hypothetical situation

[Happypants]

i'd like your opinion on the following situation:

i work in an independent video store, and a large part of our profits come from what we call the "red room," and i guess you can imagine what kinds of videos we have in there! anyway, in the last few weeks, several people have walked in the room with children under, say, ten months. to me, this is totally unacceptable, and the owner has asked these people to take the babies out. no one under 18 is supposed to enter, and it is very uncomfortable to have babies around that sort of stuff.

ok, so i doubt it would ever happen, but in the perfect world where most mothers would bf, would it be acceptable to ask a breastfeeding mother to leave the red room? really, in the perfect world, the red room wouldn't exist : but since we bf advocates say that a mother should be allowed to bf anywhere she's allowed to be, does that extend to places such as this? just curious what you all think. i can't decide if this is mostly a bfing ? or more of a "where do you draw the line on where babies are allowed" ?.

anybody?

[AmyG]

IMHO, babies should be allowed to nurse anywhere that babies are allowed to be. I fully support the right of private organizations to allow adults only. If it were the DMV or some other government office that wasn't allowing nursing moms, that would make me upset, but in your situation, I think that if the owner wants to keep babies out, that's fine.

[kama'aina mama]

I think most laws and most sensible policies say anywhere the mother and baby are permitted to be. I think under a certain age (measured more in weeks than months) I wouldn't care any more about a baby being in there than I would the room existing at all. By 10months or so kids are much more aware of their surroundings I would not permit them to be in there. If they know exactly what movie they want can they dash in and grab it? Or ask a clerk to get it for them?

I have gotten to the point of not taking my three year old DD to the video store at all anymore. The pictures on so many movie boxes are just too much! Gore and blood and violence.

[TiredX2]

I honestly don't think it should matter if an infant goes into a place like that with their parents. BUT, I also feel that way about bars, but that's not what it says.

I would make it the policy to not let anyone under 18 in. Because it is easy to say "No one under 18" but once you let in some ambiguity (well, my 3 year old promises not to look, my 15 year old doesn't like being seperated from me...) then you're just down that slippery slope. That said, if it were a single person w/a child who could not stand alone, I don't know what they're supposed to do--- just lay them on the floor? I can definately imagine a post partum mom @ 6-10 months wanting to pick up a "surprise" for DH and not wanting to get a sitter for DC to pick it up.

I also agree, though, that the mother has a right to bfeed anywhere she AND the baby have a right to be. You can't take your baby into a bar just because they are nursing, you can't take them to a NC-17 movie, etc...

[kofduke]

Well, if you were asking a nursing mom to leave, it wouldn't be because she was nursing - it would be because babies were not allowed in the room. I have no problem with that. If you asked a nursing mom to leave the 'general' part of the video store, where babies were allowed to be, I would have a problem with that.

[jeca]

I don't see the problems with babies going in that room. They do not know about the contents of it. I would have more of a problem with older children who are fully aware what the pictures represent not children who are just seeing pictures and can't even ask a question about it, so I don't see the problem at all, nursing or not for a child under 10 months.Even under 2 for that matter.

[UlrikeDG]

Breastfeeding is irrelevant. If you'd ask them to leave if the baby were not latched on, you should ask them to leave if the baby is.