Our local mall recently underwent an upgrade. I guess the idea was to attract a more “upscale” clientele, by making the mall more “upscale” looking. Honestly, I’m not even sure what that means, but they did put in a nice a family restroom with a large, less industrial sitting area inside. This is makes bringing small children to a public restroom a lot less stressful. They also put in a few of these:
Can anyone guess what bothers me about this?
Knitting Interrupted 
LOL–although I’m sure a more accurate “nursing” icon, if it was considered by mall management, created a bit of controversy and was deemed offensive.
Just for fun, I googled up this link:
http://www.mothering.com/sections/action_alerts/iconcontest/icon-winner.html
The icon they created is hardly offensive!
(I’d paste it here but can’t figure out how!
Finally! It is about time that society forced bottle-feeding mothers into the closet or bathroom. I find it so incredibly offensive to see women using BOTTLES in public. I mean really, can’t they keep that stuff private? Who needs to see an infant or toddler eat for crying out loud! Can’t we adults pretend that children don’t exist or have needs that need to be met?
(FYI, this is where nursing mothers are at a deep advantage. They can nurse their children without anyone ever noticing and sometimes even while walking. Unless they use one of those “blankets” to proclaim to the world what is going on.)
Trying to post the image…..
*sigh*
LOL! Well, I guess the point is that it’s a quiet place to feed a baby without distractions. (When my daughter was about 6mos, she just couldn’t eat unless we were someplace quiet and bland with no other people.) Let’s give them props for using the word “nursing”. Though as mentioned, a lot of places do have a nursing icon.
OMG! They did not put a bottle on a nursing room… sigh. It is amazing how our society goes to such double extremes. And it is probably the very men that spend their money in strip clubs to see an “exposed” breast that rail at breastfeeding moms. It’s not about the “horror” of seeing a breast – it’s that the baby is in the way! LOL.
Sheesh. I hope I teach my boys better. :D
So, I’m back again. I was telling my husband about this, and I was both surprised and amused by his opinion. For those of you who don’t know my wonderful husband he can be- uh- inflammatory at best, and sometimes downright rude. He doesn’t suffer fools well, but has an interesting take on the general population. This is how our conversation went:
Me:” Jen has this great little blog post about how her mall put in a nursing room, but the sign was a baby bottle.” (This was said with sad amusement, and with the expectation that I would get a similar response, after all, I have been breastfeeding our children for 7.5 years now, our youngest a happy BF toddler of 2.5)
Hubby: “That makes sense.”
Me: “Why? Come on, a NURSING room with a bottle? What are they telling people?”
Hubby: “That babies get fed there.
Me: “But don’t you think that they are pushing the bottle?
Hubby: “No. Most people feed their babies with bottles. It’s what the doctors “tell” them to do when they hand them that bag in the hospital filled with formula and baby bottles.”
Me: “I totally agree, but why can’t they put up a more BF friendly sign?”
Hubby: “Do they even have one? What are they going to put up there, some woman’s tit with a baby hanging off of it?”
Me: “Nooo. They have a symbol now.”
Hubby: “So show me”
Me: (goes to blog site and pulls up image found by Jen’s mom) “See?”
Hubby: (Shaking head) “In order for it to be an international symbol, it has to be recognized. I wouldn’t have known what that meant, not out of context. I see a mother and child, but I would not have connected it to BF.”
Me: “…..”
Hubby: “What kind of women choose to BF these days?”
Me: “Women who want the best for their baby?”
Hubby: “I wouldn’t say that. Every mother wants the best for her baby, whether she bottle feeds or breast feeds, she thinks she’s doing the right thing. I mean, are BF mothers educated? Do they read? Are they proactive?”
Me: “Definitely!
Hubby: “So they are smart enough to figure out that a baby bottle means ‘a place to sit down and feed your baby here.'”
Me: “Are you saying that mothers who DON’T BF aren’t smart enough to figure out that this symbol (pointing to computer screen) means a place to feed a baby?”
Hubby: “It is not universally known as a nursing symbol, much less a “feeding baby” symbol. A bottle is known all over the world as a way to feed a baby. We can extrapolate. Not everyone IS smart enough to figure this one out. Not without giving it some context.”
Me: “But don’t you think that having that bottle up there is propagating the whole bottle vs. breast thing?”
Hubby: “Absolutely not. I don’t think it has anything to do with the whole breast vs. bottle crusade – not saying that it isn’t the best choice if you have one – but condemning a mother for feeding with a bottle is as bad as condemning a mother for feeding from her breast.”
Me: “Well, they could just put up the words ‘nursing room.’ That would solve the whole symbol thing.”
Hubby: “Now you are excluding those mothers who don’t speak English. There are immigrants all over this country who don’t speak English. Even though they should, but that isn’t the point here. A bottle is an internationally understood symbol. Anywhere you go, anyone can tell you that a bottle feeds a baby. This other symbol, it just shows a mother and infant. IF you BF you would likely understand the picture, because you are familiar with the position. If you don’t BF, there is no guarantee that it will be understood at all.”
Me: “I guess I have to concede the point.” (Gotta get back to Jen’s blog. I HAVE to hear what everyone else has to say about this!)
So, seeing as how my husband doesn’t go to strip clubs, and has had ample view of said exposed breasts for numerous years, I guess I have to eat my words. Sigh. Just when I was getting up there on my high horse. LOL.
He’s very logical and smart. I dig that. I have to agree that when people have “causes”, it usually precludes logic and sensitivity. HOWEVER, as marvelous as your husband’s mind works, I would bet serious money that none of that occured to the mall folks who put up that sign. LOL
Thanks so much for posting this ridiculousness. Is there any possibility of convincing unnamed mall to change their symbol? (Though that husband’s argument is pretty convincing.)
It’s not the bottle being used as a symbol for a nursing room that bothers me. As a former breast feeding mother (my youngest is now 23), I resented being expected to sit in a boring, closet sized, box of a room (or worse yet, a filthy public washroom) to feed my baby when the bottle feeding mothers were free to feed their babies where ever they wished. I never once exposed my bare breasts while nursing, but still was expected to hide away in some closet somewhere.
I always like a good argument (this kind, not the ones with the kids) so I will chime in here and say that while the bottle is certainly a NATIONALLY recognized symbol for babies, it is NOT an INTERNATIONAL one. There ARE still countries and cultures that do not first think of feeding a baby with bottles. There are countries out there that are breastfeeding countries.
And of course what many of us here are “objecting” to here is not so much the funny contraindication or that people wouldn’t understand the purpose of the room but the obvious concession to the fact we are a bottle feeding culture. Somehow using the bottle as a symbol for babies just seems to perpetuate the idea that bottle feeding is just as good or perhaps better than breastfeeding. Or that bottle feeding is the only way to feed outside the home.
Ahhhhhh!! I have been irritated myself by this act of stupidity! I was actually going to order the Mothering icon stickers and just slap them over the bottle sign. It is very annoying that nursing has to be associated with bottles. I understand the whole feeding correlation but that is where it ends. And, I think that most wouldn’t even think twice about the bottle being used in reference to nursing. How unfortunate and sad for our society!
I don’t think the purpose is to hide nursing mothers away. It’s to provide a quiet and comfortable place, rather than a hard bench with loud music and crowds. I HAD to sit in a quiet room away from everyone or my daughter absolutely could not nurse. She’d cry because she was hungry, but had to look at everyone and everything and check out every noise. It was terribly frustrating to both of us. A nursing room at that time would have been a real blessing to us.
I don’t really see it as a problem and have to agree with the husband above. Many breastfeeding moms sometimes need to pump their milk into bottles for when they will not be with their child. I don’t think the sign is trying to make a statement as to whether one way of feeding is better – I think most people with even the slightest education are aware that breastfeeding is best. But I also don’t think the icon in the sign necessarily has to depict the action to get the point across. Think of our symbols for restrooms. LOL. That all being said, I do like the winning icon that was linked to above. It would be nice if that could be a universally recognized symbol.
Oh dear. As one who is still has a three year-old nursing… well, I’ll just say that we are all familiar with boob around here, just another part of the anatomy. :)