Anyone else hate going to the mall?

[JamesMama]

I hate it, I actually enjoy shopping. Even if it's just window shopping. And in my pre-baby days I liked to people watch...still do so long as those people don't have kids.

Maybe I just live in the Mainstream Capitol of the world.

It seems like whenever I go to the mall I've YET to see a breastfeeding mom...okay I take that back...since I got pregnant and James was born I've seen one. And I sometimes look in diaper bags. Always a bottle (yes, it could be EBM...but ya know?...how often is it REALLY??)

It's always babies with bottles proped in the stroller. Never held. Never interacted with, pushed in the stroller rather than picked up if they are fussing, left in the bucket...I've seen several people just carrying the bucket. Thats gotta be heavy!

So, I realize I'm just seeing a 5 second snip of peoples lives so maybe they are attentive AP parents in hiding...what do I know?

Oh, and the disrespect!! The spanking and the yelling and the jerking and the "Awww, look at this toy!" *smack* "don't touch!" WTF? : and the "bye I'm leaving you!" (FTR, I've done this to James at family members homes if he wasn't coming. Usually he just says "bye!" kind of cute but never in public. And usually my relative is saying "James, wanna stay with me?" and he says "Yeah!") and the feeding of junk...

And I get the wierd looks for wearing James. I get the dirty looks for bf'ing. I get the "Pushover-parent" eyeroll when I give James a few more minutes to watch the train or play with the set up at the game store.

Tell me I'm not alone...

[becoming]

I actually like going to the mall, because I'm hoping maybe I'll start a trend with my slings and other "strange ways"! So far, it hasn't worked, but one day...

[Tilia]

You are not alone. I take my baby to the mall to look at stuff, and talk to her about what she's look at. I point at things and let her enjoy everything. And I let her feel stuff too. Hopefully people will see, "So, that's what being NICE to a baby is!"

[hhurd]

I HATE the mall, but not for those reasons. It's the rampant, unrestrained, celebratory consumerism that makes me feel ill.

[Steve's Wife]

I know....we were out the other day at Target (not the mall but the same rules apply) and this woman was shopping with her baby in the bucket propped in the cart. He looked around 2-3 months old, and she had a bottle of JUICE propped up on him....

And when we went out with family after Thanksgiving, lots and lots of bottles. But I fed dd right at the lunch table next to a whole table of babies and toddlers and their mommies. We will normalize BFing yet!!!

[newmommy]

No, I no longer like going to the mall. Too stressful. And those "Car" strollers?? Our mall charges $10 bucks to rent one!

[Sharlla]

There is nothing that the mall for me but it annoys me to see all the strollers and no babies being carried, also it annoys me when people are just standing around when people are trying to walk through, it's just plain rude.

The only good thing about it is I can go make $5 in 10 mins at the opinion center and that pays for my lunch.

[lisac77]

I am not a fan of the mall, but just because they are so big and noisy. I prefer SuperTarget for my weekly consumer fix.

[lilyka]

Well I know there are a couple places in our mall that nursing mothers flock to. (some really plush parenting lounges sure you could nurse in the noisy uncomfortable food court or sitting on a bench next to a pervy stranger but when there is a recliner waiting for you in an professionally decorated parenting lounge complete with classical music piped in and toys for your older kids why would you.)

that said I don't know a lot of nursing moms who spend hours trolling the malls. we went when we absolutely had to. But when i did I always took the stroller and went when baby was likely to be sleeping. otherwise too much stress. I hated shopping with a sling on.

[ReuseCrafter]

OK, I have never been a big mall shopper in general, but have probably been there more in the first 3 mos DD was born (she's 4 mos now) than I have in the past 3 yrs. I've had to exchange some gifts, and also went to JC Penney. Anyway, on each occasion I took the stroller. I wear and carry DD at home all the time, however, at my age and weight, I find it difficult to do while walking around the mall. Also, I don't personally see any reason why she can't see the world from another perspective for a couple hours occasionally. I mean, if it's ok for her to take a 2 hour car trip in the car seat, what is wrong with driving 10 mins to the mall and then spending a couple hours strolling along? Also, I take her out and carry her in arms as necessary, but it's nice to have the stroller to put her back into when I get tired. So the odd bit of stroller use does not mean that I'm not AP. On the other hand, I love my wrap and sling for things like going to the park to watch DH play soccer (or now to the indoor stadium for winter). I just use each tool in my repertoire as I deem appropriate for each situation.

As for BF, I only had to do it at the mall once, and I happened to be in the baby clothes dept of Penney's, so I just dashed into the fitting room. Not to hide, but because I needed to just sit down and nurse in comfort. The other times I have just left and gone on to wherever I was going out to eat lunch and BF there or gone on home. Since she's still little, we haven't really had a lot of really long trips out and about, we're usually out just 4 hours or less except for a couple occasions. I'm sure this will change as she gets bigger.

Regarding bottles, our first several outings I took along bottles of EBM just in case, but never did have any luck yet getting DD to take EBM from a bottle. The couple times I did, I was almost embarrassed, and made a point of telling the women I had random conversations with that it was EBM, lol. I have a gold ribbon tied to my diaper bag that my LC gave me to signify that I'm a breastfeeding mom, but I really have no idea who else in the world has any idea what it's for.

BTW, if you do see someone feeding a bottle in public, EBM looks startlingly white in the bottle as compared to the thick beige-y formula

[~Heyokha~]

Originally Posted by hhurd

I HATE the mall, but not for those reasons. It's the rampant, unrestrained, celebratory consumerism that makes me feel ill.

:

[damselfly41]

Originally Posted by JamesMama

And I get the wierd looks for wearing James. I get the dirty looks for bf'ing. I get the "Pushover-parent" eyeroll when I give James a few more minutes to watch the train or play with the set up at the game store.

Tell me I'm not alone...

No. You are not alone. I couldn't even count how many dirty looks I've gotten for NIP. But I can count how many mamas I've seen NIP in my whole life-that would be a very sad two.

[PeacefulSeams]

I don't like the mall. It's so noisy and overcrowded. People pushing past one another to get that new awesome cool item. Of course the next week it's not so awesome or cool when it's on the clearance rack

[Jessy1019]

I love the mall, especially at Christmas.

I used to work there, though, so I have a ton of great memories from the stores I worked at, and whenever I can't think of anything else to do, going to the mall is the first thing that pops into my head.

I don't like seeing what other people do with their babies, but I feel good about what I do with mine and that's really all that matters to me.