The joys of family
So the holidays are always full of family drama for everyone it seems. This year was surprisingly tame compared to previous years. Good for us I suppose but bad for blog fodder. I do have one particular bit of drama that irked me quite a bit during this lovely Thanksgiving holiday. It was a conversation that went something like this:
IM: What type of nurse do you want to be when you get out of school?
IM’s Aunt: Well… (followed by a 20 or so minute explanation of why she had thought about this type and decided no and then went on to this type but wasn’t sure.) It basically amounted to the fact that she didn’t know, but she ended on postpartum mother-baby nurses.
IM: Oh after Boogie was born we had this one nurse named May that the husband and I both loved. He said a funny thing to one of our friends about her helping me breastfeed. He said, “You would think seeing a cute blond nurse man-handle my wife’s breasts would be sexy, but not so much.”
IM’s Aunt: Oh my god I can’t believe you just said that. Do you not realize that my 7 year old and 13 year old are in this room?
IM: What!? First of all, your 7 year old is totally enthralled with that video game on the computer and hasn’t even turned around and this is the same 13 year old that just sat right here with us and watched an entire opening segment of Grey’s Anatomy about breakup sex.
IM’s Aunt: Well they both know that that is not real and what you’re saying is real.
IM: Eye roll, whatever. (then back to watching TV)
Ok, so maybe what I said was crass but it wasn’t dirty and not even about sex, really. In fact it was more about how un-sexy breastfeeding is. Not to mention that if she thinks her 13 year old daughter doesn’t know about sex then she has a rude awakening coming, cause if she hasn’t told her than someone at school has already.
Thinking about it again I get all riled up all over again and I’m not really sure why except it just seemed like a colossal bit of hypocrisy. AND I don’t like being accused of saying inappropriate things in front of children.
Good grief! She lets her daughter watch Grey’s, in which more people randomly hook up than on most daytime soaps, yet she gets upset about what you said? Give me a break. That would rile me too!
Oh, Nic, always saying inappropriate things around kids. I’m definitely not letting my (very-very-in-the-future) kids visit you. ever. :p
I simply can’t believe you had the gall to discuss breastfeeding in front of a 13-year old. Geesh. What were you thinking? There’s simply no way she’s ever heard anything nearly as crude at school. Or while watching Grey’s Anatomy.
That was inappropriate?
Man, I am going to be such a bad influence on my child.
Well, breastfeeding is an inappropriate thing to say/see/do by itself, didn’t you know? So of course talking about it in regards to a nurse helping you would be even worse! [eyes rolling]
I didn’t find that inappropriate at all, in fact, I had to re-read what you said to see what the big deal was. And just because the 13 year old knows that Gray’s Anatomy is not real, does that really make the show appropriate for her age? She probably gets things that happen in the show also happen in real life.
In a similar vein, my SIL basically told me she wouldn’t want her 4 year old to see me breastfeed the Pumpkin so I told her I’d do it in another room, cause I want to be respectful and all. And she said laughingly that she could imagine her son asking his DCP why she wasn’t feeding the babies at daycare by breastfeeding. Um, what? I said, “Well, he knows that she’s not their mom, right?” She said “Yes, but it would be awkward to explain.” And I said “It’s a shame that our country isn’t like others like Iceland where it is so normal to see women breastfeeding that kids just grow up knowing that’s a way moms feed their babies.” Then my MIL jumped in and said, “That’s how it used to be in this area before…” I said, “Before formula became prevalent?” She said, “Yeah.” And that ended our discussion. Yeah MIL!!!
I just really don’t get why breastfeeding is such an offensive topic - especially consdering the video’s, model’s, tv shows, commercials, etc that is out there these days!
The League of Maternal Justice is posting about this today too, BTW…..