[Moose72]

Today I was sitting with 3 friends at starbucks. I relayed a story but they were taken aback and told me it wasnt appropriate. Wtf? Did I cross a line?

what sort of story?

what was the situation

I have a long history of saying inappropriate things, especially if I'm elevated in mood or very irritable (from hypomania, mania or depression). Actually, my mouth has gotten me in trouble more than pretty much any other thing in my life. I've lost friends for it, shocked plenty of people (friends and strangers), started fights and gotten in trouble for it, all kinds of things. Sometimes the stuff just flows out without me realizing it. I have been embarrassed because of what has come out of my mouth, but I must confess that after a lifetime of impulsivity, I learned to just say "Oh, well!" and let the realization/experience roll off my back. Even when I've lost friends for them. Unfortunately, apologies are not always accepted and sometimes when too many apologies have to be made, people stop taking them. I do better nowadays, but I'm not cured.

[Moose72]

Originally Posted by shattered sanity

what sort of story?

what was the situation

Well now would I offend you?

I was talking about when I was breastfeeding my youngest. Something I did with VHS tapes.

[pirilin]

They may be inappropiate for them. Not for you, since you told them. Who is more important in your life, you or them?.

[Blueberrybook]

Some people are prudish. I don't think breastfeeding should be a taboo topic even though we make it so in the U.S. In parts of Africa, they breastfeed until children start losing their baby or "milk" teeth. We did a study on a long-unchanged culture with this mentality in an anthropology course in my university. It was also a matriarchal society, which is something you don't see very often. It is and used to be a very standard way of life.

I was an active member of La Leche League and still am a huge believer of the rights of mothers to breastfeed in public. You hardly ever see it in Texas. Most of the time, I actually got positive comments from other mothers. You see more on the covers of magazines than you do when a mother nurses in public. However, if you were with women, particularly those with children who couldn't or didn't breastfeed, I think they might have felt guilty and judged by you because they didn't breastfeed.

People did judge me though, especially relatives, first my aunts, which really galled me because not one of them even had a child of their own, my grandmother, my mother. I breastfed until my daughter self-weaned, and she didn't fully wean until she was 4 (mostly comfort nursing by then). I think it is neat that she tells me she still has some memories of nursing. I also believe it is a good part of the reason she almost never gets sick, even though I'm sure other factors play into it.

I really don't get why people in the U.S. are so prudish about a process that is so natural.

[Unrigged64072835]

I've done that several times in my life. Usually it's my sense of humor that shocks people.

I have no problems with women breastfeeding. I wish I could, but I was put on Zoloft right after birth so I wouldn't have postpartum depression. (I still did.)

[Moose72]

Another example:

I took my youngest to a local CD/LP/tape shope. Seeing the first person behing the counter I ran up and said "If you keep moving things around Im not going to know where everything is!!" His reaction was grumpy to say the least.