That's "y'all's" Thing... But Here's My Opinion

 
One of my favorite things is when I can find out how someone really feels about something.  One example is when I got a very sweet and positive-spirited girl on the cross country team to say her first cuss word.  I wasn't necessarily pleased that I "caused her to sin" (as I'm sure some people would consider it that way), but I was happy that she let her guard down for a moment and expressed an otherwise buried emotion.  Her saying that cuss word didn't make me judge her in a negative way, it just showed me that people are more complex than we give them credit for being.  And if she had the ability to say the word, she had to have first had the thought.  

That example brings me to my second example which is my actual point:  Yesterday I had a discussion with a couple of male work associates about breastfeeding.  One of them prefaced the conversation with the "that's y'alls thing/business", and I thought that was the end of it.  Then... the flood gates opened and it turned out he actually had an opinion on the matter!  Not only did he have an opinion, but he had very specific parameters regarding certain subtopics on breastfeeding.  Regardless of whether I actually agreed on his stance, I was elated he had an opinion!  Where did this come from?  I know his wife breastfed her children for a while, but how did he go from the "talk to the hand/that's y'all's thing" gesture to "I think it's strange when children are old enough to ask for a drink [from the breast]"? 

My point is that even though many people (male and female alike) claim they don't have an opinion and don't feel like it is their place to discuss breastfeeding, they do actually have an opinion, if only on a subconscious level.  Breastfeeding women aren't the only people who are affected by breastfeeding, but rather everyone is impacted by breastfeeding.  Even if no one ever saw a breastfeeding mother in public (for example, and heaven forbid, if mothers were only allowed to breastfeed behind closed doors), breastfeeding would still impact everyone, regardless of gender or whether or not someone has children. 

Another thing I did yesterday was send my blog to a targeted group of friends.  To further elaborate on my previous point, one of my friends responded to my blog with very in-depth and passionate thoughts on breastfeeding and various topics stemming from breastfeeding.  I read her response, and then wrote back to her that I was going to take time later and dissect her points one by one when I had more time.  To that I received a frantic phone call from her telling me that she was so sorry for how she responded, and that if she had known it was my blog, she would not have responded the way she did. That gave me a good laugh because it showed me that men and women will both cater the details of their opinion to their audience.  I told her that I couldn't think of one thing she said that offended me, even if I didn't necessarily agree on everything, and that I'm glad she responded the way she did.  I really appreciated all she had to say, even more than she knew, because I could tell that she was very thoughtful on the subject, and that everything she said came out of the goodness in her heart.

Now for the question of the day:  Who do you think should be the ones to decide how employers accommodate breastfeeding mothers?  This is very open-ended, and I intended it that way because I'm really interested in your answers-- especially the ones that are out-of-the-box.

To Jennifer:  In response to your comment to my post from yesterday, THANK YOU.  I agree that we don't need another mother fight.  I do, however, think that certain issues need a good amount of friendly dialogue in order to make a positive impact on the future.  The awesome thing I think the cover of TIME Magazine accomplished is that it made people read the article about attachment parenting.  My blog is about breastfeeding, and the cover of TIME Magazine showed a breastfeeding woman, and that is why I focused on the cover of the magazine, and not the content of the article.  I hope this comes across as a clarification and not a rebuttal!  

Signing off.

BkB