Althouse: Breastfeeding while driving... and talking on the cell phone.

March 2, 2009

Breastfeeding while driving... and talking on the cell phone.

Go ahead. You're entitled. You had a baby. The world should bow to your amazing prowess.

37 comments:

Meade said...: Breasts can be lethal.

Once I was driving on a highway at a pretty good clip. Traffic all around. For some reason the image of a bare-breasted woman entered my mind. The woman was very beautiful and she had perfect breasts--objectively perfect breasts. I nearly drove off the road.

I'll never do that again. I could have died.; 3/2/09, 7:02 PM
chickelit said...: For some reason the image of a bare-breasted woman entered my mind.

I'll never do that again.

Don't think and drive.; 3/2/09, 7:10 PM
Ron said...: Will the stimulus package include funds for Designated Wetnurses?
(perhaps, "Lactatress" in Fed Gov Speak!); 3/2/09, 7:26 PM
Ron said...: Hey, maybe we can use "Lactress" for those women in the entertainment biz who've just had a child! Will there be an award for Golden Globes?; 3/2/09, 7:30 PM
chickelit said...: Ron: You can milk that fine idea for what it's worth, but I'm sure the lactress intolerant would band together and smother it.; 3/2/09, 7:36 PM
Ron said...: I told someone who didn't like Poe that they were "lachrymose intolerant."; 3/2/09, 7:40 PM
traditionalguy said...: The laws are strictly applied here to protect the new born. Tell me again why the unborn are worthless growths?; 3/2/09, 7:49 PM
Revenant said...: Tell me again why the unborn are worthless growths?

The law doesn't say that the unborn are worthless growths. If it did, you couldn't sue someone for inducing miscarriage against your will.; 3/2/09, 7:54 PM
save_the_rustbelt said...: Really, really glad the air bag didn't fire off.

Creates an ugly scenario for the kid and the mom.....; 3/2/09, 7:58 PM
Meade said...: The law doesn't say that the unborn are worthless growths.

I think tradguy was wondering why some parents see their unborn as worthless growths.; 3/2/09, 8:02 PM
MadisonMan said...: It would be a more impressive feat if she were the mother of twins.

But this whole My kid is hungry and I have to feed it NOW is silly. Five minutes of hunger won't kill a kid.; 3/2/09, 8:02 PM
David said...: "You're entitled."

Did she go to Yale?; 3/2/09, 8:10 PM
John Stodder said...: How hypocritical and sexist.

Guys have been getting hummers behind the wheel since cars were invented and nobody says a thing about it. If anything, we're applauded for our audacity. But let a woman driver try to nurture her newborn in the most natural possible way, and she becomes a criminal.

Maybe we'll make it illegal for women of child-bearing years to drive, period. Wouldn't that be nice for the patriarchy! I bet John Yoo wrote up a whole legal brief on it for Dick Cheney.

(Wakes up from trance.)

Who was I channeling? Naomi Wolf perhaps?; 3/2/09, 8:19 PM
Donna B. said...: The kid's a 'little less than two years old' and she's breastfeeding him/her on demand?

What a maroon.

Yes, I know there are women who insist on breastfeeding until even 4 years old, but these moms are extremely rare and rarely sane.

By 18 months children have lots of teeth. Whether you believe in evolution or creation or whatever, it's pretty obvious these teeth are there for chewing.

Poor kid would probably rather have a cheeseburger.; 3/2/09, 8:24 PM
Meade said...: "Guys have been getting hummers behind the wheel since cars were invented..."

Something a bit off about that.; 3/2/09, 8:25 PM
Wince said...: Do you know that the female breast, known to be the source of life since Eve, can be Deadly Weapons?; 3/2/09, 8:26 PM
Meade said...: Donna B. said...
"Poor kid would probably rather have a cheeseburger."

Cheeseburger or breast?
But, in America, cheeseburgers are everywhere.
A guy can always get a cheeseburger.; 3/2/09, 8:30 PM
Bruce Hayden said...: You have to read pretty much the whole thing to get to the fact that the woman was arrested for child endangerment and failing to restrain the child in a childseat. Which is really what I think should have happened.

If the cops can cite me for failing to buckle myself up, then they really should be able to do so for the mother who takes her kid out of the child seat and nurses while driving.

And the child was being endangered. If the woman had hit someone while breast feeding, talking on the phone, and driving all at the same time, that kid would have probably turned into a missile likely heading through a window never to be seen alive again.; 3/2/09, 9:03 PM
Peter V. Bella said...: This woman is a dolt with a capital D. Of course this being the new America, she will probably sue the police department and the good samaritan and win a huge judgement. We always pay off the morons and cretins in society.; 3/2/09, 9:30 PM
Methadras said...: She has excellent multitasking skills. I assume she didn't get into an accident right?; 3/2/09, 9:31 PM
Donna B. said...: LOL Meade. Yes I know your preference, but a kid can eat a cheeseburger buckled in a carseat and it's probably not much messier than breastfeeding.

Now, for your breast wishes... you really want to try it while the breast owner is driving? A minivan?; 3/2/09, 9:34 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: If it did, you couldn't sue someone for inducing miscarriage against your will.

That doesn't mean the law values the unborn. That means the law doesn't allow people to force you to undergo involuntary, non-emergency medical procedures.; 3/2/09, 9:38 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: Yes I know your preference, but a kid can eat a cheeseburger buckled in a carseat and it's probably not much messier than breastfeeding.

From experience: The cheeseburger? Messier. WAY messier.

Breastfeeding while driving? That's just nutty. I don't know why you would do that. That's incredibly dangerous for the child. Just park in a lot and do it. No reason to be driving.; 3/2/09, 9:42 PM
Anonymous said...: FYI -- The word for [own breast] that the woman actually used was "titty."

Just thought it would be helpful.; 3/2/09, 10:47 PM
Jennifer Fligiel, DVM said...: You people make me miss Madison.; 3/2/09, 11:00 PM
theobromophile said...: So Althouse is telling us that the drive-thru would be obsolete, replaced by in-car feeding, but for a few stuffy old cops. That's life for ya.

There's a tremendous irony in endangering your child's life in order to avoid waiting five minutes to feed it.

This lady sounds like a nominee for the Darwin Awards: weeding herself out of the gene pool by risking her kid's life.; 3/2/09, 11:49 PM
Unknown said...: Guys have been getting hummers behind the wheel since cars were invented and nobody says a thing about it. If anything, we're applauded for our audacity.

Not if they watched The World According to Garp they haven't.; 3/3/09, 12:15 AM
Unknown said...: a little reminder; 3/3/09, 12:32 AM
chickelit said...: Guys have been getting hummers behind the wheel since cars were invented and nobody says a thing about it.

We're talking road blowin' right? I've never actually had that while moving. But then, I've missed out on somethings. Now a parked vehicle is a different story.; 3/3/09, 1:40 AM
Methadras said...: A yes a hummer. I hear they get incredible gas mileage. Nudge, nudge, wink, wink. Say no more!!!; 3/3/09, 1:53 AM
Anonymous said...: C Little: Rent Parenthood.; 3/3/09, 2:02 AM
Bob From Ohio said...: No mention of Children's Services.

I will hazard a guess that this woman was white and middle/upper middle class.

If not, I think the children would be in foster care right now.; 3/3/09, 9:25 AM
Big Mike said...: @MadisonMan, I think you're on to something. The way this woman is raising her kids, if they want something then they get it right this minute. I'm imagining her kids as grownups and it's kind of scary.

Well, if she keeps on as the way she's going she'll probably be in a massive accident. I feel sorry for the kids if they die too, and I feel sorry for the people minding their own business in the car she crashes into, but I hope they chisel Darwin Award onto her tombstone.; 3/3/09, 10:14 AM
JAL said...: When her gotta-have-it-now-now- now toddler gets a little older I expect to see the family on Super Nanny. ("But I thought I was doing it all right!!" Sob sob sob.)

(From an experineced breastfeeder who thinks feeding the kid while driving [apparently ROUTINELY] is dangerous and idiotic.) And the word entitled should be banned from all kids' and parents' vocabularies.

Very few of us are "entitled" to much of anything (except the little things like Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness, which BHO & Co. appear to be chipping away at systematically).; 3/3/09, 12:55 PM
Jake Aryeh Marcus said...: "Yes, I know there are women who insist on breastfeeding until even 4 years old, but these moms are extremely rare and rarely sane."

Actually, it isn't the women who insist, it is the children - what with being mammals and all. Breastfeeding children until age four isn't all that rare (particularly outside of the US) and it certainly isn't evidence of insanity.

Having a toddler in a moving car (1) outside of a car seat and (2) in the front seat at all - is extraordinarily dangerous. Does this really have to be about breastfeeding? Wouldn't the passing motorist have called 911 had the child just been sitting in the mother's lap? Can't this be about what it is - child endangerment? Are the tit jokes and the display of ignorance about human feeding patterns absolutely necessary?; 3/3/09, 1:09 PM
Bob From Ohio said...: "Are the tit jokes and the display of ignorance about human feeding patterns absolutely necessary?"

Yes.

tit jokes = absolutely necessary

Its a law of male nature.

As for "human feeding patterns", most women in the US do not breast feed to 4 and it is largely the La Leche league fanatics that do so. According to the CDC in 2007, only 21.4% were breastfeeding at 1 year of age. I could not find 4 year stats but do you really think it is more than 5% at most?

If it is done to 4 in the developing world it has more to do with bad food access than human feeding patterns.; 3/3/09, 1:33 PM
Anonymous said...: Tits jokes are absolutely necessary. What the fuck is wrong with you?; 3/3/09, 4:33 PM