Give Gramps Some Credit

Written by Marjorie on October 10th, 2007

The other day, I was talking with my mother and sister about nursing Chris. It was along the lines of . . . oh, my god, when is he going to stop. Help! Anyway, with a bit of a blush, I remembered that my grandfather was sitting at the kitchen table and could hear what I was saying. Now, even though I am about as comfortable with breastfeeding as I am with breathing, it’s my grandfather, for cryin’ out loud, and I was a tad embarrassed. I figured he would pretend not to hear, and I was getting ready to change the subject to football, baseball, or the weather, when he spoke up: “When I was young, women would nurse at the bus stop, and the men would hold the bus for her while she finished and got organized to go. It’s a shame that people don’t have manners like that for mothers anymore.” Huh? So cool! I don’t know if that behavior was a function of his community or the time period or both, but, wow, I had Gramps pegged wrong on this issue. Whether that means I will actually let Chris stick his head up my shirt while we’re discussing our usual football, baseball, or the weather . . . I don’t think I can go quite that far.

 

8 Comments so far ↓

  1. serahrose says:

    i think it’s the generation. my grampa has said some similar things to me. it’s not like they want to TALK about the details of breast-feeding, but they respect what it is and what’s for, and the woman who is caring for her child. i love old men, not the creepy kind, the kind that smile and chuckle and hold doors for you.

  2. Christine says:

    Oh, wow. I love this…we think we are so progressive “these days”, and really in so many ways we are so backwards…

  3. Jennifer says:

    That is great! Sounds like Gramps knows what he’s talking about!

  4. Theresa says:

    Go Gramps, Go! I love what happens when we actually start talking about this stuff.

  5. Marjorie says:

    Yep, Gramps is cool. My sister started asking him more questions about this to get him to elaborate, and if you saw just a transcript of what his take is on nursing in public, you’d have thought he was some kind of feminist-mother-lactivist on her way to a nurse-in instead of a 80 year old conservative Irish-Catholic grandfather. . . So much for stereotypes.

  6. bluemilk says:

    Aw that is just lovely! Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous.

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