees can be nursing at the same time, and they all need to juggle use of the room.

The room is not yours, by law. If you don’t like the law, get it changed. The non-lactating are the ones who have the entitlement mentality, not the Moms.

Apr 8, 2011 at 11:08 am rating: 52
#2.4 The Elf

I meant that I would most likely leave without being told to do so. As in, you come in, I go out with a wave and friendly smile. If asked to leave, I would certainly do so. I can make my phone call again, if necessary.

We had a lactation room at my last workplace for one Mom. One. So, it varies by where you are. Certainly, if the room is being used so frequently as to render all other purposes moot then it should be for exclusive use. But if not, I see no reason why someone can’t use an OTHERWISE EMPTY ROOM.

Apr 8, 2011 at 11:49 am rating: 35
#2.5 Who? Me?

Elf, I’ve admired many of your previous posts. You sound like a nice person, and I believe you.

Please keep in mind your own experiences kicking squatters out of rooms. Sometimes they are quick to leave. Sometimes they take a long time “wrapping up” a “really important meeting”. Unfortunately, not all squatters would be as courteous or prompt as you. And not all Moms are willing to embrace the hassles of kicking out squatters.

Law be damned, babies be damned, many of the posters seem to feel entitled to the use of the room, regardless of the wording of any sign.

Apr 8, 2011 at 12:37 pm rating: 19
#2.6 Cate

“Squatting” is an inaccurate word. The law designates a space that is free from intrusion, not a space that is earmarked for that use only. Meaning, if you’re using it to pump milk, you hang a sign and your coworkers are required to not interrupt. By your logic, the manager at the McDonalds can’t use her office in case an employee might need to pump milk there that afternoon.

It’s like handicapped restrooms, they’re not handicapped ONLY, they’re handicapped ACCESSIBLE.

Apr 8, 2011 at 1:01 pm rating: 30
#2.7 Who? Me?

No it’s not. I’m not sure what the law designates, but the employer has clearly communicated that the room is for nursing moms and not for phone calls.

Apr 8, 2011 at 1:12 pm rating: 12
#2.8 Cate

Who? Me? said, “The room is not yours, by law. If you don’t like the law, get it changed. ” AND “I’m not sure what the law designates…” Absolutely ridiculous. You’re going to school people in what the law entitles and not even know the law itself?

Get a new comeback other than “get the law changed” because it doesn’t need to be changed. Pumping mothers have a legal right to privacy while at work, but they do not have sole right to the private space while not pumping.

Apr 8, 2011 at 1:30 pm rating: 23
#2.9 Who? Me?

Cate, I stand by my original point, namely that the employer has clearly communicated that the room is for nursing moms and not for phone calls, and hence those employees who choose to ignore the wishes of their employers are squatters. Please forgive me for expressing those opinions without having every iota of the federal mandate memorized:

Section 4207 of the bill amends the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to include the guarantee of “a reasonable break time for an employee to express breast milk for her nursing child for 1 year after the child’s birth each time such employee has need to express the milk,” for nonexempt hourly workers, and also the stipulation that this be done in “a place, other than a bathroom, that is shielded from view and free from intrusion from co-workers and the public.”

There are limits on this newly codified right. Companies of fewer than 50 employees are exempt if the employer can show that this would “impose an undue hardship,” and employees are not guaranteed pay for time spent expressing milk.

If the business is so small that a separate designated room does not make sense, that is one thing. And that is not the case in this particular example.

But I am not mistaken about the fact that the employer makes the call, not self-righteous employees who have “very important calls” to make.

So, I’ll keep my comeback, thank you very much.

Apr 8, 2011 at 2:48 pm rating: 15
#2.10 The Elf

Technically, the notewriter has made the determination that it is for nursing moms exclusively. I’m not sure about the law myself (I thought it was available space not exclusive space). We don’t know official office policy, because we don’t see a memo. We see a PAN, which may or may not mirror official policy.

I get that some people aren’t going to be that quick about getting up and going when they should be. That’s when you politely ask them to leave and/or remind them of policy. Have a backbone! So much passive-aggressiveness could be handled just by being direct. I work in a cubefarm, where privacy is hard to come by. Even the offices aren’t really offices. So the idea of a precious private space being taken by as few as one person for her *exclusive* use 24/7 it sets my teeth on edge. Hell, my bosses don’t get that kind of privacy!

Apr 8, 2011 at 3:01 pm rating: 10
#2.11 concerned reader

Christ, what an asshole. Who? You? Yes you.

Apr 8, 2011 at 3:02 pm rating: 14
#2.12 Who? Me?

You see an alleged PAN, according to the submitter. I wouldn’t be surprised that the note was approved by management. That is one d*mn pretty and well-designed note, if you ask me.

You see, by not meeting the conditions of the law, the employer could be sued by a lactating mom who chooses to cite section 4207. Which of course, the employer doesn’t want. Hmm, I wonder what the employer might do to any employees who were found to be in violation of their own stated policy for the room under those circumstances?

Elf, the burden of kicking out squatters should not be on the nursing mom’s shoulders. The ultimate cause of the problem you described is how tightly management chooses to ration real estate to the employees; I wish you could see that.

concerned reader – thank you for sharing your thoughts. I take it then that you aren’t on Team Mom, eh?

Apr 8, 2011 at 3:25 pm rating: 12
#2.13 Cate

AH! So not throwing out the expired yogurt is a company policy, it must be so if there’s a note pinned up on company property, right? You have no way of knowing if this sign is employer-mandated or employee-assumed.

You pounce on the word “intrusion” and I do not think it means what you think it means. One cannot be intruded upon in an empty space. If you are in your private space and someone comes in: intrusion; if you are the second person to walk into a room, you are the intruder.

Your projections are showing. Calling people with phone calls to make “self-righteous” says more about yourself than it does these hypothetical employees. But lets be hypothetical for a moment, Who?Me?, because I am genuinely curious. If a non-lactating employee were to take a call to get her biopsy results, is that righteous enough for your private room? If a non-lactating employee receives devastating news at work and needs a few moments to collect himself before rejoining his colleagues, is that righteous enough for a visit to the private room?

Apr 8, 2011 at 3:33 pm rating: 20
#2.14 TickleMyBambo

Unfortunately if the womans tumor isn’t lactating, of the man isn’t receiving bad lactating news it’s not considered self righteous enough to even dare enter into.. the forbidden zone!!

Apr 8, 2011 at 3:45 pm rating: 14
#2.15 Cate

I would bet actual dollar bills that this sign was created by an employee and not by a boss or HR department. Only a self-righteous employee would use the guilt-inducing headline and the tonally bitchy phrasing at the bottom. If a boss or HR department made this sign, it would most likely read: Reserved for nursing mothers. If you need an alternate private room, please ask at reception.”

The tone makes it PA and makes it obviously written by someone who feels entitled.

Apr 8, 2011 at 3:53 pm rating: 20
#2.16 Who? Me?

“You have no way of knowing if this sign is employer-mandated or employee-assumed.”

Agreed. And neither do you. I’d be willing to bet actual dollar bills myself. I’d even be willing to bet that the sign evolved from the simple, “Reserved for nursing mothers. If you need an alternate private room, please ask at reception”, that you suggest to what you see now because your wording wasn’t sufficient to solve the squatting problem.

And I did not call people self-righteous because they had phone calls to make, I called them self-righteous because they ignore the fact that the room is clearly not for their use, yet they think they are justified in using it anyway.

As I said in #6.23: “What I’ve learned from this thread is that a locked door and rationing of keys is really the best answer, because enough non-lactating people simply don’t care about the needs of working moms or even the policy set by their own employer. And apparently, I’m an asshole because of that.”

Apr 8, 2011 at 4:13 pm rating: 10
#2.17 Cate

The opportunity for women to pump breast milk at work is a win. The acceptance that working mothers are a boon and not a burden is a win. These are huge strides in womens issues.

But the attitude of this sign, and the attitude that you are advocating, is a huge step back for womens issues. You are making us look bad. You are making us look like little girls having a tantrum. Please stop trying to claim what is more than offered, because it hurts the overall goal. This is why more than fifty percent of women hesitate to call themselves feminists. This greedy, entitled, self-righteous attitude makes women look like less of the logical, reasoning, hard-working people we are. Please start giving women the good name we have more than earned.

Apr 8, 2011 at 9:19 pm rating: 29
#2.18 nocturnesthesia

I agree with Cate. As I always say: Equal rights, equal responsibilities. Key to the room provided to nursing women only and remains locked when not in use = problem-fucking-solved.

Also WhoMe, I really hope you are trolling by copy-pasting some bullshit out of a Dr Spock book. I’m actually gagging after reading your comments…. If serious, you need to meet my grandmother, she likes to describe in great detail her bowel movements and the various side effects her medication has on her bathroom habits. What you’re doing is tantamount to that, so I assume you’d get along well.

Apr 9, 2011 at 7:09 am rating: 4
#2.19 Who? Me?

The opportunity for women to pump breast milk at work is a win.

It sure is. And like most political issues, it needs to be fought for. If a vote were taken today among the people who have posted on this thread it would fail miserably, not because of “my tantrum” but because many of the posters are ignorant of what the room is even for and unsympathetic to the issues facing nursing moms. And out of that ignorance, and their own desire for the real estate (to which I have some sympathy, believe it or not, a shortage of privacy in the workplace is not fun), they view moms as self-entitled bitches.

The way to fight ignorance is education – so some of us have tried.

But the attitude of this sign, and the attitude that you are advocating, is a huge step back for womens issues.

I guess you didn’t read my previous post, #2.16: “As I said in #6.23: “What I’ve learned from this thread is that a locked door and rationing of keys is really the best answer”. If that is done it completely solves the problem. There is no longer a need for a sign, I would not insist on keeping the cute baby picture posted just to rile up the non-lactating among you.

I feel very sorry for moms whose employers choose to not lock the door, for whatever reason. Such as the alleged writer of this “PAN”, for example. If the employer doesn’t lock the door, the squatters will continue ignore any posted signs, ridicule the more desperate ones as “PANs”, and a number of moms will stop nursing (despite what they think is best for the baby). They get tired of dealing with the hassles, and that means that those babies lose. Ha, ha, sure sucks to be them!

You are making us look bad. You are making us look like little girls having a tantrum.

Puh-lease. Several posters have mocked the moms who don’t have the balls to kick the squatters out of the room.

And now you mock me for having balls enough to try to fight the ignorance and condescension shown on this thread to working moms who are trying to get their job done (some of us actually don’t impose on our co-workers, to the very best of our abilities) and also raise their infant in a manner that they think is best?

D*mned if I do, D*mned if I don’t.

This is why more than fifty percent of women hesitate to call themselves feminists.

Puh-lease, again. I think many young women take for granted the hard work and sacrifices made by previous women to fight for a better playing field. Such as a 4×6 closet that is not a bathroom in which they can pump their breasts. Sure, you like the playing field now and all it’s benefits, but you have no idea what it took to get here, and you don’t want to look “unfeminine” by participating in that fight, which can sometimes get ugly. You want to have your cake and eat it too. I don’t really blame you for that, but that is living in a childish fantasy.

If you aren’t willing to get a bit dirty, you are going to lose that nice playing field. Just wait and see.

Apr 9, 2011 at 8:46 am rating: 15
#2.20 Who? Me?

So, I realize that I have been guilty of making an assumption with this note, and I wanted to ‘fess up. I have been assuming that the employer is a large organization, similar to the ones that I have worked in. So that the ratio of conference rooms to “nursing rooms” is relatively large (at least on the order of 20 or 30 to 1, or so), large enough that the employer has the ability to dedicate a single room for the moms. In such an organization, there tends to be multiple pregnant moms needing to use the room.

This assumption has colored my comments. There still may not be “enough” conference rooms for employees to use, but IMHO, that is management’s fault even though the nursing moms might be a choice target. For the official record, I have worked in such an organization: not enough rooms for the need.

Based on the fact that the employer has set a policy that the room is reserved for the use of nursing moms, and other rooms should be used for phone calls, I believe that the business relevant to the PAN is relatively large. Technically, the “PAN author” could have made the “reserved” part up too, though I would find that amazingly ballsy and likely grounds for dismissal.

Anyhoo, I just wanted to say for the official record that if the business is small, then I think it is appropriate for some mechanism to be developed to “share” the room. There is not a need for a single mom to have a private room for the duration that she is nursing. But her need for use of the room should be prioritized over the needs of normal phone call users.

I don’t understand why a very small employer would make a decision to reserve an entire room for such a purpose, however, since that would be a pretty expensive and stupid decision, IMHO.

I suspect that some other posters may have been assuming that the business for the PAN was small, which might be natural if that was what their own working experiences had been. If such were the case, I can see how my comments that the room should be for the private use of moms, even if the number is just 1, would have appeared to be self-righteous and presumptuous. That was not what I was trying to say at all.

Apr 9, 2011 at 10:36 am rating: 4
#2.21 Risha

@Who? Me? – I don’t think it’s even “large company/small company” as you are saying above.

My previous employer was around 12,000 employees, about 400 of which were in my building. We had a dozen or so small private workrooms available per each of our four floors, for any use. We also had a private lactation room on each floor. There was so much available private space that I didn’t begrudge that space, despite only actually knowing of one woman who ever used it. It certainly was open the vast majority of the day, which I know because I walked past the open door several times a day – they were next to the bathrooms and elevators. (I do confess to using one once when I had a migraine and the “wellness room” was already taken, as they were the only other place that had couches to lie down on.)

My current employer is around 11,000 employees, about 500 or 600 in my office. Managers have private offices. There are several conference rooms, all of which must be booked in advance. I assume that there’s at least one lactation room, though I’ve never seen it. There is NO OTHER private space in the entire building. Most people make private phone calls either walking around the parking lot, or sitting in their cars. You can argue about whether or not using that room for a couple of minutes is the right thing to do, but I think it’s at least understandable why someone would want to.

Apr 9, 2011 at 2:01 pm rating: 2
#2.22 Who? Me?

I think there are a number of different variables at play here, perhaps the most important one is the availability of private space for private phone calls. I think enlightened managers should understand that employees deserve a certain amount of such space in the workplace. I totally agree with you there, there are certain calls that need to be made.

If the employer doesn’t provide that space, I can certainly understand why someone would want to use a lactation room and be jealous of nursing moms for having such a room available to them.

But you have to realize, the issue is not self-righteous moms with superiority complexes and “entitled tribe of mom” attitudes. All of this anger is being channeled onto the wrong people, mothers of infants who are just trying to do what they think is best for their kid. The issue is that the employer doesn’t understand the legitimate needs of the other employees. The solution is to convince the employer of those legitimate needs and inspire them to fix that problem, not take potshots at innocent moms.

And you know what, I wouldn’t be bothered if someone used the room clearly understanding that they were a squatter and if I showed up needing to use the room they should clear out of there pronto. And if you even needed me to wait 1-2 minutes to wrap up, I could deal with it, especially if you gave me a smile and pretended that you were very grateful to me for wasting my precious time that way.

But I also know that “wrapping up” can sometimes take longer, depending on the phone call, and especially if the person making the call doesn’t really feel that urgent of a need to get off the phone quickly. Making me wait 10-15 minutes is going to tick me off, especially if you slowly saunter out when you are done because you think I am an entitled mom and you don’t owe me squat. Man, if you hadn’t just wasted that 15 minutes of my life, I could have used it to sleep 15 minutes more tonight. Do you have any friggin clue how precious 15 minutes of extra sleep is to the mother of an infant?

It’s because of the losers in that second category that the rule for the lactation room eventually morphs into “all other employees are required to use another room for their phone calls”, IMHO.

Apr 9, 2011 at 4:10 pm rating: 6

add to this thread

#3 Julie

That baby deserves a right hand!

Apr 7, 2011 at 10:26 pm rating: 17 small thumbs up

reply to this comment

#4 TickleMyBambo

Why even bother with pumping rooms or breastfeeding rooms when all a woman has to do it flop her boob out: Dinner is served! They’ve been doing it since the stone age, and still do it while waiting at the check out line at Wal mart.

Apr 7, 2011 at 10:26 pm rating: 18 small thumbs up

reply to this comment

#4.1 BrookeDiz

Just a guess here, but I doubt her boob reaches from the office to the baby’s day care center.

Apr 7, 2011 at 11:46 pm rating: 88
#4.2 Fred Furz

Go Team FlopBoob™!

Apr 8, 2011 at 2:02 am rating: 7
#4.3 Shannon

I woUld whip out a boob and put my baby to it as I walked around shopping or eating at a restaurant. People talking on a phone doesn’t do anything to help or hurt breastmilk production. Let the people use their phone and keep pumping your milk. Just because a person breastfeeds doesn’t mean the world revolves around them. Pump your milk, feed your baby, and stop acting so precious.

Apr 8, 2011 at 6:39 am rating: 48
#4.4 Who? Me?

You can’t just flop out a boob if the baby isn’t actually with you!

The rooms are not for privately feeding your baby while nobody watches. Geez! The rooms are for pumping breast milk out of your boobs so that the baby can later be fed that milk when you are at work.

Women are not doing that in public at WalMart, believe me.

Apr 8, 2011 at 11:34 am rating: 9
#4.5 TickleMyBambo

OF COURSE a mother can’t flop her boob out when a child is not around! You must of misunderstood me because that was not what my comment meant. I wouldn’t of said women were doing it in public had I not seen them doing it in public. Yes I have seen many a mother pull out her boob to either nurse her child or pump milk at wal mart and various other public places cause those women have no regard for any public decency. Also, there are breast feeding rooms AND rooms designated for pumping milk.. My comment in general was out of sarcasm not ignorance.

Apr 8, 2011 at 2:36 pm rating: 8
#4.6 pony girl

I’m sorry, but I am physically unable to stop myself, I simply must post this…

It is must have and wouldn’t have.

There is no of.
Thank you for your cooperation.

Apr 9, 2011 at 4:15 am rating: 24
#4.7 chesire cat

Have you ever seen anyone pumping? It is pretty gross. I felt like a freaking milk cow when I was hooked up to that thing. I am not extremely coordinated so I was spilling milk everywhere and dribbling and I had to pretty much remove my entire shirt and bra to pump. Not something I would feel comfortable doing in front of other people besides my mom or my husband. Nor would others want to see that. I sucked at pumping but still, it is not a pretty sight.

I was not a working mother so it was a non issue for me. I pumped at home but you know just pointing out that I doubt the pumping mom or the coworkers want to see each other in that moment.

Apr 9, 2011 at 9:04 am rating: 9
#4.8 Who? Me?

Yes I have seen many a mother pull out her boob to either nurse her child or pump milk at wal mart and various other public places cause those women have no regard for any public decency.

I believe you when you say that you have seen “many a mother” nursing their children in public.

I don’t believe you when you say that you have seen “many a mother” pump milk in public.

They just open their shirts and attach the bottles and start up the old Pump N Style while they are standing in line for the next teller? Or are they a bit more discreet, perhaps commandeering a rarely used section of the store, like the fabric department?

To be honest, although you theoretically might have seen someone pumping in public once, I would be shocked if even that were true, even in a public bathroom. It’s not really a good look for anybody, hauling all the crap around and keeping it clean is a pain in the butt, and as I recall, there was a certain nimble-ness that was required to keep all the pieces in their proper places while the activity was going on, so that suction was maintained and the contents didn’t spill all over the floor.

Maybe, maybe you saw some wacko doing it somewhere once. But not “many a mother”. No way, no how.

Apr 9, 2011 at 9:34 am rating: 14
#4.9 TickleMyBambo

Are you seriously going to debate with me on the personal account that I have seen mothers pump in the oddest places in public? Cause if that’s the case it’s a waste of time, since I said before.. I wouldn’t say I seen something when I didn’t, it would be not only lying but also irrelevant. If you want to doubt it, that’s okay I can’t force you to believe me.

Perhaps where I live the mothers I have witnessed probably don’t give a damn whether or not they pump in public. I seen a few of the discreet ones go to a bench, or the bathroom, one behind a tree, and even some in a booth on the far end of a restaurant.. They are polite enough to cover up with a small blanket. Now the not so discrete one’s, most of the ones I’ve seen would just plop on down on a table or bench and do their business while the few eccentric ones are the ones that stick out most. Twice in a smokers room at the airport I have seen moms pump (why I have no idea), One lady hogged up a chair in the local furniture store, one lady in her convertible car with the top down, Three times I come across moms pumping at the library while reading a book, and yes there was one whack job pumping at wal mart in the customers service area.. They just lift their shirt a bit, enough to put the pump under, and pump away like it’s no big deal. Yes, it is hard to believe that there are mothers who lack both the common sense and decency to go about their pumping practically. Yes with all the work it takes to pump and keep equipment maintained, you would think these moms would have difficulty but apparently these moms seemed to be doing just fine despite the awkward areas in which they were doing it. Who? Me? I wish that I was joking.. I really do, but I am dead serious that these mothers exist, and these incidents I have bared witness to. Sorry, but I dunno what else to tell you.

Another, off topic subject I wanna bring up though is this: I am going to be frank with you, and hopefully I don’t offend. I noticed that there tends to be a know it all attitude your posts seem to display and honestly it rubs me off the wrong way.. I’m sure it may not be your intentions, and that I may be misinterpreting, but the air of superiority that resonates from your words really reeks. Maybe it’s just me, but it’s best I point it out now, get a better understanding a preventative measures to avoid future conflicts.

Apr 9, 2011 at 9:56 pm rating: 9
#4.10 Who? Me?

Are you seriously going to debate with me on the personal account that I have seen mothers pump in the oddest places in public?

Your words were: “I have seen many a mother pull out her boob to either nurse her child or pump milk at wal mart and various other public places cause those women have no regard for any public decency.” Perhaps you don’t realize it, but your words imply that so many brazen and indecent lactating mothers are pumping out in public that you are constantly tripping over them. And I’ve never seen a single one, and I live in a major metropolitan area on the West Coast. And it’s not even logical that women would be hauling all the pump crap around with them, because as you yourself pointed out previously: “Why even bother with pumping rooms or breastfeeding rooms when all a woman has to do it flop her boob out: Dinner is served!” It’s tons easier to take your baby with you and nurse then it is to take a pump instead.

I googled “mothers pumping breast milk in public”, and I’m sorry to tell you, but what comes back is: images of women using pumps in private offices or hospital settings, images of women breastfeeding babies (i.e. not pumping, breastfeeding), and images of various pump equipment. Not a single image of a woman pumping while she waits in line for the next teller.

I have no idea where you live or hang out but, I have to tell you, I think that your experiences are highly unusual, and perhaps you are the one who should keep that in mind. And perhaps I am wrong, but you seem to be the type who objects to mothers breastfeeding in any public place, even if they are politely covered with a blanket. This might shock you, but if a mom was quietly expressing milk in some nook in a library and her shirt was covering all the naughty bits, I actually wouldn’t care! I’d think she’s probably a single mom, poor thing, who is trying to get an education and doesn’t have a lot of good choices. Good for her! But as a few here have already noted, I’m just an asshole, so ignore what I just said.

Regarding your comment, “I noticed that there tends to be a know it all attitude your posts seem to display and honestly it rubs me off the wrong way.. I’m sure it may not be your intentions, and that I may be misinterpreting, but the air of superiority that resonates from your words really reeks”, you have a point. But from my perspective, I have been “giving the same as I’ve been getting”, and I invite you to consider the tone of your own posts:

“flop her boob out” is rather totally demeaning,

“those women have no regard for any public decency” is ever so slightly judgmental, don’t you think?

“Okay seriously, working moms should of thought really hard about ramifications to breastfeeding and how much of an impact it has in their everyday lives before having babies and going back to work” is a just a tad condescending,

“Instead of demanding that my workplace put up a special pumping room or that my co-workers better leave the little vicinity that I choose to do my business because it’s my turf. Instead, I did the logical thing …” pretty much sums up how superior you are to those of us who decided to use our legally protected right to pump at work. Love the phrase do my business, btw, that totally doesn’t bring any other demeaning images to mind at all. Nope, not a single one.

Apr 10, 2011 at 1:00 am rating: 11
#4.11 chesire cat

I have never seen a woman pump in public either. Just saying. I have seen many women discreetly nursing in public. I have seen one or two women flopping boobs out to nurse in public meaning not being discrete about it. Those are my experiences and I am actually often surrounded by moms since I used to work at a daycare and frequent kiddie establishements with my kids.

Not doubting you may have seen someone pumping in public but I don’t think it is very common. It is also not common for women to just expose themselves to breastfeed without showing any modesty. Most women are so discrete about nursing I don’t even realize what they are doing. When a woman does just flop it out without modesty I am usually like “What!?” because it does not happen very often.

Apr 10, 2011 at 7:21 am rating: 9

add to this thread

#5 shwo! bang

Deserve’s got nothing to do with it.

Apr 7, 2011 at 10:32 pm rating: 8 small thumbs up

reply to this comment

#6 Blue

Ugh, I am so tired of the entitled tribe of mom mentality. I guarantee that if you go in there and start milking away at your boob, the phone caller will leave. I am entitled to this room, you are not because you didn’t reproduce.

Apr 7, 2011 at 10:33 pm rating: 68 small thumbs up

reply to this comment

#6.1 edjamacateme

Seriously?! Tribe of mom mentality? First, I am annoyed by your criticism of a necessary role without which you would have not been brought into existence. Second, lactation is a beautiful and complex process which requires calm, tranquility, concentration and the like; without which a women’s milk supply can be significantly compromised, hence the need for a quiet, private room. And if one has a busy job it’s important to be able to count on a free space. Also, which I’m sure you know nothing about, engorgement (look it up), is not pretty and pumping alleviates this condition and potentially embarrassing leakage (look it up). Third, the mentality of which I am exhausted is those similar to yours–which devalues the significance and critical nature of a mother’s role and diminishes the progress made in our culture so that mothers (many of whom need to work) can contribute their talent to the workplace. MANY countries are FAR ahead of the U.S. in the way we value parenting and the kinds of workplace benefits offered BOTH sets of parents. And by the way, pumping is a MAJOR sacrifice. These women could just use formula, but instead they believe that taking all the time and effort to drag the equipment to work, find a place to store the milk properly, lug it home, etc., is worth it for their child. I think a little room reserved for nursing mothers is something that shouldn’t cramp your style too much. Stop being so grumpy and call your mother and thank her for the sacrifices she made for you.

Apr 7, 2011 at 11:07 pm rating: 153
#6.2 park rose

Well said.

Apr 7, 2011 at 11:09 pm rating: 19
#6.3 pete p.

um, when you need a private space to shoot various fluids out of your body, there are these rooms called restrooms, look it up.

Apr 8, 2011 at 12:12 am rating: 26
#6.4 JetJackson

Ouch! You got Edjamacated!

Apr 8, 2011 at 12:17 am rating: 8
#6.5 mr clean

@pete really? do you eat in the restroom?

Apr 8, 2011 at 12:22 am rating: 53
#6.6 pete p.

fluids out, not in.

Apr 8, 2011 at 12:23 am rating: 8
#6.7 aaa

Lactation? Beautiful? If a rat can do it, it’s not beautiful or special. It’s like breathing, eating, sneezing, and shitting. Utterly mundane. Not saying it’s not necessary/natural/what-the-ever-loving-fuck-ever, but damn, way to overstate it.

Apr 8, 2011 at 12:26 am rating: 94
#6.8 Who? Me?

Correction: I am entitled to this room because federal law says my baby and I are entitled to it. Have a problem with that? Get the law changed.

aaa – I agree with edjamacateme, lactation is beautiful, even if a rat can do it. I didn’t really get how beautiful it was until I finally became a Mom. It’s a wild experience to have food actually coming out of a part of your body, food that doctors have finally realized is far superior to man-made imitations. And the process requires that you cuddle physically together, and see each other face to face, which turns out to have certain psychological benefits and helps with emotional bonding.

I nursed for 14 months and I felt like a human cow for most of it, until it came time to stop and I cried. That time was so very special. Oh yeah, in addition to food, the baby also gets natural antibodies from the mother that helps keep them resistant to certain illnesses; whatever the mother’s body is generating to keep her healthy is automatically passed down to keep the baby healthy too. To me, that’s almost magical.

A rat can’t give it’s baby formula from a bottle. By your definition, that would be more beautiful than nursing, I guess. And, oh yeah, rat’s have sex too – does that mean that sex is utterly mundane? I don’t think so.

Apr 8, 2011 at 1:44 am rating: 36
#6.9 aaa

Woah, way to put words in my mouth, fella! Nowhere did I say lactation wasn’t important. And, like many things in life, including getting a bitchin new job, having a child, graduating school, getting married, digestion, breathing, and, yes, sex, it’s important to you because you’re directly involved in it, but nobody else particularly gives a shit. It’s like art, it’s highly subjective and people tend to care a lot less when they’re not an active participant in it. Demanding other people to find the magic in a genetically mandated biological function (or pretty much anything else anyone does) that they’re not directly involved in is ridiculous. There’s no need to get butthurt because I don’t get a lady boner at the thought of a biological function I’m not involved in.

And actually, it would be pretty awesome if rats were capable of bottle feeding, because that means they suddenly took a huge fucking leap forward in intelligence and being able to manipulate things with their paws and would be worth serious scientific study. I mean, there would be some intense fucking biology/evolution shit going on. But then again, I wouldn’t get butthurt because somebody else didn’t find the scientific ramifications of this utterly captivating.

Apr 8, 2011 at 8:18 am rating: 59
#6.10 Rattus

Blue, I am totally with you regarding this spawning-is-special nonsense. It is a biological function much like the intake of nutrients resulting in the expulsion of waste matter is a biological function, and I don’t applaud those who aren’t constipated.

And if the room is being used for a couple of hours a day to express fluids, why can’t people use it for making calls the other six hours?

Apr 8, 2011 at 8:20 am rating: 42
#6.11 Overpopulation time

Stop having children

Apr 8, 2011 at 8:48 am rating: 9
#6.12 StickyDitka

What if you just want to watch? I like watching beautiful things! It’s natural! It’d be like watching the nature channel, but hotter. Kind of like those National Geographics my uncle used to keep in the shed.

Apr 8, 2011 at 9:10 am rating: 5
#6.13 TickleMyBambo

Okay seriously, working moms should of thought really hard about ramifications to breastfeeding and how much of an impact it has int heir everyday lives before having babies and going back to work. Not only are you spending every other half hour to 2 hours breast feeding at home, plus the couple of times you have to get up at night to feed.. Then add in the 5 to 15 minutes of pumping enough milk in bags/bottles to last your child long enough in daycare until you’re finished with work to repeat the process all over again. W

Apr 8, 2011 at 9:45 am rating: 6
#6.14 Adriana

@edjamacateme I called my mother. Turns out she agrees with Blue.

Apr 8, 2011 at 10:21 am rating: 15
#6.15 interrobang

@pete Either you are colossally stupid or colossally selfish. Please don’t reproduce. [Hint: fluid goes out of one person, into another during nursing.] I’d rather eat in the bathroom myself than make my tiny, defenseless baby eat in there.

Apr 8, 2011 at 10:28 am rating: 16
#6.16 Rattus

For those who are getting hysterical about the very idea of feeding their kid in the bathroom, you might be surprised to note that the average office bathroom has less offensive bacteria than the average office kitchen or, indeed, the average office desk. If you’re feeding your kid at work, the washroom is the best place to be doing it.

Apr 8, 2011 at 11:08 am rating: 17
#6.17 The Elf

But, the fecal mist!

Apr 8, 2011 at 11:50 am rating: 10
#6.18 clever name

“it’s important to you because you’re directly involved in it, but nobody else particularly gives a shit”

Thank you! I can’t tell you how often this fits.

No, I don’t want to watch your birth video. Watching your vajay rip as you squeeze out an wrinkly red, slimy baby may be a riot for you, but I think it’s fucking disgusting. Why do people try to show others that stuff?

As for breastfeeding, I don’t care where you do it. I’m not phased by boobies. it’s when you post the pictures of you breast feeding on FB and stuff I get grossed out.

Apr 8, 2011 at 11:53 am rating: 23
#6.19 Who? Me?

aaa, you wrote “Woah, way to put words in my mouth, fella! Nowhere did I say lactation wasn’t important. ”

I’m sorry if you didn’t choose your own words more carefully when you wrote them, but the actual words that came out of your mouth were: “Lactation? Beautiful? If a rat can do it, it’s not beautiful or special. It’s like breathing, eating, sneezing, and shitting. Utterly mundane. ”

Add one more to the list: giving birth. Rats can do that too. I personally don’t think childbirth “is like shitting. Utterly mundane.” but YMMV.

BTW, edjamacateme wrote “lactation is a beautiful and complex process” but nowhere did she insist that you agree with her. She never “[demanded] other people to find the magic in a genetically mandated biological function “, and neither did I. Methinks that the pot is calling the kettle …

I don’t care what you think; I have offered information for anyone who might want to educate themselves a bit on this subject. But I do want you to Keep the f*** out of the room.

TickleMyBambo, thank you for itemizing all of the work required to nurse a baby. Guess what? It is a lot of work, and it requires a lot of time. Most Moms don’t put up with it even for 3 months, much less the 6 months that pediatricians recommend. Which is one of the reasons why the federal mandate was passed to make it the law for these rooms to be put aside for nursing mothers. The law was passed for the health of the babies: and that is not some PA bullshit, that is the god’s honest truth.

Apr 8, 2011 at 11:59 am rating: 10
#6.20 Rattus

***aaa, you wrote “Woah, way to put words in my mouth, fella! Nowhere did I say lactation wasn’t important. ”

I’m sorry if you didn’t choose your own words more carefully when you wrote them, but the actual words that came out of your mouth were: “Lactation? Beautiful? If a rat can do it, it’s not beautiful or special. It’s like breathing, eating, sneezing, and shitting. Utterly mundane. ”***

FYI, “important” is not the same as “beautiful” or “special”. There are all sorts of really important things that aren’t remotely beautiful. And yes, shitting is one of them.

Apr 8, 2011 at 12:26 pm rating: 34
#6.21 Who? Me?

Rattus, I sincerely hope you are a smart-ass college kid. Please study very hard, and one day you might be able to properly understand my post.
I’ll be rooting for you.

Apr 8, 2011 at 12:42 pm rating: 5
#6.22 TickleMyBambo

Apparently my well written rant got the attention of the spam filter and is waiting moderation… Ahh damn, it was a rather good one. Hopefully it shows up soon haha.

Who?Me? I am not an idiot, I know fully well how hard it is to breast feed and work, I did it for two months before medical complications caused an inability to produce. Instead of demanding that my workplace put up a special pumping room or that my co-workers better leave the little vicinity that I choose to do my business because it’s my turf. Instead, I did the logical thing by pumping my milk the night before I had to go to work and put it in the freezer to keep it good, it saved me from having to lug all the equipment to work and save the embarrassing “Hey, do you mind.. need to pump here.” While at first I was sad when I had to stop breastfeeding but when I realized how much more convenient and easier bottle feeding with formula is, I was much happier and my daughter survived on formula so it helped me move on faster. Plus the lack of sore engorged breasts was a huge relief and increased my work performance. You can’t say that going to work and pumping your lactation into a bottle for later use inside a designated room or anywhere else in public is aa sacrifice and then around and demand privacy and all shall obey… By going to work and bringing your pump with you, You are relinquishing your personal right to complete privacy so you can either stop bitching about it or shrug it off and continue to pump. Plus you can’t stop everyone from being total jackasses so don’t even stress about it.

Apr 8, 2011 at 3:20 pm rating: 16
#6.23 Who? Me?

Tickle, I didn’t assume you were an idiot but it wasn’t clear to me that you had experienced these issues yourself.

It sounds like you were able to make a choice that worked for you, and I am happy for that. I feel that other mothers should have the ability to make their own choice too, and for some of them, what you did would not have worked out so well. Everybody’s situation is different, of course, I’m sure you would not disagree. Some moms have supply issues, and need to pump during the day to keep up the supply.

The thing is … because it is embarrassing for some (many?) to say “Hey, do you mind …” each time one has to do it, it takes a toll. It also takes more time out of one’s day, especially when the folks in the room don’t immediately get up and leave. All that hassle, all that time, it adds up, and some percentage of mothers are going to choose to stop nursing because of that, not because they actually were ready to stop nursing. And enough people felt that that situation just wasn’t right that they got a federal law passed giving lactating mothers certain rights.

What I’ve learned from this thread is that a locked door and rationing of keys is really the best answer, because enough non-lactating people simply don’t care about the needs of working moms or even the policy set by their own employer. And apparently, I’m an asshole because of that.

The wording of the note is really not the problem. “Some of the non-lactating folks you work with” will never be “receptive to your message”, regardless of how it is worded.

Apr 8, 2011 at 3:59 pm rating: 10
#6.24 Canthz_B

“Breastfeeding releases endorphins, which creates a feeling of relaxation and well being in mother …”***

So, you see, it’s not the relaxed atmosphere that makes breastfeeding easier, it’s the breastfeeding which creates the feeling of relaxation. We don’t feel anything until our brain chemicals tell us we feel that way. Basic brain chemistry at work here.

Don’t take their high away. Most will kick the habit when teething begins. I know, I’ve seen it happen.
Though I suspect that use of a breast pump may prolong this addiction to feel good chemicals like a gullible enabler to an alcoholic.

Of course anyone who says she’s not addicted to lactating is obviously in denial.

Let’s test this theory by starting with a few alcoholism questionnaire examples (we all know that one right? Do you drink alone?…)
Ok, here we go:

Do you express breast milk alone?

How often do you breastfeed or express milk?

How many times do you breastfeed or express milk
on a typical day when you are lactating?

How often during the past year have you failed to do what was normally expected of you (like being at your desk) because of breastfeeding or expressing breast milk?

How often during the past year have you been unable to remember what happened the night before because you had been breastfeeding or expressing breast milk?

*** http://mamadearest.ca/en/info/benefits_breastfeeding.htm

Apr 9, 2011 at 1:24 am rating: 7
#6.25 chesire cat

I don’t see the problem with letting others use the room when the nursing mom is not using it. I am very pro nursing too. They just need to send a memo out to all employees letting them know that Jane and Susie are using that room to pump and maybe even give them a schedule of when they might be in there to pump. Then tell all employees that if Jane or Susie enters the room to pump, you must immediately vacate the room till they are finished pumping. Seems common sense to me.

Then if Jane or Susie has any trouble out of someone not immediately leaving they can report that to the bosses and said person gets in trouble. How hard is that?

Apr 9, 2011 at 9:14 am rating: 8
#6.26 aaa

Yeeaaah, Rattus at #6.20 had it exactly right. I see you’re not assuming I said breathing and shitting weren’t important when I said they were mundane.

Apr 9, 2011 at 10:02 am rating: 2

add to this thread

#7 edie b.

Eh. I don’t find this too terrible, especially if it’s a large office and that particular room *has* been designated just for moms to express milk. Most working moms only have a limited amount of time to do that during the workday, and if they hear a random coworker in that particular room yapping on the phone, it might take a while to get the room back to a nice quiet space. (And yes, it’s much easier & faster to express in a nice quiet space.)

Though maybe the chef’s hat on the baby is a bit much. Is he going to take the breastmilk and whip up a nice creamy sauce to pour over mashed peas?

Apr 7, 2011 at 10:46 pm rating: 51 small thumbs up

reply to this comment

#8 Dasher

I’m with the sign. Mums shouldn’t have to ask people to leave a room that’s designated for that activity. “Excuse me, I need to get my boobs out now, can you please leave?” Awkward. No thanks!

Apr 7, 2011 at 10:49 pm rating: 68 small thumbs up

reply to this comment

#8.1 The Elf

Yes, but “Please excuse me, I need privacy” or “Please excuse me, I’m nursing” is less so, especially coupled with the inevitable memo designating room X as the room for the nursing moms. Plus there was that office baby shower for the expectant mom so they probably already know who you are and why you need to use the room. No need to make it awkward. You know, unless you just like it that way.

Apr 8, 2011 at 7:58 am rating: 26

add to this thread

#9 SashaNotSoFierce

It is a bit rude to make phone calls in a room like that because it’s designed for one person to use at a time for privacy and such.

But it is also passive aggressive to tape a sign up. Just talk to the person in question . Or, if it’s a rampant problem, have a meeting about it.

A sign is not going to stop an inconsiderate jackass.

But yea, the guilt trip and picture of smiling Gerber baby, in a chef’s hat no less, is hilariously passive aggressive.

Apr 7, 2011 at 10:50 pm rating: 20 small thumbs up

reply to this comment

#9.1 TippingCows

Why not just have a sign that flips over? If someone is breast-pumping, flip the sign to say so. If the room is empty and available for use, have the sign say so. Problem solved!

Apr 9, 2011 at 2:56 am rating: 16
#9.2 pony girl

Eeek! Logic!

Nothing to see here folks. Keep moving.

Apr 9, 2011 at 4:20 am rating: 6
#9.3 Who? Me?

If the business is small, the space could be shared.

However, the problem with TC’s suggestion is that when the phone caller is using the room, then it is “occupied” when the mom needs it. And depending on the length of the phone call, that could screw her up big time.

First-come, first-served doesn’t really work, but a reservation system that gives priority to the moms could work just fine. Working moms are used to schedules

Apr 9, 2011 at 9:01 am rating: 2

add to this thread

#10 Aimmers

Fine then…just pump in your cubicle…that will solve that one fast. Have you heard one of those “pump in styles” go?

Apr 7, 2011 at 10:52 pm rating: 7 small thumbs up

reply to this comment

#11 Yes

Blue: you’re just dumb.

Uh, breastfeeding rooms are made specifically for breastfeeding. So yes, a breastfeeding woman is entitled to the room because she reproduced. i.e., she is breastfeeding. Do you know what they call rooms specifically for making phone calls? Phone booths. How would you like it if a woman was breastfeeding in a phonebooth and you wanted to make a call? Nevermind, I’m sure if you went in there and started making a phone call she would leave.

-.-

Apr 7, 2011 at 10:56 pm rating: 64 small thumbs up

reply to this comment

#11.1 Nunavut Guy

What’s a phone booth?

Apr 8, 2011 at 12:45 pm rating: 22
#11.2 pony girl

Which bus do I take to get to 1978 to use a phone booth?
Will I need to transfer?

Apr 9, 2011 at 4:21 am rating: 9
#11.3 chesire cat

Most offices do not have rooms JUST for breastfeeding exclusively. For one thing that would be a huge waste of space if none of your employees happen to currently be pumping. I have heard of the boss offering his office when the employee needs to pump. I have heard of conference rooms being used and they just don’t schedule conferences when the woman needs to pump and work around her schedule. If the office is big enough for a room JUST for pumping, great. Most are not that big. Sometimes break rooms get used and it will be off limits while she is pumping. The point is, if it is a shared room, then the mother has a right to it when she needs it. The rest of the time it is not going to hurt for others to be in there.

Apr 9, 2011 at 9:18 am rating: 3

add to this thread

#12 anon

Its easy.. you dont even need to put up a passive aggressive sign. Just make weird moaning noises in the background when they start to talk. Stop every time they pause. Will make their conversation delightfully interesting.

Apr 7, 2011 at 10:57 pm rating: 27 small thumbs up

reply to this comment

#13 Jenna

I know that baby!

Apr 7, 2011 at 11:00 pm rating: 2 small thumbs up

reply to this comment

#14 zenvelo

I think she should have put up a sign that said, “You’re the cream in my coffee!”

Apr 7, 2011 at 11:21 pm rating: 0 small thumbs up

reply to this comment

#15 VAinWI

I’m not sure what’s so passive aggressive about this. Moms shouldn’t need to ask – every single time – for folks to leave the breastfeeding room in order to feed their babies. Folks don’t want mom feeding in public, so they have private space – but apparently others feel that space isn’t warranted and co-opt it. Learn some respect and signs wouldn’t be needed.

Apr 8, 2011 at 12:02 am rating: 40 small thumbs up

reply to this comment

#15.1 aaa

http://www.passiveaggressivenotes.com/wtf/

Apr 8, 2011 at 12:28 am rating: 5
#15.2 Canthz_B

Just how is the space being co-opted if the mom doesn’t mind breastfeeding in public?

Not to be insensitive, but I really do not understand that “logic” because I’m at a real loss here…no kidding

Wouldn’t those who don’t want to see breastfeeding NOT use the breastfeeding room, and those with no problem with it be more likely to use it?

Wouldn’t it be more relaxing to be around people who are supportive? And isn’t one of the benefits of breastfeeding the feeding of the child in a relaxed atmosphere?
#6.1 above: “lactation is a beautiful and complex process which requires calm, tranquility, concentration and the like; without which a women’s milk supply can be significantly compromised, hence the need for a quiet, private room.”

I have to slightly disagree with the need for privacy, because “privacy” is a subjective notion, and because when my children were breastfeed my wife wasn’t alone much of the time (though we were at home) and she produced breast milk quite well. For the same reason I’m not so sure about “calm and tranquility”, because, while my wife breastfed, we’d watch Mets baseball games and get, let’s say, very into the games, and it didn’t affect her ability to produce milk.!

Seems to me the mom is the one introducing the stress, not the cell users who seem not to mind breastfeeding moms in their midst.

Personally, I can watch a tit being sucked any time, any where…don’t lie, you love it like that, Baby. Don’t you? Don’t you?!

Oops, lost myself there for a sec!

Apr 8, 2011 at 5:27 am rating: 15
#15.3 Pxmidnight

CB, this would make sense if Mom and baby were together in the room. Nursing a baby is a simple, beautiful, process that can be done as part of the general activity in most rooms , in most situations. EXPRESSING milk, to be given the child while you’re at work tomorrow, is a really different activity. It involves a breast pump and none of the stimulation of a hungry child at the breast. It doesn’t feel sexy, I’m not sure if it looks that way. I am sure however, that peace and privacy are important!

Apr 8, 2011 at 8:00 am rating: 13
#15.4 Canthz_B

yup…and that would make sense if the subject were about expressing breast milk and I was serious.

no, not even then, but I don’t have time right now. have a nice day!

Apr 8, 2011 at 9:11 am rating: 2
#15.5 chesire cat

CB: There is a difference between nursing the actual baby and pumping. The baby around stimulates the milk production because of things like the baby’s touch or the baby’s smell. When you are pumping you do not have those things there. That is why lactation experts suggest keeping a picture of the baby to look at while pumping to help milk production or a dirty onesie that smells like the baby. So pumping is not the same as nursing. Also pumping is loud, ackward, and mechanical. Big difference between that and a soft cuddly baby. So while a woman might be just fine nursing a child in public discreetly, pumping might not work that way.

Apr 9, 2011 at 9:22 am rating: 5
#15.6 Canthz_B

Gee, CC, thanks. It’s almost as if I’ve never pointed out that there’s a difference between “nursing” (“breastfeeding”) and “lactating” when you put it that way.

You continue to impress and amaze me.

Apr 10, 2011 at 7:59 am rating: 0
#15.7 Who? Me?

Just how is the space being co-opted if the mom doesn’t mind breastfeeding in public? Not to be insensitive, but I really do not understand that “logic” because I’m at a real loss here…no kidding

CB, I think VAinWI mispoke.

The vast majority of businesses do not have “breastfeeding rooms” and on site child-care. The women that work in those places are exceedingly lucky. But of course it makes sense that even then, voyeurs and perverts aren’t welcome in that room. It’s hard to tell those guys from the “normal, supportive guys”, and sadly, the first group tends to ruin it for the latter, so that no guys are likely allowed in there at all.

The vast majority of businesses have “lactation rooms” where women perform the very non-sexy task of “milking” their breasts without the assistance of a child. Those women want privacy.

Apr 10, 2011 at 10:26 am rating: 3
#15.8 Canthz_B

“So it’s really not unthinkable, though I admit improbable, that they have their babies in there.”

“Besides, the expressing of breast milk at work really doesn’t lend itself to jokes as well as actually breastfeeding at work…that’s inherently hilarious, so I took a little license with this sign.” Because she used “Nursing Moms”, not “Lactating Moms” so I chose to take that literally and run with that picture…get it?
You choose to assume what the writer meant, rather than what the writer wrote…and that’s fine with me.

“@Duh: I’m not mixing anything up, I’m telling jokes…you’re mixed up.
It’s the internet, deal with it.”

“I dunno. This is a hard one, but I’ll see if there’s a turd here ”

“Yay! There was turd here to stir after all!! ”

Been there, acknowledged that. See also #15.4 re: “serious”.

Also, I’m not taking this one very seriously, mostly because I can’t say what the “vast majority” of businesses have besides restrooms, but also because I don’t have a dog in this fight and really couldn’t care much less about lactation…I’m weened.

You really have to learn to tell the difference between actual opinion and facetiousness on this site. Not always the easiest thing to do, but take a stab at it anyway.

Apr 10, 2011 at 10:51 am rating: 0
#15.9 Who? Me?

You really have to learn to tell the difference between actual opinion and facetiousness on this site. Not always the easiest thing to do, but take a stab at it anyway.

Good advice. Here I was, sadly concluding that a bunch of ignorant 20 somethings were looking down their noses at “guilt tripping” moms who are having problems with squatters interfering with the use of the 4×7 closets we rely on to, say it with me now, *feed our babies*.

But the reality is that these guys have all just been pulling my leg, and I just didn’t get it? Cool! And what a huge relief.

Thanks, CB. That’s very good news indeed.

Apr 10, 2011 at 1:01 pm rating: 3
#15.10 Canthz_B

Um, I’m only speaking for myself. I don’t know about what their positions were, but you addressed me, so I thought I might clarify mine by, I dunno, pointing out what I’d said earlier.

Apr 10, 2011 at 4:19 pm rating: 1

add to this thread

#16 aaa bang

You know, if people didn’t reproduce, they wouldn’t have this problem. Get with the program, people!

Apr 8, 2011 at 12:28 am rating: 15 small thumbs up

reply to this comment

#17 Kat

Here’s the thing that people have failed to realize, just because something is “natural” does not make it BEAUTIFUL. last I checked bleeding out my vag once a month was not beautiful, it’s disgusting. However, if it is designated for nursing use the room for just thet. Because frankly I am sick and fucking tired of being places where there are women just busting out their boobs as their kid noms away on them without any cover. If that is what the room is for then that is what it should be used for. Props for having a room designated for breastfeeding. Which I maintain, is not beautiful.

Apr 8, 2011 at 12:39 am rating: 44 small thumbs up

reply to this comment

#17.1 anglophile

Oh, Kat, you poor thing. Your mother never called your aunts over when you became a womyn to initiate you into the wonderful and beautiful mystery that is womynhood, did she? It’s not too late, you too can be proud of your fertility. Throw yourself your own party, and get the supplies here.

Apr 8, 2011 at 10:54 am rating: 9
#17.2 Kat

That is SPECTACULAR, I am definitely putting in my order. DO they perhaps have one for when your child gets the runs for the first time? That’s natural too…

Apr 8, 2011 at 12:37 pm rating: 11

add to this thread

#18 Cheryl

Team Mom here too. She’s just trying to convey an awkward and justifiably irritated request with a little humor. and yes, she shouldn’t have to ask someone to leave the room who doesn’t belong there. Also, if the problem persists, lock the room and give out keys only to the women who need them.

Apr 8, 2011 at 12:44 am rating: 23 small thumbs up

reply to this comment

#19 Who? Me?

Problem? Where is the problem?

As stated in the intro, “A designated pumping room at the office? Awesome! (And in fact, federally mandated.) ” The room we are all discussing happens to be that very room at this particular office, a room that the law – that we were *just* talking about, remember? – requires be made available.

So they put a sign on the door, which most importantly says: “This room is reserved for nursing moms.” See, you have to have a sign on the door so that the people who work in the office know what the room is for. Without a sign, the room looks like a nice place for any employee to just pop in if its not being used and make a private phone call. Cuz employees are smart, and have awesome squatter potential, especially when the real estate situation demands it.

If you’ve never actually been a lactating Mom, you may not realize that the problem with just popping in if its not being used is that when a real, live lactating Mom comes along, lugging her crap and needing to use the room, she feels kind of awkward and annoyed to have to kick you out of the room when she needs to use it. She’s a new Mom, you see, she hasn’t mastered the “you’ll do it, mister, because I told you too” quite yet. She’s tired and sleep-deprived (because many babies don’t sleep through the night until they are 1 or 2, did you know that?) You’ve just made her incredibly busy life (I’ve done it, thank god it’s over now) that much more difficult. This was the little window she was counting on before that 2-hour phone conference that starts at 1:00, followed by the staff meeting right after.

This is a special room just for her, not for anybody else. By Law. So she can *feed her baby* AND *get her job done*. But the thing is, conference rooms can be hard to find, and of course it’s tempting to see an empty room and think no harm, no foul since nobody is using it anyway.

But the thing is, if the sign just says, “This room is reserved for nursing moms.”, then the non-lactating folks don’t seem to get the message that they should KEEP THE F*** OUT. They use the room when it’s free because they don’t see the harm.

The way I see it, they could have added the words, “Non-lactating folks should KEEP THE F*** OUT” but I suspect that possibly might have been viewed as inappropriate.

So they went with Plan B: go with humor, a cute as pie baby, and a polite request to use another room instead. Call that passive-aggressive if you like, but I think it beats the alternative.

And ironically, the word of the day right now is from Kay on the subject of dog poop: “This is a thing of beauty right from the “Hey, Sillies!” down to the “You’re welcome!” The tone, the actions, bringing baggies and dumping some poop, all is just the super duper loveliness that P/A can be.”

The crowd thinks that the dog poopie note is a thing of beauty (I know I did), but this note gets a “[save] the guilt-tripping for your kiddos back home.”? C’mon. Keep the f*** out of the room, and there wouldn’t be a need for the PA.

Team Mom.

Apr 8, 2011 at 12:58 am rating: 46 small thumbs up

reply to this comment

#19.1 Canthz_B

I dunno. This is a hard one, but I’ll see if there’s a turd here …

Can breastfeeding moms talk on their cellphones while they breastfeed in there? How does anyone know when they’re finished breastfeeding and just sitting there or talking on the phone with that blanket over their boobies while their co-workers do the work?

If breastfeeders insist on being able to do so in public (which many do), then they really cannot use modesty or privacy concerns to claim exclusive use of a room when they don’t happen to like the company.

But I’m a guy, and I’m getting my sac out of this thing before the shoes hit the man!

Apr 8, 2011 at 5:02 am rating: 10
#19.2 duh

Uh, CB, I think you’re mixing up the moms who don’t mind whipping it out anywhere with the moms who feel strongly about breastfeeding but aren’t so comfortable doing it in front of strangers. The latter group is the reason for having a private room in the first place. Maybe some would argue they should get over it or switch to formula, but, as others have said, It’s The Law. Deal with it.

Apr 8, 2011 at 10:38 am rating: 9
#19.3 Adriana

@ Who? Me? “She’s a new Mom, you see, she hasn’t mastered the “you’ll do it, mister, because I told you too” quite yet. She’s tired and sleep-deprived (because many babies don’t sleep through the night until they are 1 or 2, did you know that?)”

You’re making a lot of assumptions. I learned to stand up for myself long before I ever even had sex. You may agree with the note’s message, and that’s fine, but I’m enjoying watching you excuse passive-aggressive behavior. “Gee, guys, she can’t ask someone to leave a room that’s federally mandated for her lactation needs because she’s not a bossy mommy pants yet!” Seriously? She has a job and she has a baby; she’s old enough to tell people what she wants.

Apr 8, 2011 at 10:41 am rating: 16
#19.4 Who? Me?

CB, they are not “breastfeeding” in there. They don’t have their babies with them because they are at work.

No, they have dragged out their “Pump N Style” (if they are lucky) and attached it to their breasts while the machine “milks them” rather like a cow. Oooh, baby, baby, it is such a very sexy look, especially with the machine making its rhythmic noises. I don’t recall making phone calls at the same time, but I suppose it is possible.

@Adriana, I was making a sarcastic comment with grains of truth. Yes, she can ask someone to leave a room. But it is a hassle and she shouldn’t have to.

Apr 8, 2011 at 11:00 am rating: 8
#19.5 Adriana

@Who Me Yes, she shouldn’t have to, so she should definitely post a passive-aggressive note rather than talk to management or the offenders in question about the problem.

Apr 8, 2011 at 11:44 am rating: 4
#19.6 Who? Me?

No, after reading many of the responses, I think they should have solved the problem with Plan A.

The sign should read

“This room is reserved for nursing moms.

Non-lactating folks should KEEP THE F*** OUT!”

but even that wouldn’t keep out many of those who have “such important” phone calls.

The note isn’t some hand-scribbled job – I suspect that it was created and posted with the blessing of management. And I think they did a really great job – “This is a thing of beauty”, to borrow a phrase bestowed by Kay on the dog poopie note.

It’s not the PA note – many of you just fundamentally disagree with the concept of a designated pumping room at the office. You’d criticize any posting instructing you to keep out, regardless of how it was worded.

Apr 8, 2011 at 12:13 pm rating: 5
#19.7 Celeste

They’re not breastfeeding. They’re using a pump to express milk to save for the baby to have later. The pumps are often electric or battery operated and are noisy, so no, you can’t really talk on the phone. And by the way, pumping is no picnic.

SOME people insist on breastfeeding in public. Most women don’t. Just because SOME people like to do certain things in public doesn’t mean the rest of us aren’t allowed to say, “Uh, no, I need privacy for that.” Some people like having sex in public too.

Apr 8, 2011 at 1:18 pm rating: 12
#19.8 Interesting

Interesting,
Is Whisper Wear out of business? There are some quieter electric pumps.
Manual pumps are quiet, which someone preferring privacy might go for.
Add bluetooth – will talk on cellphone and pump.

Apr 8, 2011 at 1:42 pm rating: 1
#19.9 Canthz_B

Yay! There was turd here to stir after all!!

@Duh: I’m not mixing anything up, I’m telling jokes…you’re mixed up.
It’s the internet, deal with it.

Side note, I work at a large company and we have a day-care center on site. Our moms go down to the day care center where there’s a nice little set-up for them to breastfeed. So it’s really not unthinkable, though I admit improbable, that they have their babies in there.
Technically, if they don’t have their babies in there (or someone else suckling) they are not “nursing”…they’re expressing milk, so a sign that says “nursing mothers” actually does mean that there’s some suckling going on.
Not saying they used the right word, but that’s what it means, and that’s what makes it funny (and why we have so many words).

Besides, the expressing of breast milk at work really doesn’t lend itself to jokes as well as actually breastfeeding at work…that’s inherently hilarious, so I took a little license with this sign.

Not sure where the pumpers do their pumping…never occurred to me to ask.

Apr 8, 2011 at 7:52 pm rating: 2

add to this thread

#20 Bottle-Fed on Formula, Bitch.

Phone conversation: can’t wait.

Tit pumping: can wait.

Tough.

Or, you know what’s a better way to go about doing it? A sign saying: “This room reserved for breastfeeding mothers.”

Dear submitter: Please either rip that sign down, or deface it: “YES, STARVE!” I would. I am cheering you on.

Sincerely,
Bottle-fed on Formula, Bitch.

Apr 8, 2011 at 1:32 am rating: 17 small thumbs up

reply to this comment

#20.1 hamoboy

Yes, bitch indeed… The room is reserved by LAW, for the lactating mother… Whoever the fuck it was on the phone should keep the FUCK OUT!!

Apr 8, 2011 at 6:40 am rating: 20
#20.2 iruleuruniverse

Phone conversation: CAN WAIT
“Tit” pumping, as you so professionally stated: CANNOT wait.

There, I fixed it for you.

I want to see you walking around with breasts full of milk that hurt so much you want to cry every time you take a step and they move a little.

Be an adult, seriously. What is wrong with people sometimes?

Apr 8, 2011 at 7:09 am rating: 38
#20.3 clever name

I like you assume everyone on the internet is an adult. Age, 30 to 45 maybe?

Apr 8, 2011 at 12:02 pm rating: 2
#20.4 Canthz_B

Ooh! Can you make me 17 again too? Please?!

Apr 8, 2011 at 8:08 pm rating: 3
#20.5 chesire cat

What is your issue? I thought the note was smarmy and all but your attitude is over the top rude. Pumping cannot wait. If you go too long without pumping your milk supply goes down. I learned that the hard way when I was trying to pump enough for not just one but two babies (TWINS motherfucker!). Also if you get engorged from not pumping on time it hurts like a mofo and you will start leaking meaning you will ruin your work clothes and look ridiculous with two wet spots on your tits.

Phone calls can happen anywhere. Go out in your car, outside, in the bathroom. Pumping needs space to place the pump and everything else, you need to be comfortable and you need to have a plug in. Much harder than just a phone call.

Apr 9, 2011 at 9:30 am rating: 11

add to this thread

#21 Karen

Team mom!

Maybe the non-lactater should request to have another room designated for “non-essential personal phone calls on company time”? Clearly there is a need. I’m sure your boss will be thrilled to know you’re not a complete douche bag. And then you can just go back to fulfilling your personal agenda while on the clock, Instead of that AND wasting a nursing mother’s valuable time while you’re at it.

Apr 8, 2011 at 1:34 am rating: 25 small thumbs up

reply to this comment

#22 Higham

Guys, I’m a dude, my wife and I have four children, If I’ve learned nothing else from this I’ve learned not to argue with maternal mums, step away from the comments section, they’re starting to swarm.

Apr 8, 2011 at 3:01 am rating: 41 small thumbs up

reply to this comment

#23 Mrazda71

First of all, I think as this site is visited by many people who wont have experienced having a child either because they are men/too young/too immature mentally to deal with it. I dont think any of the women here making valid points about breastfeeding will get anything other than pathetic comments from the above mentioned. Whatever the woman had put on her note would have annoyed the sub so her wording or photo are irrelevant, The sub is obviously a brat who thinks he/she deserves to do whatever the hell they like and is probably a misogynistic man anyway. If you’re phone call is so important then im pretty sure there are gonna be other places to make it… like outside with the smokers… I’M TEAM MOM!

Apr 8, 2011 at 3:20 am rating: 18 small thumbs up

reply to this comment

#23.1 Yeah

In my experience, most people who have kids are “too immature mentally to deal with it”. Unfortunately, no one’s had any luck implementing parenting licenses.

Apr 8, 2011 at 8:52 am rating: 27
#23.2 anglophile

So, Mrazda71, because I am not a mom, I must be, in your view, (a) a man, (b) pre-puberty, (c) mentally immature?

This is the kind of idiotic attitude that people are reacting negatively about this note. Any mother worth a damn who finds someone making a phone call in the room when she goes in to pump simply asks them to leave. A twit like you, who think having a child suddenly makes you special, makes a passive/aggressive guilt-trippy, oh-so-charming (gag!) note like this, and lays herself open to well-deserved ridicule.

Apr 8, 2011 at 11:08 am rating: 38
#23.3 Canthz_B

I’m a man, a smoker and I’M TEAM TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE FAMILY MEDICAL LEAVE ACT IF YOU’RE STILL “SUFFERING” YOUR QUALIFYING MEDICAL CONDITION!

Everyone else is at their desks for 8 hours, while Lactites skip out on a whim claiming a full tank.

I don’t want to hear any crap about privacy and modesty either. You have a baby. You’re lactating, Do you really think anyone still thinks you’re a virgin? You gave up the goodies and everyone knows it, so just whip your tits out and do what ya gotta do.
Hell, if your tits were all that, people wouldn’t be talking on their cell phones around them!

Apr 8, 2011 at 8:28 pm rating: 6
#23.4 TippingCows

Wow you’re such a nice, non-judgmental person. Will you (not) be my friend?

Hey what category do you fall under? My guess would be mentally immature, but I can’t make a fair assessment until I’ve gotten to know you better

Apr 9, 2011 at 3:04 am rating: 5

add to this thread

#24 boxes

They’re trying to starve our babies! OUR BABIES!

Apr 8, 2011 at 3:20 am rating: 14 small thumbs up

reply to this comment

#25 Wayne

Fuck children…… Owait!!!!

Apr 8, 2011 at 3:40 am rating: 1 small thumbs up

reply to this comment

#26 Kris

For one thing, You don’t have to be mature, educated or intelligent to have a kid, you just have to have spread your legs. Anyone with a uterus and functioning reproductive equipement can do it. So you can get off your mothers-are-superior pedestals. Especially since its your other co-workers who are going to be covering you on the days you need to stay home with your kids.

A simple sign saying, “Designated Breastfeeding Only Room – No phone calls please” in large bold letters posted on the door would have sufficed. The boss sends out a memo instructing the office the room is not to be used for non-breastfeeding activity. Get to the point, ditch the cutesy garbage. If that sign is not working, some sign with a baby picture on it with small writing isn’t going to work either. You file a formal complaint, as you would if an employee was not following other office protocol. You know, something actually professional considering its an office environment.

Apr 8, 2011 at 3:49 am rating: 76 small thumbs up

reply to this comment

#26.1 aaa

I often have these same thoughts, but I realized if people always did the professional, mature, direct thing, then we wouldn’t have this site to entertain us. I’ve given up on humanity and just enjoy the crash and burn when the inevitable fuckery occurs.

Apr 8, 2011 at 9:42 am rating: 11
#26.2 Who? Me?

Guess what? They likely tried that first, and it didn’t work. Because the posters don’t really care what the note says, they feel entitled to use the room.

Assuming your brilliant suggestion was implemented, it might solve the problem for all of 3 months. New people get hired, new people give birth, the cast of characters change. All of a sudden, a lot of people either never got the memo, never read the memo, or never paid attention because it didn’t seem relevant at the time. So, somebody decides that they have to post the memo on the door. Soon, that memo looks worn and disgusting so somebody takes it down because “everybody has seen it anyway” and the process repeats.

Your solution doesn’t work. Management then trys to “nicely” get the message across with the note above. But you would actually prefer, instead of that sign, that moms file formal complaints against other employees who use the room?

And you honestly think that by doing that it would make the mothers more popular with the other employees in the work-place? And that mothers would no longer be viewed as “being superior” to the other employees?

C’mon. Just keep the f*** out of the room.

P.S. Sure you just have to “spread your legs”, as you so professionally put it, to get pregnant. But to hold down a job while you are breastfeeding an infant is not quite the same thing. That takes a bit more talent and determination.

Apr 8, 2011 at 1:08 pm rating: 10

add to this thread

#27 Canthz_B bang

Ya gotta have some awesome nipples to extrude the pasta that little Chef Boyardee there expects for dinner!

Apr 8, 2011 at 4:17 am rating: 8 small thumbs up

reply to this comment

#27.1 anglophile

Seriously.

How long is that kid going to be on the tit?

Apr 8, 2011 at 11:11 am rating: 2

add to this thread

#28 Interesting

This sign is flawed in a number of ways:
1) It does not specify whether the phone caller was or was not a nursing mom. For all we know, the sign maker is annoyed with a multitasking go-getter mom for the multitasking itself.
2) How did the sign-maker even even know whether or not the offending phonecaller was using the room as intended? Bluetooth technology now makes expressing milk on the-go very convenient. Why not finish up the last few seconds of the phone call while packing away milk expression supplies and baby’s dinner?
3) Even if the offending phone-talker appears to be clearly male – it pays not to judge a breast by its cover. There are all sorts of sexes and genders out there and perhaps the one thing they have in common is the desire to talk on the phone. Who knows what lurks behind that breastmask (a.k.a. shirt)? Thanks to milk expression rooms, the answer to that question is no longer: anyone who happens to be in the bathroom or breakroom at the wrong time.
4)Leaving aside point three, let’s presume for the moment that inividuals who are clearly and obviously male are barging into the nursing room and hanging out in there.
ARE CELL PHONES THE PROBLEM AT THAT POINT? Methinks there is a more serious issue which should be brought up to HR ASAP if that’s the case.

Apr 8, 2011 at 4:18 am rating: 8 small thumbs up

reply to this comment

#29 Canthz_B bang

I agree.

Who wants their child exposed to secondhand ~~smoke~~ cellphone conversations in the breastfeeding room?

Here’s a compromise….post this in restaurants:

“This restaurant is reserved for adults who’d like to eat out in peace without listening to your rugrats scream and cry.

Please go to McDonald’s or some other “family restaurant”, or ask about hiring a babysitter.”

Apr 8, 2011 at 4:25 am rating: 32 small thumbs up

reply to this comment

#29.1 Rattus

I desperately want that sign up, both at restaurants and on public transit, and would be willing to suspend my resentment of all the moms out there who think they deserve more time off, more attention, more space, more everything just because someone banged them once.

I will never cede the revulsion I feel for anyone who uses the word Mom, Mommy, Mum, Mummy or Mother in their on-line name, however. If “mommy” is how you most strongly identify yourself, then I suggest that you get the hell off of the interwebs and tend to your spawn.

Apr 8, 2011 at 1:29 pm rating: 15
#29.2 Heroin

While I don’t enjoy bratty children in a nice restaurant when I’ve paid a babysitter so I could get away from mine, I’m pretty sure that thought can’t be applied to public transit, which is certainly not fancy, quiet or exclusive.

Apr 8, 2011 at 2:54 pm rating: 6
#29.3 Rattus

Yeah, I know, it’s just an unattainable preference of mine. I find that even being deaf in one ear and wearing an iPod bud in the other cannot drown out the shrieking of the damned…er, the small unhappy child drooling directly behind me.

Apr 8, 2011 at 3:03 pm rating: 2
#29.4 Heroin

Fair enough. Whenever I have to take public transit I hate every human on it, just because they are there.

Apr 8, 2011 at 3:09 pm rating: 10
#29.5 Canthz_B

My rules of thumb are:

If you’d take a romantic date there, don’t take your baby or toddler there, because odds are your crying kid will disrupt the romantic moods of others.

If they don’t have a children’s menu, don’t take your kids there.

If they have a liquor license, don’t take your kids there…especially during happy hour when people are trying to wind down after work and may actually be there to AVOID going home and hearing their own kids whine and cry.

Do take your children to places with colorful mascots, like clowns, kings, red-headed girls and mice named Chuck.

If it’s not a G-rated movie, don’t take your kids there, because if they don’t sit quietly at home for two hours straight, odds are they won’t at the movies either.

Those of us whose children are grown, or even passed the crying stage, have done our time listening to that…we don’t want to do your time as well.
We’re laying out good money for good food, service and atmosphere. We didn’t go to a place with a ball-pit to find that. And this place probably bores the crap out of your kids.

Apr 8, 2011 at 9:16 pm rating: 8
#29.6 Proud Mommy to Rattus

Oh, Ratty. How could you?

Apr 8, 2011 at 9:24 pm rating: 1
#29.7 Rattus

Ooooh, so conflicted. Snorting with glee battling sneer of disdain. Brain…can’t…handle…contention

Apr 9, 2011 at 6:41 pm rating: 0

add to this thread

#30 snatchbeast

how does one breastfeed a baby in a highchair?

team submitter

Apr 8, 2011 at 4:32 am rating: 5 small thumbs up

reply to this comment

#31 Canthz_B bang

Yeah, because when I’m looking for a quiet place to have a cellphone conversation, the first place that comes to mind is the room full of babies…well, right after the highway median that is.

Apr 8, 2011 at 4:38 am rating: 4 small thumbs up

reply to this comment

#32 Canthz_B bang

If a woman goes to work and her kids are home from school sick, doesn’t her cell call home to tell them it’s time for them to take their meds make her a nursing mom?

Apr 8, 2011 at 4:51 am rating: 4 small thumbs up

reply to this comment

#32.1 hamoboy

No, the law says LACTATING mom, so smartasses like you wouldn’t weasel around it.

Apr 8, 2011 at 6:43 am rating: 9
#32.2 Canthz_B

Well, you’re certainly no smartass…you make that very plain. Because my JOKE was about the SIGN WE’RE LAUGHING AT which actually says “NURSING MOMS”, not about the fucking law.
The law says “Lactating” because “nursing” is the incorrect term…which is why we should be laughing at the note and why it’s posted here.

This really ain’t rocket surgery people.

Apr 8, 2011 at 9:15 am rating: 8
#32.3 TickleMyBambo

Oh CB, how I have missed you!! I surely don’t like a parent who allows their child to scream their lungs out in the middle of a restaurant, I also make sure that my own daughter doesn’t become disruptive to the public as well. When she starts acting up, I pay my bill or stop what I am doing and take her straight to the car or outside. It’s called common courtesy.

Apr 8, 2011 at 8:06 pm rating: 8

add to this thread

#33 Pylgrim

I dislike babies so you failed to get to me with your stupid note. Had you rethorically wondered whether your spawn /need/ food, I -much to my chagrin- would have to agree that technically, the creature /needs/ nourishment to stay alive; that I fail to see what good represents such outcome, is something, I’d admit, irrelevant to your question.

However, you chose to use the word “deserve”, which prompts this immediate response: Hell, no! Your litte factory of pseudo-liquid excrement and ear-rendering wails, deserves absolutely nothing from society at large and a picture of his little ugly face, grotesquely complimented by a chef hat, does little to change this fact.

Apr 8, 2011 at 5:24 am rating: 15 small thumbs up

reply to this comment

#33.1 Canthz_B

Meant to be posted as a sarcastic response to the sign, I hope.

Apr 8, 2011 at 5:49 am rating: 2
#33.2 Pylgrim

P.S. I suggest you start stocking up on beanies. The almost deformedly sticking out ears of your offspring will make him the easiest target for bullying once he enters school, so hiding them is in order.

Apr 8, 2011 at 8:41 pm rating: 1

add to this thread

#34 mama

a lot of you are missing the point – she wants to pump, not feed her baby in there. there won’t be a crying baby in the room, there will be an awkward pumping machine. it won’t be easy for her to cover up with a blanket and it will require considerably more focus/calm on her part to get this job done than if she were simply able to feed her baby on the spot. baby isn’t with her at the office. this is no where near the same as a mother feeding her baby in public.

Apr 8, 2011 at 7:08 am rating: 22 small thumbs up

reply to this comment

#35 AnonyReader

Blah blah blah … I nursed my child, including pumping, and didn’t find this kind of passive-aggressive rudeness necessary to get the job done. I am SO TIRED of women who think the heavens opened up and shone down on them because THEY procreated. Most of us have, and we quietly do what needs to be done every day to be mothers. The attitude of the sign’s creator, as well as some of these uber-defensive posters, make me worry about the emotional health of their children, if they throw superiority, shame and scorn around so carelessly. All that was necessary here was a sign posted that it was a nursing room. Hold the holier-than-thou attitude, please. You’re still just the same as the third world woman who squats in the field to birth her baby, except far more spoiled.

And the concept that lactation is complex and requires tranquility is BS. Any woman who’s had her breasts leaking while working out or in the middle of a contentious work meeting knows it.

If the sign REALLY needed something more emphatic to keep insensitive employees out, the words “federally-mandated” could have been added to the “this is a designated nursing room” sign. THIS kind of behavior is NOT humorous and is designed to create a rift.

Apr 8, 2011 at 7:31 am rating: 75 small thumbs up

reply to this comment

#35.1 Amanda

This is exactly what I was thinking. I have an office where I can just lock the door, so I didn’t need a designated room to pump. However, I often have people who pop in and stick around a while. When my breasts started hurting and I really needed to relieve the pressure, I simply asked them if we could continue the conversation in 15 minutes so that I could take care of personal business.

As nosy as people are, EVERYONE knew I was feeding my child breastmilk and “personal business” was pumping. I didn’t have to get cute and ask them if they were trying to starve my baby by keeping me away from the pump with their complaints about the new expense report forms. I simply asked for privacy and dealt appropriately with those who did not want to respect that.

Apr 8, 2011 at 9:30 am rating: 34
#35.2 merkin4

I work in a really, really big office. 3000+ people. So, they took a small central conference room, outfitted it with some comfy chairs, and put a sign on the door that says “Nursing Mother Room”. The door is locked. If you are pumping, you go to the front desk and ask for a key – they let you keep it for the next year or whatever. Nice fridge in there too.

Privacy, low light, no creepy sex-offender list types hanging out in the conference room hoping to get flashed.

Of course, every other conference room in the building is usually taken up by some person yacking away on the cell phone. Hallways, bathroom stalls, whatever.

My favorite all-time cell phone conversation overheard went like this:
“HPV. HPV. No, not HIV, HPV. You know, the warts…. Yeah, on the hoo-ha…. I dunno, freeze them off with that liquid nitrogen stuff I guess….”

Apr 8, 2011 at 10:15 am rating: 21

add to this thread

#36 havingfitz

Honestly? I’m sick of people thinking the fact that they own a cell phone gives them the right to use it everywhere. We have one ladies room where I work, hundreds of employees, and 4 stalls. And there is always a line not because someone had too much chili, but because everyone else is expected to wait for people using the stalls as phone booths to finish their conversations. I do not want to hear your private business when I’m trying to do mine. If the room says it’s for nursing mothers, then that is what it’s for. Cell phone users (and no, I do not own or want one) give Entitled Moms a run for their money any day.

Apr 8, 2011 at 8:25 am rating: 29 small thumbs up

reply to this comment

#36.1 Gladystopia

Every time I’m in the restroom and I hear someone yattering away on their cell, some primal instinct drives me to emit a trumpeting, multi-octave fart.

Apr 8, 2011 at 7:51 pm rating: 22
#36.2 TippingCows

This idea is so odd to me; if I HAVE to take an important phone call with my cell at work I go outside. More often than not, nothing is that important that I have to disrupt my job to attend to it; most matters can wait until I am on lunch or off duty.

Apr 9, 2011 at 3:10 am rating: 2

add to this thread

#37 erin

Why don’t they just put a lock on the door and give a key to the mothers who require that room? Problem solved.

Apr 8, 2011 at 8:57 am rating: 14 small thumbs up

reply to this comment

#37.1 aaa

Because that would be the easiest, most direct way of doing things. And when confronted with a problem, the majority of humans tend to go about finding a solution in the most roundabout, flounciest manner possible. I mean, shit, how would you be able to attempt a guilt trip and post a picture of a child in a “cute” pose if you gave a key to only the necessary people or emailed a memo about the purpose of the room? Damn, you try to ruin everything that’s fun, don’t you?

Apr 8, 2011 at 9:08 am rating: 16
#37.2 *snerk*

That’s what our room is like: locked, with keys given by HR to those who need them. Fridge for storage, comfy chair, table, and that’s about it.

Apr 8, 2011 at 2:57 pm rating: 1
#37.3 Heroin

Also because not all offices are huge. I worked at a non-profit and our office consisted of three rooms: one shared office for 2 employees, a bathroom and a client waiting area. When my co-worker was still breast-feeding she pumped 3 times a day in our office: just after morning coffee break, over lunch period, and after afternoon coffee. We didn’t schedule clients during those times and I usually went to the coffee shop across the street.

No skin off my nose to accomodate someone else for a few months. Karma is good to me.

Apr 8, 2011 at 3:03 pm rating: 12

add to this thread

#38 Effy

Um, why are people taking their babies to work anyway?

Apr 8, 2011 at 9:55 am rating: 2 small thumbs up

reply to this comment

#39 pit pat

I pumped at work after my baby was born and stored the milk in the fridge (and yes, everyone was fine about that – small office, all women, all friends, etc). Boy did I raise some eyebrows when I started bringing whole milk from home (for my tea) in Medela bottles. I know it looked weird, but they were the perfect size, and everyone got a laugh out of it.

Team breastpumping!

Apr 8, 2011 at 9:59 am rating: 5 small thumbs up

reply to this comment

#40 Zsa

Solution- Take down annoying note. Continue to pump. Take the name of every yahoo who walks in with their cell phone. Report them to HR for sexual harassment because while your boob was out in the “Nursing Mother’s Room” they stared at it.
The resulting memo will make for MUCH better PA postings. Please adjust and forward us the email from HR promptly

Apr 8, 2011 at 10:37 am rating: 15 small thumbs up

reply to this comment

#41 aargh

http://stfuparents.tumblr.com/

Apr 8, 2011 at 10:40 am rating: 5 small thumbs up

reply to this comment

#41.1 TippingCows

I too was thinking that this whole thread belongs on that site. WOOO they’d have a field day with it.

Apr 9, 2011 at 3:11 am rating: 2

add to this thread

#42 Joe Blow

The problem with this specially designated “nursing moms” room is that I highly doubt there’s also a specially designated “private conversation” room where people can go to have a quiet conversation they don’t want the rest of the office to overhear. If you’re at work during the day M-F, sometimes personal calls have to made while you’re there. It sounds like this room previously filled the need of people to be able to talk without being overheard, and has now been co-opted by a different group who’s needs are *obviously* much more important than anyone else’s. My guess is that if you ask the receptionist, she’ll tell you to go scream into your phone outside, while the wind and traffic makes having a normal conversation very difficult. Because, you know, the nursing moms can’t possibly be bothered to share that space with anyone else..

Apr 8, 2011 at 11:17 am rating: 7 small thumbs up

reply to this comment

#42.1 ashmeadow

Well, I think this note is highly overwrought, and could have been put much better, but your “Cell Phone users deserved a place to themselves too” rant is both hilarious and stupid. The government doesn’t think cell phone users give any special value to society, especially since you have other methods of communication you could use to do the same thing, in the same amount of time in your little cubicle without bothering anyone.

Apr 8, 2011 at 3:42 pm rating: 14
#42.2 Canthz_B

Yes there is Joe, we call it “the stairwell” at my job…though I have heard it called “the restroom” and even “outdoors” by 30 to 45 year-olds

The younger crowd usually just call it “IM” or “texting” and never leave their desks.

Folks like me call it “I’ll be at work from 8 to 4, so leave a message on my voicemail and I’ll get back to you when I’m free, because as I said, I’ll be at work…working.”

Apr 8, 2011 at 10:47 pm rating: 7
#42.3 Risha

@ashmeadow – I want to know what doctor takes email or any other non-phone communication method, or else is available outside of my normal working hours of 8am to 6pm (usually working while I eat lunch at my desk). Seriously, sometimes you really do need to make important phone calls at work.

Apr 9, 2011 at 2:32 pm rating: 2
#42.4 ashmeadow

My doctor does email me actually. I assume that you can make these calls on your lunch hour, in which you don’t have to be in the building and you could sit in your car, right?

Apr 10, 2011 at 3:30 pm rating: 0
#42.5 Canthz_B

Actually, whenever you make personal calls on company time you are in the wrong.
No one really presses the issue much to be sure, but what you deem “important”, your company may not…and they’re paying you to do work for them during that particular time period.

You may not be using a company phone to do it, but you’re taking time you’ve effectively sold to them for your own use.

You could almost call that theft by deception, since they think they’re paying you for something you are not delivering to them, i.e. your time.

Interesting take on the matter, huh?

Apr 10, 2011 at 4:40 pm rating: 2

add to this thread

#43 gotmilk?

Seriously, my Pump in Style was so damn loud, I’d love to see someone carry on a serious conversation in the same room.

Breastfeeding is awesome, but it’s not some magical gift bestowed upon women by the Lactating Goddess. All mammals can do it. We’re just the only species that makes a big deal about it.

And there are too many variables here – are there so many nursing mothers in this workplace that a room must be designated for that use only, and nothing else? Does said lactivist have a pumping schedule, around which others in need of privacy may work? How about just hanging a “Do Not Disturb” sign when the milky magic is taking place?

I work in a small office, and would just find an empty office to pump in, three times a day. Never did it in the bathroom (I won’t use the “would you eat your lunch in there?” cliche, but it is kind of gross), but I did use the supply closet once. Whatevs. I got relief and my son got his dinner. Winning!

Apr 8, 2011 at 11:21 am rating: 24 small thumbs up

reply to this comment

#44 elbundy

So what do we need to do to get a designated jack-off room in here? It is natural and beautiful, and I want everyone to accomodate my need to make me feel special.

Apr 8, 2011 at 11:58 am rating: 19 small thumbs up

reply to this comment

#44.1 Canthz_B

Hear! Hear! It gets to be pretty hard working around you gorgeous women all day. Do you know what it’s like to sit in your cubicle with a raging woody and a severe case of blue-balls by 11:00am, watching you enter the lactation room just knowing your heaving breasts, all smooth and golden brown or milky white, are bare in there but a few feet away?

You may think that makes me a jerk-off, but let me tell you…sometimes I’d really like to make that a true perception!

Team Chicken Choking Room!

Apr 8, 2011 at 10:38 pm rating: 2

add to this thread

#45 Miss Kitty Fantastico

Personally, its the self-righteous and entitled tone of that sign pisses me off. Obviously, we don’t know the specifics… but if that room was designated by the company as a breastfeeding room, then I’ll assume a memo went out and a sign should be on the door that just simply designates the room’s purpose. If someone ignores the sign, go to management. Simple. No need for that condescending tone.

(Though on second look, it strikes me that maybe the sign maker was just trying to be cute and funny… and it just came off horribly wrong??)

Apr 8, 2011 at 12:14 pm rating: 12 small thumbs up

reply to this comment

#46 Persephone

Good lord! This is like the indoor/outdoor cats war! I’m Team Whoever-Suggested-Giving-Keys-to-Lactating-Mums. Personally, I thought the poster is a benign reaction to what appears to be a recurring problem in this office. And as for you anti-entitled-mothers bunch, get a grip! These kids are going to be at their strongest and most powerful (in other words, your doctors, politicians and, heaven help you, care home attendants) when you’re older, weaker and feebler, so you might as well start sucking up to them now. (“Sucking up to them”. See what I did there?)

Apr 8, 2011 at 12:29 pm rating: 12 small thumbs up

reply to this comment

#46.1 The Elf

Or they could be serial killers. It’s a little hard to tell when they are just infants.

Apr 8, 2011 at 12:32 pm rating: 16
#46.2 Persephone

I thought I covered that with the care home attendants. No, wait, I mean politicians….

Apr 9, 2011 at 9:52 am rating: 3

add to this thread

#47 GhostWriter bang

Gawd, but how those Lactating Mom’s like to Lord it over the rest of us. A special room for milking? Well, I don’t even have any kids yet, not for lack of trying. I’m supposed to provide the fertility center with fresh sperm samples twice a day; where’s my special room? Can I at least make my own sign??

Apr 8, 2011 at 2:19 pm rating: 7 small thumbs up

reply to this comment

#48 RP

If the room is really always taken by people on cell phones who won’t leave when asked then take it up with HR.

If they don’t care that they’re taking the space you’re supposed to be able to pump breastmilk in then they definitely aren’t going to care about a sign.

Apr 8, 2011 at 2:36 pm rating: 5 small thumbs up

reply to this comment

#49 3ringcircus

People who have issues with the existence of a room for a lactating mom to pump milk in have obviously never had to use a breast pump themselves.

For most nursing moms, the process of expressing breast milk is not a fast process, nor can it easily be done with one hand while completely covered up.

Apr 8, 2011 at 2:39 pm rating: 17 small thumbs up

reply to this comment

#50 Ethel

Actually (like Shannon and the rest of you), yapping away when a woman is trying to lactate really screws up lactation – it isn’t an easy thing to just let down especially when the infant is not present and suckling. Quiet and peace is most conducive to allowing for let down, assault on the senses is not.

So yeah, talking on the phone doesn’t hurt lactation – except when it does. Besides, if you know what is good for you you’d let the mom lactate for her infant because in the long run it is cheaper for this country and your local business insurance costs. This hurts your pocketbook by making it any harder for a child to only get breastmilk.

Apr 8, 2011 at 2:41 pm rating: 7 small thumbs up

reply to this comment

#51 hmm

So based on what I’ve read here, the assumption is that women prefer to pump in private, and the law backs them up on that. Fine.

But what happens if two pumpers need the room at the same time? The pumpers have declared it too painful (or the mother too timid) to wait for the caller to leave the room, so what do they say to the pumper waiting in line?

Apr 8, 2011 at 6:53 pm rating: 2 small thumbs up

reply to this comment

#51.1 chesire cat

I think if the pumping women can’t work out a schedule so they can have privacy then they will have to suck it up and pump in front of each other unfortunately. I would prefer not to pump in front of another pumping woman and have to watch her do it too, but if I had no other choice I would get used to it and do it.

Another pumping mother I can get used to, a skeezy male coworker being in the room while I pump, hell no.

Apr 9, 2011 at 10:06 am rating: 4

add to this thread

#52 LAX Car Service

I think it would have been fine if the last two sentences weren’t on the photo. After all, the first question really sums up the passiveness and anger of the note, really.

Apr 8, 2011 at 7:04 pm rating: 0 small thumbs up

reply to this comment

#53 Canthz_B bang

This place just needs a catchy name to keep interlopers out is all:

Lactation Station

The Pump House

The Milky Way

Mammary Express (MamEx, you delivered)

I have a few more, but I don’t want to milk it for all it’s worth.

Apr 8, 2011 at 10:23 pm rating: 9 small thumbs up

reply to this comment

#53.1 lili

This is really the only useful comment here and I am keeping these all saved. I was lucky to be able to effectively take a Soviet (read: two year) maternity leave for both of my babies, but we mamas have to stick together.

Apr 10, 2011 at 2:52 pm rating: 1

add to this thread

#54 clumber

Wow. This got even hotter than the in/out/door cat one.

Shame I have no opinion at all about it. Though I do like boobs quite a bit… not so on kids… and I do know to stay the fuck away from hormonal mothers…. What this thread needs is Claw. Anyone has his number?

Apr 8, 2011 at 11:37 pm rating: 4 small thumbs up

reply to this comment

#55 Barb H

I once worked with a woman who, as soon as she found out she was pregnant, forgot how to type. All her work was handed to me for the duration.

When she finally came back from maternity leave, she was “too tired” or was “pumping for the baby.”

Last I heard, my replacement was still doing all the word processing in that office.

Apr 9, 2011 at 12:02 am rating: 5 small thumbs up

reply to this comment

#55.1 clumber

This confuses me, Barb H. Were her lactation valves too large and covered the keyboard? I mean, I occasionally have a boob try to type but mine are not as large as maternity ones (nor will ever be). Just large enough to make jogging painful.

Pregnant and can’t type. Huh. Nope, I am still confused. I went to school with a chick who had these disgustingly lonnnnng fingernails, but she could type fine — though we all really wished she wouldn’t as the clickity noises made many of us want to hurl.

Apr 9, 2011 at 11:42 pm rating: 0

add to this thread

#56 Rebecca

Next we should argue about whether it’s okay to park just for a couple minutes in a Handicap space because “no one is using it right now” and “I’ll leave as soon as someone with a handicap needs it.” We all needed breast milk in the beginning, but only some of us were fortunate enough to receive it.

Apr 9, 2011 at 12:14 am rating: 11 small thumbs up

reply to this comment

#56.1 Canthz_B

It is OK to park in a handicapped space for a few minutes, but only if you’re lactating.

Apr 9, 2011 at 12:33 am rating: 7
#56.2 Logan

I park in handicapped spots all of the time. There are SO MANY of them and they are barely ever in use. I’ve never gotten a ticket either. And sometimes I use my grandmother’s handicapped sign so I can get a good parking spot close to the bars on weekends. Only if she’s not using it, of course.

Apr 9, 2011 at 8:10 pm rating: 1

add to this thread

#57 Edwina the Defrocked Nun

Wow, way to choose a hot-button issue.

Apr 9, 2011 at 1:09 am rating: 1 small thumbs up

reply to this comment

#57.1 Canthz_B

Priceless! A real raisin on the cupcake!

Apr 9, 2011 at 2:18 am rating: 1

add to this thread

#58 Denise

wow….just wow…. not the sign, but the comments.

Apr 9, 2011 at 5:22 pm rating: 4 small thumbs up

reply to this comment

#59 Nunavut Guy

I converted a little 6.5 Evenrude into a breast pump for the birth of my girlfriends’first child.I would have went with the 9.9,but it was a little hard on gas.

Oh,I’m single now if anyone is looking.

Apr 9, 2011 at 7:46 pm rating: 4 small thumbs up

reply to this comment

#59.1 Who? Me?

You’ll get in trouble if I say this, but I think your last sentence is absolutely hysterical, so I gave you the first thumb.

I’m sorry. Please forgive me.

Apr 10, 2011 at 1:10 am rating: 2

add to this thread

#60 Nipple Cream

A lot of things are natural, but that doesn’t make them beautiful. Shitting, menstruating, masturbating, soaping up your balls in the shower, etc. Getting knocked up, giving birth and breast feeding are also all natural, yet disgusting at the same time. No one wants to see it! it’s private!

So by all means, give the milking moms their private room because if someone did that in my office in front of me, I’d throw up.

Apr 9, 2011 at 8:07 pm rating: 3 small thumbs up

reply to this comment

#61 footsie

i see nothing wrong with this sign.

Apr 9, 2011 at 8:12 pm rating: 1 small thumbs up

reply to this comment

#62 Luna (the other one)

I don’t know why I feel the need to get in on this and I am currently questioning my own sanity. With that said, I’d like to make a few points.
1. You all assume that the breastfeeding mother has plenty of time at her job to find someplace to pump and pump. I answered the phones and I had a 15 minute break twice a day. That’s it. If someone was in the room, even if it was only for 2 or 3 minutes, I had to cut my pumping short and suffer the consequences. If the individual in the room didn’t leave, finding another place, though possible, cut into my time to the point that I would have to skip it altogether.
2. In our place of business, the Indiana State Department of Health, there was 1 tiny room on the 8th floor dedicated to all the nursing mothers in the building. We had a schedule that we kept so that we wouldn’t interfere with each other that worked fine unless some self-entitled prick decided that our private closet (it was literally a closet they outfitted with a bench and a bulletin board) was a better place for his phone calls than one of the 45 frequently empty GLASS conference rooms in our building.
3. Never, while I was pregnant or later nursing, did I ever expect preferential treatment or a lessened work load. All I asked is that I could use the one room without windows in the building to pump on my own time. But, on multiple occasions, Jackholes who figured that since it was empty it was going to stay that way, would go in, lock the door, and camp out making personal phone calls.
4. Not every woman that becomes a working mother has the option of not working. I had planned on staying home when my daughter was born, however, in my 7th month, my husband got laid off. I HAD to continue working, but there’s no reason in this day and age that my baby should have to suffer for it.
5. Women are different. Some have no difficulty letting their milk down, some do. I am one that does and it took 2-3 minutes of relaxing and thinking of my baby to get it to flow. Saying “my wife never had any trouble” is not a reason to disregard the complaints of another mother.
Do I think the note was a little much? Yeah. But I totally understand the frustration that caused it. When you are working hard at your job and trying to make sure that no one perceives you as “that working mother” (the one who’s always late, leaves early, take a zillion phone calls from her kids, and wastes hours every day trying to convince everyone in the office of how adorable her kids are), it’s very frustrating when your breaks run long because someone was in the room, or you have to leave early because you leaked on your shirt while you were waiting. I’m sure the people making the phone calls weren’t trying to cause a problem, but they obviously did or the note would not have gone up.

Apr 10, 2011 at 1:08 am rating: 18 small thumbs up

reply to this comment

#63 lili

“And the concept that lactation is complex and requires tranquility is BS. Any woman who’s had her breasts leaking while working out or in the middle of a contentious work meeting knows it. ”

Not everyone deals with that problem, you know. My sister had low supply and pumped for her baby at work (don’t recall there being any issues like this) and she never leaked. She even gave me the ONE box of breast pads she received as a gift, tearfully, because they were never necessary.

Life lesson:

The whole world is not like you. You need breast pads, another woman needs three minutes. Get it through your head: Don’t judge because you really have no effing idea.

Apr 10, 2011 at 2:58 pm rating: 8 small thumbs up

reply to this comment

#64 Canthz_B bang

Given the great expression of emotion on this issue, one is almost forced to wonder what in the world all of the conscientious mothers who went to work and also expressed breast milk for the well-being of their infant children did before special accommodations were made for them.

Did they express milk in seedy alleys alongside needle-wielding heroin junkies or something?

Of all of the things in our society crying out for legislated corrective action, one wonders how this issue ever found the light of day.

There’s my opinion, no joke.

Apr 10, 2011 at 4:57 pm rating: 2 small thumbs up

reply to this comment

#64.1 Who? Me?

CB, for most of human history women have stayed at home with the kids and nursed them the old fashioned away. Expressing breast milk was not needed because the baby was there to do the job.

Over time, the scientific revolution occurred, and somehow the word was communicated to mothers that “scientifically designed” formula was better for their children than breastmilk, and oh yeah, nursing was a rather primitive and barbaric activity anyway. And so “modern” women in the western culture did what their doctors told them to do, and used formula because they wanted what was best for their babies. Expressing breast milk was not needed because only third world savages were feeding their kids breast-milk anymore.

Then, the evil feminists fought hard so that women would have more opportunities than just staying at home and rearing children. Expressing breast milk was still not needed because only third world savages were feeding their kids breast-milk anymore; working moms were able to delegate the task of holding the bottle of formula to a different caregiver, that’s all.

It has only been in relatively recent times that scientists have discovered that formula isn’t all that is was cracked up to be. It turns out that mother nature created breastmilk is nutritionally superior to man-made formula. And as a bonus, breastmilk also contains antibodies that keep the baby protected from illnesses in a way that formulas simply cannot match. The folks who manufacture formula have tried of course, but they have failed. Breastmilk is best. Google it.

Of course, these discoveries have occurred after woman have transitioned in large numbers into the workforce. So the problem of conscientious mothers who go to work and want to express breast milk for the well-being of their infant is a relatively new one.

No, they did not express milk in seedy alleys. Most mothers in my mother’s generation gave their babies formula, because that is what their doctors told them to do.

And to answer your question – this issue found the light of day because many people believe that the health and well-being of infants is an important topic, and a topic worth fighting for.

Apr 10, 2011 at 8:53 pm rating: 10
#64.2 Canthz_B

Get over yourself and stop hiding your feminist agenda behind infants. People have always known that natural breast milk is better than formula.
We knew it before studies proved it, because we know Mother Nature knows best.
Studies PROVE it, just like studies prove that honey bees can fly.
Doctors didn’t tell your mom’s generation TO use formula, they were told that they COULD use formula and do no harm. No one has ever said that formula is superior to natural milk, the most anyone ever claimed is near parity.

But my point, which you ignore, is that there have always been women in the workforce who have chosen to express milk for their children (breast pumps happen to pre-date your law, and manual expressing of milk greatly pre-dates the breast pump), and just how do you think they accomplished this Herculean feat without a special room?

The point being, what you fought for was not the health and well-being of infants, but rather the convenience of the mothers, because no infants were ever suffering in the first place.

You over-generalize when you say “most women” did XYZ, because you have conjecture, but no supporting facts for that assertion.

So answer the question…how did moms do natural breast milk feeding and go to work before this law was passed?

My wife expressed milk at night and early in the morning and we had this thing called a refrigerator at home. That worked well for us, and I suspect (though I have no studies on the matter), for a great many others as well. I suspect as much because sales of breast pumps did not decline even as, as you say, the number of women entering the workforce increased even in a time when there was no law mandating “lactation rooms”. But people differ and there is no one size fits all solution…even reserved rooms will not fit all.

I think you greatly underestimate the amount of human history that women have worked outside of the home…try ALL OF IT!!

Women have been manually expressing breast milk from the beginning of human history.
Fact is, most women could not afford to hire a wet-nurse while they were doing the work of survival.
Try setting your horizons a whole lot farther back than you currently have them set…both culturally and chronologically.

I have no problem with your stupid little law, but make no mistake about it…IT’S A STUPID LITTLE LAW, NOT THE BEGINNING OF THE NEW AGE OF HUMANKIND!!
Want proof how small it is? You can’t get the ERA passed even today…that would mean something substantial to all women. Instead, you take this pebble they tossed you and make a Rock of Gibraltar out of it.

Passing a law against child homelessness or childhood hunger would go a long way though. Any Feminist energies working really hard on that front?
No, because it’s not about the children…it’s about what makes mommy happy.

Women went looking for longer maternity leave and came away with lactation rooms.
What you “won” is the equivalent of asking for an across the board $5/hr raise and settling for a shiny, new employee suggestion box in the lunch room.
Congratulations. Pats on the back all ’round.

Apr 10, 2011 at 9:16 pm rating: 10

add to this thread

#65 misstech

If the room is empty then it is up for grabs. But if one of you mothers need to express ask to use it. If you were outside and you needed to pump, what would you do? I truly don’t think you would ask people to leave the area you are in to give you privacy.
Quit being stupid and go with the flow. Damn!!!

Apr 10, 2011 at 5:31 pm rating: 0 small thumbs up

reply to this comment

#65.1 Canthz_B

“for grabs”? “the flow”?

If those two puns were intentional…BRAVO!!

If not, Double BRAVO!!

And I’m only assuming “mothers” = “moms” on this one!

Apr 10, 2011 at 6:56 pm rating: 0
#65.2 BurstingAtTheSeams

double Bravo – now was that a pun too? if so, double points to you!

Apr 10, 2011 at 7:49 pm rating: 0