What is the big deal with a nursing baby?

Why all the angst and anger?

It's food. Like macaroni and cheese, hot dogs, sushi, graham crackers, and ice cream. Food. Really great, cheap, naturally produced food, but food all the same. What's the deal with nursing anywhere that it's socially OK to eat?

I agree that small kids don't belong in five-star restaurants or at the symphony... hell I don't belong there most days. But Applebee's is a family restaurant.

As for the "cover up" thing... it depends on the baby. Some don't mind, some throw it off the minute it goes on. Blankets are HOT for grownups and babies.

That's all there is to it. Nursing = food. Which means it's ok in restaurants, stadiums, train stations, airports, shopping malls, and your local Starbuck's... anywhere it's OK to eat, it's OK to nurse. That does NOT include going to a restroom, unless you care to partake of your next meal in there. For those who say a woman should plan ahead and pump... well that's a mighty fine attitude for someone who has never used a breast pump. You try it. Some women are good at it, some aren't, but it's not ideal, it's messy, involves bottles and cleanup and running out and storage and all that.

If we're that wound up about the less than five second sight of a nipple, we all just need to get over ourselves a bit. Humans are MAMMALS for chrissakes. Let's all just get used to it.

I would give my eyeteeth for part time work. Not Starbuck's, but meaningful, professional work in my field, in some other size package except 40-60 hours per week.

It doesn't exist.

It got it for almost two years, until the company hiccupped and I was laid off. I mean, she's just a part time mom, she doesn't really NEED the income. I had a manager tell me that. It was irritating and demeaning, but ALWAYS assumed that the part time worker doesn't care as much, and doesn't need the money.

Thanks very much, I DO need the money very much and I DO care. I also have children and I'm scrambling like hell to balance it all. Part time work seemed so ideal until it evaporated.

So yes, I do have children. Argue the merits of having them some other place, this article is about balancing them with work. I know myself well enough to know I can't manage a 40+ hour job and be any kind of parent. Maybe some people can do it, I can't. But there is no other choice. All or nothing. You're a full time FTE slot on the spreadsheet, or nothing. If anyone manages to find a part time slot, it's always, always the first to be eliminated.

... ok, just for an intellectual exercise. To the people who call parents "breeders," who would rather spend their cash on golf or a new stereo or a hot car, let's just all imagine all the kids, poof, evaporated.

OK, there are six bazillion people on the planet, so I suppose we're allowed to adopt, just not have our own.

Adoption is very, very expensive. A few people will adopt, most won't.

In five years, 2/3 of the universities around the country will close. No one will go there except foreign students... assuming people in other countries can still "breed."

Elementary schools close. Anyone know a teacher? Time to retrain. No kids. But oh yeah, there aren't as many universities any more either, guess they have to wait in line for that new degree.

What about the new hires at your company, and mine? They're the newly-graduated students, the ones who do the shit work, get half your pay, and are glad to get it. Those folks will all have to come in on H1B visas, guess we won't have any of our own any more.

At your next family reunion? OK, you don't have kids, but no one else does either. No one underfoot. No one to listen to your stories. No one to tell how it was in your day. No one's listening because they're not there.

As you age... head for 40... 50... 60... there's no one working and innovating and making new companies, because, damn if we didn't stop having those pesky kids. Those new innovations in liver cancer or bone marrow transplants or computers... won't happen, or at least won't happen here. Remember, we closed the universities because we didn't have any kids? Pesky, ungrateful, irritating little beasts that they are. Crap if there aren't any more young eager scientists just when I could use one.

Need your hair cut when you're 60? You'll have to find someone 60 to do it for you. No more kids, remember?

Need someone to replace the windows on your house? Someone young, limber, agile, who won't fall off a ladder? Crap, we don't have any more 25 year olds because we stopped having kids back in... oh 2007, was it?

Of course this is ridiculous, but you see where it goes. Like it or not, we NEED kids to grow up into tomorrow's working adults. Most parents aren't asking for the moon, just a little consideration.